The researchers refer to the research field of financial socialisation, which examines the consequences of the growing importance of the global financial sector for the economy, households and states in an interdisciplinary way. Since the latter is a hitherto little-noticed area, but one that has serious consequences for questions of political options, distribution and democracy, their paper is a pioneering work.
The authors explore how the shift from political-bureaucratic management of public debt and assets, which was based on a macroeconomic policy understanding, to market-based governance, which is based on financial theory, has taken place in 36 European economies over the last 30 years. The researchers examine both differences between the individual countries and possible factors that may have contributed to these processes of change.
The study concludes that the financialisation of the public and private sectors are two mutually reinforcing processes and that both domestic and international factors play an important role. Finally, the results suggest that tensions between nation-state democracy and the distributional consequences of state financialisation could arise in this area. In this respect, the three researchers build on earlier projects in which they have already worked on issues such as government debt management or the use of complex financial instruments (derivatives) at the municipal level.