The life and times of embedded liberalism: legacies and innovations since Bretton Woods

Abstract

In a widely cited 1982 article, John Ruggie identified the normative framework of Bretton Woods as ‘embedded liberalism’ and pointed to its enduring legacy in international economic governance through the 1970s. Revisiting Ruggie’s analysis at the 75th anniversary of Bretton Woods, I advance three arguments about the content and legacy of embedded liberalism in the international monetary and financial system. First, the embedded liberalism of Bretton Woods was an even more innovative normative framework than Ruggie’s important article suggested, involving a new commitment to a form of institutionalized liberal multilateralism that was compatible with various kinds of active public management of the economy. Second, in the 1944–1980 period, embedded liberalism was more contested and malleable than is often understood, as it coexisted with important alternative normative frameworks and as distinct varieties of embedded liberalism emerged in international monetary and financial governance. Third, in the post-1980 era, scholars have correctly highlighted a ‘neoliberalization’ trend in international monetary and financial governance, but assessments of the degree of the challenge posed to embedded liberalism by this trend need to be nuanced. They also risk overlooking different and newer kinds of challenges to embedded liberalism arising from growing opposition to institutionalized liberal multilateralism.