The Understanding Of Marxist Perspectives On The Evolution Logic Of Global Financial Governance System

Global financial governance(GFG)is a new concept but not a new phenomenon.Since the end of the 19th century,three stable GFG systems have come into being:the classical gold standard system,the Bretton Woods system and the post Bretton Woods system.The differences and changes of each system can be identified by three indicators:the subject structure of governance,the governance object and the governance model.Changes of the subject structure of governance manifest as changes of major participants in GFG.Changes of governance subjects manifest as changes of specific governance goals.Changes of governance models manifest as changes of the way major participants collaborate.Since the classical gold standard system,GFG system has undergone two significant transitions.In terms of changes of the subject structure,GFG system has experienced a history of evolution from public-private governance,state-dominated governance to public-private governance.In terms of changes of governance objects,the specific governance goal has evolved from the combination of fixed exchange rate and free capital movement in"Trilemma",to the combination of fixed exchange rate and independent monetary policy,and to the combination of independent monetary policy and free capital movement.In terms of changes of governance models,the degree of institutionalization of GFG has seen a change from low to high and then of a decrease.The aim of this paper is to capture manifestations of the two transitions of GFG system and explore its evolution logic.First,the paper investigates the research features of Marxist school of international political economy(IPE)and the basic views of Marxism on financial development,then summarizes the benefits brought by the research logic of Marxist school of IPE to the understanding of transitions of GFG system.Second,an analytical frame based on Marxist school of IPE is developed,which divides the formation of international financial order into three stages:the formation of interests in civil society,interests integration in domestic politics,and the formation of hegemonic order in the international system.In the first stage,the development of social production changes power structure and interest structure between capital and labor.In the second stage,changes of power structure and interest structure between capital and labor lead to changes of the form of state,which manifest as changes of domestic and international commitments of a state.In the third stage,the hegemony or major states in GFG system promote the internationalization of their domestic order in order to establish hegemonic order.Third,based on the analytical frame proposed above,this paper studies the two transitions of GFG system since the 19th century.Under the classical gold standard,social production based on competitive labor markets gives capital more bargaining power versus labor,GFG system of this time is built on the basis of the liberal form of state.The domestic and international commitments of liberal states converge to the goal of maintaining convertibility of local currency.On this basis,the self-regulation of private capital and discretionary international financial cooperation among states can maintain the stability of the international financial system.Under the Bretton Woods system,changes of the structure of social forces caused by the rise of the working class promote the transformation of liberal states to welfare states.The divergence of domestic and international commitments of welfare states results in the restriction on the cross-border flow of capital,the containment of potential conflicts between domestic and international commitments of welfare states is achieved by a highly institutionalized governance model--supranational governance.Under the post Bretton Woods system,the structural imbalance of social forces caused by the globalization of production brings about the transformation of welfare states to neoliberal states.There is a high coincidence of domestic and international commitments of neoliberal states.Neoliberal states impute financial instability to the flaws of domestic financial system instead of market failures,therefore,the deregulation of domestic and international economy is advocated in order to facilitate the global accumulation of capital.The global accumulation of capital impairs the governance capability of nation-states and promotes the rise of private financial authorities.The diversification of governance subjects and the decrease of states'willingness to participate in international financial cooperation drive the transformation of GFG model into hybrid governance forms.Finally,this paper summarizes the understanding of Marxist perspectives on the evolution logic of GFG system,emphasizes the domestic sources of systematic changes,and points out that China has the potential to grow into a knowledge producer and a norm-maker in GFG system by summarizing and studying its development experience since the reform and opening up.