Political Economy Framework Research Articles

The Political Economy of Industrial Policy

We examine the ways in which political realities shape industrial policy through the lens of modern political economy. We consider two broad “governance constraints”: (1) the political forces that shape how industrial policy is chosen and (2) the ways in which state capacity affects implementation. The framework of modern political economy suggests that government failure is not a necessary feature of industrial policy; rather, it is more likely to fail when countries pursue industrial policies beyond their governance capacity constraints. As such, our political economy of industrial policy is not fatalist. Instead, it enables policymakers to constructively confront challenges.

Strategic coupling of administrative rationality and cultural imaginaries in municipal amalgamations

Municipal amalgamations are widely applied interventions for enhancing policy delivery in a political-economic context of devolution, austerity, and decentralization of welfare states. This paper studies how public stakeholders in the Netherlands walked the tightrope between ‘hard’ political-administrative logic and ‘soft’ cultural-historical discourse to justify, institutionalize, and legitimize municipal amalgamations. It uses a theoretical approach that combines literature on the rescaling of state governance and cultural political economy. Based on a discourse analysis of amalgamation reports, the paper traces the constructed political-economic and cultural imaginaries of the 26 municipal amalgamations that took place in the country between 2018 and 2023. Imaginaries underpinning the Dutch decentralization discourse were purely political-administrative in content, both regarding the necessity to act and the solutions (i.e., municipal amalgamations). Alternative, relational forms of spatial decision-making were covered by an imaginary of inefficiency and limited democratic control. Cultural imaginaries were locally mobilized to retain the top-down political-administrative logic, and to allow the municipalities to position themselves in between the citizens and the state. The amalgamation reports reflected a sometimes-difficult discursive negotiation between administrative efficiency and culture, future and past, vigour and softness, and external and internal visibility of the new municipalities. The paper concludes that the spaces of territorially bounded ways of policymaking, including municipal mergers, are intrinsically relational, jointly material-discursive/symbolic, and fluid (i.e., process-based). The cultural political economy framework provides a useful interpretative framework for debates on politics of scale, state rescaling, and (re)territorialization.

Exploring the foundations of Islamic moral economy: a return to substantive morality

Purpose This paper aims to explore the general flaws in the theorization of Islamic economics, particularly its failure to incorporate substantive morality into its framework. Since a considerable number of Islamic economic studies remain within the bounds of instrumental morality, this paper seeks to propose an alternative understanding of Islamic economics by emphasizing the essential role of Islamic moral economy (IME) through substantive morality. Design/methodology/approach The study critically examines the theorization of Islamic economics through a discursive methodology. The adopted method and strategy allow for the discursive evaluation of conceptual developments within the field of modern Islamic economics. It proposes an authentic definition of IME by outlining its paradigmatic framework of political economy, value system, axiomatic approach and operational principles. Findings Islamic economics has been theorized in a reactive and reflexive manner, aiming to provide an alternative to the neoclassical hegemonic discourse. However, it has largely neglected its inherent moral dimension, focusing instead on instrumental morality and failed to embed substantive morality into its system. By introducing an alternative reading of Islamic economics, this study presents IME as a distinct economic model that centers substantive morality in its theorization. Originality/value This paper contributes to the existing literature by offering a novel perspective on Islamic economics that challenges the prevalent instrumental approach and emphasizes the importance of substantive morality. It provides a comprehensive framework for understanding IME as a distinct economic model, thereby enriching the discourse on Islamic economics with an authentic and morally grounded paradigm.

Hidden in plain text: Uncovering hidden heterogeneity and social stratification in Ireland AD 1150-1800.

Between the Irish late medieval (AD 1150-c.1550) (LMP) and post-medieval (AD c.1550-1800) (PMP) periods, colonial practices changed land ownership. Contextualizing these periods within a biocultural political economy framework supports increasing social inequality in the PMP, which we expect to be reflected in different skeletal markers of longevity and stress. Therefore, we hypothesized that widespread exposure to stressors and resource deprivation contributed to lower longevity in the PMP compared to the LMP, and that there would be greater variation between sites in the frequency of linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH) in the PMP. We estimated age and counted matched pairs of LEH on 526 adult skeletons from the Irish counties of Dublin, Kildare, Louth, and Meath. Age-at-death was compared through Kaplan-Meier survival functions and non-parametric tests. Linear enamel hypoplasias prevalences were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U tests and Generalized Linear Models. Age-at-death distribution changed between the LMP and PMP for males, with males experiencing an increase in median-age-at-death. The same was untrue for females, who show no changes in median age-at-death. Analysis of LEH frequency per individual showed that variation between sites was significant in the post-medieval period but not in the late medieval period. These results suggest that social organization contributed to embodied health experiences that varied across time periods. Specifically, populations from the PMP appear to have embodied greater social inequality in their more varied susceptibility to stress. Our work demonstrates the strength of pairing historical texts with the analysis of skeletal remains to evaluate the impact of social structures on biological frailty.

Reconceptualizing Security and Political Economy in the Modern Middle East

Abstract We prioritize reorienting prevailing concepts of security within the contemporary Middle East and North Africa through a critical political economy framework. The practices of both waging war and preparing for war – that is, war-making – generate profound consequences for regional societies, but they also remain poorly understood. We advance a more reflexive paradigm that emphasizes how political actors define notions of security on their own terms, and then make appropriate choices based upon their own understandings. In turn, those choices can generate long-term implications, which must be carefully understood by exploring how governments and social communities respond to conflict.

