The Japanese Political Economy最新文献

{"title":"The US vs China: Economic models in the pandemic stress test","authors":"R. Desai","doi":"10.1080/2329194x.2020.1839912","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194x.2020.1839912","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper makes two interrelated arguments. First, at the root of the contrasting performance of the US and China amid the pandemic are the contrasting ways in which the two societies have come to organize their economies, particularly their money and credit systems. These differences are not widely recognized, let alone analyzed. Secondly, these contrasts emerge from the longer history of antagonisms in the geopolitical economy of world capitalism and its dialectic of uneven and combined development. This dialectic between and dominant nations and those contesting their domination have typically featured contrasting monetary and financial systems. The original dominant country, Britain inherited a creditor-oriented financial system providing short-term credit that preyed upon, rather than expanded, the productive economy. Britain fostered this system and projected it abroad through the gold-sterling standard through which it exercised a financial dominance long after its industrial dominance. The US, which sought to emulate such financial dominance, also reverted to the UK's archaic financial model. By contrast, countries interested in challenging the domination of powerful countries, with their need for stronger productive economies and growth, have had financial systems that have subserved productive expansion with longterm ‘patient’ credit, considered the interest of debtors–usually productive investors–as well as creditors, and usually managed or controlled international capital flows. The predatory system of the originally dominant country, Britain, should have declined after the outbreak of the First World War in the face of the strength of countries with production-oriented systems. However, a complex twist of history gave it a second life as the post 1970s US financial system.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129419557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The construction of “post-hegemonic multipolarity” in Eurasia: A comparative perspective","authors":"E. Gürcan","doi":"10.1080/2329194x.2020.1839911","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194x.2020.1839911","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The 2000s witnessed tectonic changes in the pattern of international relations. Central to these changes is the crisis of global governance and the multipolarization of world politics. Against this backdrop, Eurasian regionalism led by China and Russia is rising as a major force in geopolitical multipolarization. Recent research in international relations attests to growing interest in Eurasian regionalism, with case studies focusing on individual regional mechanisms. Almost entirely absent, however, is comparative research as to how alternative initiatives may promote Eurasian cooperation in a post-hegemonic direction. My research seeks to advance both our empirical and theoretical knowledge of this emerging area. How do geopolitical and economic realignments shape Eurasian cooperation and conflicts in a post-hegemonic direction? What are the historical and institutional settings that are helping Eurasian countries to implement a post-hegemonic agenda of regional cooperation? Using incorporated comparison, this article focuses on the cases of the SCO, the CSTO, the EAEU, and the AIIB; these are regarded as the most coherent and inclusive alternative governance initiatives in the Eurasian region. I argue that post-hegemonic multipolarity in Eurasia finds its strongest expression in regional governance focused on security and economic cooperation at the expense of US global hegemony. These governance mechanisms arise from several competing but complementary initiatives led by China and Russia. A striking characteristic of these mechanisms is that their institutional design reflects a nontraditional security approach, combining conventional security governance with efforts at market and financial and academic integration, business community building, and youth mobilization. The post-hegemonic character of Eurasian regionalism mainly lies in how it provides competing, but coalescing and coexisting schemes for regional governance, which redress Sino-Russian competition into a peaceful framework and do not call for a frontal attack on the US. Their prospects are threatened by Russia and China’s current economic challenges.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125956553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction: International economic governance in a multipolar world","authors":"R. Desai","doi":"10.1080/2329194x.2020.1841567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194x.2020.1841567","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The articles in this special issue are placed in the context of the crisis of multilateralism and of the post-war Bretton Woods arrangements that was already in train before the pandemic, with its economic, political and international reverberations, accelerated, widened and deepened it.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"177 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123770908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vertical dis-integration and vertical re-integration: Limits to the modern production system","authors":"Yasuhito Moriahra","doi":"10.1080/2329194x.2020.1836972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194x.2020.1836972","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper attempts to sketch the characteristics of mass production activities in the modern IT/electronics industry while avoiding simplification. In the second section “Revisiting the post-Fordism controversy”, we clarify that the general perception of the characteristics of American industry/corporate organization in the 1990s, particularly in the IT/electronics industry, was a series of discussions known as Wintelism. Next, the third section “The limits of Wintelism” discusses how the limits of this industry/corporate organization were revealed in the 2000s and thereafter, focusing on the characteristics particular to a model which is apt to promote accumulation of excess production capacity. It is also important to consider changing trends in product design, namely, the spread of “integrated products.” Then, in the fourth section “Addressing the limitations of Wintelism,” we examine how Apple, a leading brand from the developed world, and an EMS company from an emerging economy (Foxconn) that is a leader in today's mass production activities have tried to break through this limitation. What becomes clear is a phenomenon that could be called the rehabilitation of vertical integration or vertical reintegration. However, the mass production activities typified by Foxconn lack, at least at present, harmonization between industrial upgrading and “social upgrading,” labor-management cooperation, or a mechanism for “coordination.” This is one challenge for modern mass production activities. We touch upon this in the conclusion.