Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STASIS (Transformations of STate cApitalism in a poSt coronavIruS world)
Période du rapport: 2022-01-17 au 2024-01-16
The state is back, and it means business. The project STASIS investigated the geography, economics, and politics of the adaptive strategies that state actors have adapted in a post-COVID-19 world. STASIS focused in particular on the reconfiguration of what academics, policymakers, and business commentators increasingly refer to as state capitalism, that is, the increasing reliance of governments on state enterprises, state-owned banks, state-sponsored investment funds, and other forms of state-controlled corporate entities, in order to achieve political and economic goals. Since the turn of the 21st century, state-owned enterprises, sovereign funds, and policy banks have vastly expanded their control over assets and markets. Concurrently, governments have experimented with increasingly assertive modalities of statism, from techno-industrial policies and spatial development strategies to economic nationalism and trade and investment restrictions. The prevalence of these state capitalist vehicles and instruments across political and geographical contexts and their policy relevance have been increasingly acknowledged over the past fifteen years. The project has focused in particular on (1) the transnational expansion of state-controlled corporate entities; (2) the multiplication of foreign investment screening mechanisms; (3) the proliferation of green industrial strategies. The project has conducted a study of the geographical political economic determinants of these modalities of state intervention and policymaking in light of the turbulent economic, geopolitical, and environmental transformations currently happening in the world. This research can inform citizens and the wider public, particularly concerning efforts to design a concerted, effective, equitable, and legitimate policy response to the “polycrisis”.
Work performed in the context of the project has included the following activities:
1. A study of the general phenomenon of contemporary state capitalism, encompassing theoretical and conceptual development; empirical analysis across a wide range of modalities of intervention, economic sectors, geographical regions, and cases. Output included: a tripe special issue (23 articles) “Making Space for the New State Capitalism” published in 2023 in the journal EPA: Economy and Space;a research article entitled “The spiral of state capitalism” published in the Journal Global Political Economy (published in 2023); a Forum “Debating the new state capitalism” published in 2023 in the journal EPA, with contributions from 6 leading scholars in the field; a full book manuscript, entitled The Specter of State Capitalism, to be published in May 2024 by Oxford University Press, open access.
2. A study of foreign investment screening mechanisms deployed in advanced capitalist countries and large emerging markets over the past ten years, and especially since the COVID-19 crisis. This included: an analysis of PRISM data set constructed by Sarah Bauerle Danzman and Sophie Meunier (Princeton) and analysis of the data basis of the UNCTAD Investment Policy Hub; analysis of national legislations (UK, France, Germany, Canada, South Korea, United States and others); an Institutional visit at Sciences Po Paris (2 months May-June 2022). Based on this, a research article “Foreign investment screening mechanisms and emergent geographies of (post)globalization” is currently under review with the leading journal Dialogues in Human Geography.
3. An analysis focusing on how the twin dynamics of environmental breakdown and geopolitical competition are currently accelerating processes of state transformation and policy innovation. Output so far includes a research article “The ‘wicked trinity’ of late capitalism: Governing in an era of stagnation, surplus humanity, and environmental breakdown” published in 2022 in the journal Geoforum, co-authored with Dr Jack Copley (Durham) and Dr Alexis Moraitis (Lancaster).
4. An analysis of the implications of the rise of the new state capitalism for the structure of global governance and for the global frameworks of economic policymaking. This included a throrough review of the existing literature on the transformations of global governance and the mutations of neoliberalism as a policy regime. Based on this research, a research article co-authored with Dr Jack Taggart (Queen's University Belfast), entitled "A Partial Conversion: How the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of Global Economic Governance Adapts to State Capitalism" is forthcoming in the European Journal of International Relations. Another article entitled “Quo vadis neoliberalism in an age of resurgent state capitalism” is forthoming in Finance and Space.
In terms of impact and outreach, three book chapters were written; two blog posts were written (published on Developing Economics and Antipode Blog) as well as an “Op-ed” article published in Project Syndicate. A policy 'white paper' will be written at the end of the project.12 invited keynotes and guest talks were delivered.
