PTRG 27 Sept 2017

Photo: Glenda Alvarez

This week Political Theory Research Group welcomed back Professor Tim Hayward’s book chapter: Constituting Finance as a Global Public Good. Actually, the book chapter under the same title was delivered to the seminar at the last summer semester. By receiving much constructive feedback during the last seminar, Tim’s book chapter returned with a refreshing perspective and arguments towards this issue—the contemporary problems of finance, specifically, that of central banks, and its influence on global justice. He notes that money and finance are not abstract and neutral tool in the international society; instead, central banks, as the active financial element at the national and international levels, whose nature and its role in the global level, does not get enough heed from the political philosophers, not even to mention less attention on its failure to achieve public goods or causing detrimental effects, like warfare, to the world.

The participants showed much interests and raised helpful questions and comments to Tim’s book chapter. Their concern can be roughly divided into three different categories. First, some participants showed concern about the issue of how to understand the constitutive nature of finance under a domestic and international legal system. Second, some other focused on how the issue of central bank is conceived at the international level, as states still play a significant role in deciding central bank’s policy, task, ideology etc; they, therefore, suggested that the problem of central bank for the globe should be discussed in more details in the concrete cases. Third, some suggested that the chapter should be worked on more closely on providing stronger argument to the readers and more reference should be added.

Written by Chiming Zhong

****

Tim Hayward is Professor of Environmental Political Theory and director of the Just World Institute.