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132374156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the veil of money: Boundaries as constitutive elements of complementary currencies","authors":"Rolf F. H. Schroeder","doi":"10.1080/2329194X.2020.1762499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194X.2020.1762499","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article sheds new light on the development of complementary currencies. Based on a comprehensive survey of the literature, the study questions conventional interpretations of these social innovations. The article challenges the view that money is the only feature that complementary currencies have in common. The author argues that in addition to the ways in which connectivity takes place, a characteristic feature of these systems is that they operate within boundaries. Territoriality, limits to convertibility and other features distinguish them from other unofficial currencies such as Bitcoin. Short case studies illustrate that these boundaries are interdependent. This theoretical framework offers a tool for the analysis of complementary currencies and a perspective on the creation of new types of such systems.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122966397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Good money drives out bad: Introduction to the featured section on “The evolution of diverse e-money: Digital-community currencies and cryptocurrencies”*","authors":"M. Nishibe","doi":"10.1080/2329194X.2020.1768868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194X.2020.1768868","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article introduces the special issue featuring “The evolution of diverse e-money: digital-community currencies and cryptocurrencies,” and argue on diversity and evolution of modern money, including community currencies and cryptocurrencies. How such new “currencies” survive through users’ choice in money and what the criteria of such decision are highly critical issues. We contrast the meanings of Gresham’s law “Bad money drives out good,” and Hayek’s principle of choice in money “Good money drives out bad” and show that there are necessary conditions for either Gresham’s law or the principle of choice in money to hold. For the principle of “choice in currency” to function well, both (1) different denominations for the distinction of money in quality, and (2) the non-fixed exchange rates are necessary. Since cryptocurrencies met these conditions, the principle of choice in money began to work. Cryptocurrencies took the test of users’ choice in money in the search for good money but failed to pass the criteria of stability of currency value. Then, digital-community currencies that involve local and community contexts are the next candidates for good money. We observe that two DCCs in Japan, Sarubobo Coin and Kisarazu Coin are currently challenging toward the realization of good money.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130644513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Federalism and cooperation for community currencies: Some ideas on the need for intercommunity clearing systems","authors":"L. Joly","doi":"10.1080/2329194X.2020.1765182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194X.2020.1765182","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper reflects on the necessity of financially connecting community currencies (CCs) outside the standard monetary system by devising a way to clear transactions between them. Knowing that attempts of social reorganization through local currencies have been constrained by ideas and the rules of the game in the “normal” economic world, the creation of federal clearing systems between communities could help circumvent those constraints. Connecting communities multilaterally could alleviate issues linked to access to resources, liquidity and also push back debt accumulation for both independent CCs and CCs linked to national currencies.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"114 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124179917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"State involvement in cryptocurrencies. A potential world money?","authors":"J. Duque","doi":"10.1080/2329194X.2020.1763185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194X.2020.1763185","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article is about the role that states play in the research and development of cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology. Some states, for instance China, are about to launch their own state-backed cryptocurrency perhaps due to the potential of this new type of digital money to become world money. To support this argument, Marxist monetary theory is deployed to show that cryptocurrencies could be conceived as potential digital commodity money, a new and incorporeal type of commodity money with intrinsic value but without use value. Lacking a natural form, it could potentially have only a “formal” use value: direct exchangeability with all other commodities. If states manage to actualise this potential by issuing their own cryptocurrencies and making them legal tender money, cryptocurrencies could function as international means of payments and means of hoarding perhaps more efficiently than credit money. In the case of China, this means that this new digital money would have a chance of competing with the US dollar as international reserve currency.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"310 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115830623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Marx’s theory of value for socialism","authors":"M. Itoh","doi":"10.1080/2329194X.2020.1762095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194X.2020.1762095","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Possibilities of socialism are coming back globally through multiple crises in capitalist market economies. This paper reexamines how Marx’s theory of value can be utilized as a theoretical foundation for socialism in our age. Especially Marx’s original theory of forms and substance of value enables us to conceive various models of market socialism as well as democratic planned economy. Functions of socialist forms of money (s-money) and prices (s-prices) are further to be reconsidered, including a critical review of these forms in the Soviet model. Marx’s theory of complex labor needs also to be reexamined anew as a theoretical basis of sounder socialism.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133819543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The legend of Unoism in Japan","authors":"T. T. Sekine","doi":"10.1080/2329194X.2019.1694419","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2329194X.2019.1694419","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Marx taught that economics, as a social science, must seek to know the noumenon (thing-in-itself) of capitalism, not just this or that of its phenomena, despite Kant’s well-known thesis that suggests the impossibility of such an enterprise. Uno was the only Marxist who understood this message from his study of Capital, and so developed his elaborate tripartite methodology, quite different from the usual “positivist” approach adopted by the natural sciences and bourgeois economics. His genriron (or pure theory of capitalist society) marked the first step towards the dialectic of capital that lurks behind Marx’s critique of bourgeois political economy, and initiated a truly scientific enquiry into the dialectical (i.e., synthetically-logical) structure of the capitalist mode of production. Economics based on this knowledge is scientifically dependable in comprehending not only the developmental phases in the past of our capitalist history, but also its process of disintegration that began after WWI and is continuing at present. Without this lucidly Uno-Marxian perspective, scientific approach to economics is fundamentally impossible.","PeriodicalId":174725,"journal":{"name":"The Japanese Political Economy","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123911866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}