1. A study of the general phenomenon of contemporary state capitalism, encompassing theoretical and conceptual development; empirical analysis across a wide range of modalities of intervention, economic sectors, geographical regions, and cases. Output included: a tripe special issue (23 articles) “Making Space for the New State Capitalism” published in 2023 in the journal EPA: Economy and Space;a research article entitled “The spiral of state capitalism” published in the Journal Global Political Economy (published in 2023); a Forum “Debating the new state capitalism” published in 2023 in the journal EPA, with contributions from 6 leading scholars in the field; a full book manuscript, entitled The Specter of State Capitalism, to be published in May 2024 by Oxford University Press, open access.
2. A study of foreign investment screening mechanisms deployed in advanced capitalist countries and large emerging markets over the past ten years, and especially since the COVID-19 crisis. This included: an analysis of PRISM data set constructed by Sarah Bauerle Danzman and Sophie Meunier (Princeton) and analysis of the data basis of the UNCTAD Investment Policy Hub; analysis of national legislations (UK, France, Germany, Canada, South Korea, United States and others); an Institutional visit at Sciences Po Paris (2 months May-June 2022). Based on this, a research article “Foreign investment screening mechanisms and emergent geographies of (post)globalization” is currently under review with the leading journal Dialogues in Human Geography.
3. An analysis focusing on how the twin dynamics of environmental breakdown and geopolitical competition are currently accelerating processes of state transformation and policy innovation. Output so far includes a research article “The ‘wicked trinity’ of late capitalism: Governing in an era of stagnation, surplus humanity, and environmental breakdown” published in 2022 in the journal Geoforum, co-authored with Dr Jack Copley (Durham) and Dr Alexis Moraitis (Lancaster).
4. An analysis of the implications of the rise of the new state capitalism for the structure of global governance and for the global frameworks of economic policymaking. This included a throrough review of the existing literature on the transformations of global governance and the mutations of neoliberalism as a policy regime. Based on this research, a research article co-authored with Dr Jack Taggart (Queen's University Belfast), entitled "A Partial Conversion: How the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of Global Economic Governance Adapts to State Capitalism" is forthcoming in the European Journal of International Relations. Another article entitled “Quo vadis neoliberalism in an age of resurgent state capitalism” is forthoming in Finance and Space.
In terms of impact and outreach, three book chapters were written; two blog posts were written (published on Developing Economics and Antipode Blog) as well as an “Op-ed” article published in Project Syndicate. A policy 'white paper' will be written at the end of the project.12 invited keynotes and guest talks were delivered.
The project STASIS advanced our scholarly understanding of the phenomenon state capitalism and its contemporary manifestations. It showed that we are currently witnessing a historic arc in the trajectories of state intervention, characterized by a drastic reconfiguration of the state’s role as promoter, supervisor, shareholder-investor, and direct owner of capital across the world economy. The project shows that the new state capitalism is rooted in deep geopolitical economic and financial processes pertaining to the secular development of global capitalism, as much as it is the product of the geoeconomic agency of states and the global corporate strategies of leading firms. STASIS demonstrates that the proliferation of muscular modalities of statist interventionism and the increasing concentration of capital in the hands of states, indicate foundational shifts in global capitalism. This includes a growing fusion of private and state capital, and the development of flexible and liquid forms of property that collapse the distinction between state and private ownership, control and management. This has fundamental implications for the nature and operations of global capitalism and world politics, as well as for prospects of just and equitable green transitions.The project also shed light on the mutations in the constraints that governments face as the result of a triple crisis (economic stagnation, mass unemployment, and environmental breakdown). The policy trilemmas that result from this triple crisis are complex and will only intensify. The new state capitalisms is not a silver bullet for the intersecting crises of our times. The policy objectives of environmental sustainability, industrial dynamism and full employment are difficult to reconcile and require hard political choices about resource allocation, strategic priorities and, crucially, the distribution of economic and social costs. As they design decarbonization projects and industrial strategies of green transition, policymakers must embrace, rather than dismiss, the tensions and trade-offs at the heart of green industrial policies and subject them to public deliberation. This is essential to securing broad support for state-led decarbonisation projects. Such an approach would help build robust, transparent governance structures rooted in the principles of democratic deliberation and public oversight and control.