The political economy of national health insurance schemes: evidence from Zambia.

Governments in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly considering the introduction of national health insurance scheme (NHIS) as a strategy to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) targets. The literature has widely documented the technical challenges associated with implementing UHC policies in LMICs but much less is known about the political process necessary to pass UHC legislation. In this article, we document the political economy issues surrounding the establishment of the Zambia NHIS in 2018. We adapted a political economy framework incorporating, semi-structured interviews with diverse stakeholders and document analysis of policies, operational reports, and legislatures from 1991 and 2018. Our findings show the 26-year journey towards the establishment of the NHIS in Zambia involved a long sequence of policy dialogue, technical review and stakeholder engagement. Our interviews with key stakeholders suggest that the act was eventually passed due to strong political will and dominant leadership of the Ministry of Health. Passing the law required trade-offs between choices influenced by stakeholder pressures and recommendations from research and actuarial studies. Another equally critical factor was the high public support and legacies of past policies, such as the removal of user fees that had created quality gaps and inequities in the health system. Furthermore, global ideas about UHC and initiatives implemented by other countries also generated support for Zambia's NHIS. Overall, this study highlights the complex set of political economy factors that need to align in order for governments to be able to adopt health insurance in low-income settings. We show that political leadership and commitment to getting reforms passed is crucial. We also highlight how certain narratives about countries in the global health sphere can shape policies in other countries.

‘How can you worry about employment and survival at the same time?’: employment and mental health among precariously employed cisgender and transgender sexual minority adult men in Toronto, Canada

This study addresses a gap in the labour market and occupational health literatures among sexual and gender minority workers by exploring the relationship between precarious employment and mental health through a political economy framework. Narratives from 20 cisgender and transgender sexual minority men were analysed to uncover the production of employment and mental health inequities. Results are presented temporally, including employment readiness, looking for work, and on the job, illuminating the social and structural processes that underly participants’ stories of precarious employment and mental health. A cyclical pattern was identified whereby participants’ mental ill-health resulted in separation from the labour market and increased employment precarity that subsequently further impacted their mental health. Interventions and programmes must consider multipronged approaches that address all aspects of this syndemic, including social stigma and discrimination towards sexual and gender minority people and improved access to stable employment, mental healthcare, and adequate social welfare systems.

The political economy of gender mainstreaming in energy access in Senegal

Abstract In June 2017, the Economic Community of West African States adopted the Policy for Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access to integrate gender equity in West Africa’s energy and climate policy making. The policy represents the first regional gender and energy policy in the world, establishing a framework to enhance understanding at the nexus of gender and energy, improve the inclusivity of policies, programs, and initiatives, and increase women’s participation in the field of energy in the public and private sectors. Each member state developed a National Action Plan (NAP) to operationalize these goals and align implementation with national contexts and policy priorities. This study examines the experience of Senegal’s NAP development, from 13 semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders and document review. We use the Actors, Objectives, Context political economy framework to understand how Senegal’s economic and political structures, historical and social context, and influence of key stakeholders shaped their efforts to mainstream gender in the country’s energy sector. We then describe four main objectives of actors in government, civil society, and the development space involved in policy development, summarizing these as: electricity access, economic development, access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, and gender equity. We find that the objectives of government and development actors are reflected in the emphasis on energy access in the NAP and the government’s long-term development agenda, though a critical lack of engagement with the private sector has limited the policy’s efforts to mainstream women across energy sub-sectors beyond clean cooking. Women’s civil society organizations, historically less engaged with energy issues, have nonetheless achieved considerable success in advocating for increased women’s political participation. This advocacy has set a precedent for policies promoting ‘positive discrimination’ for women and marginalized groups, evident in policy activities aimed at electrifying women’s economic sectors.

Political economy analysis of health: a scoping review protocol.

The objective of this scoping review is to identify and map the literature on concepts, definitions, frameworks, outcomes, and applications of political economic analysis of health. The political economy of health approach seeks to understand how political and economic domains interact and shape individual and population health outcomes. A political economic analysis can provide insights into health problems and inequalities; however, there needs to be more clarity on how the political economy framework is defined and the methods adopted for conducting political economy analysis concerning health. Studies focusing on the political economy analysis addressing specific health problems will be included. The study population is not limited to any sociodemographic characteristics, and there will be no restrictions on language or the source of evidence (primary studies or secondary data studies). Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will included, but narrative and systematic reviews will be excluded, as will conference abstracts and editorials. Studies involving sector- or country-level analysis will be included. The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases to be searched include MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, Embase, ProQuest, DynaMed, and gray literature via Google Scholar and OAIster. Two reviewers will perform study screening and data extraction using a customized data extraction form. The concepts, definitions, frameworks, outcomes, and applications of the political economy of health will be summarized and discussed. The health problems addressed using political economy analysis will be enumerated. Stakeholder engagement will guide all steps of the study. Results will be presented in tabular and graphical formats accompanied by a narrative summary. Open Science Framework https://osf.io/4qaxr/.

Beyond technological flexibility: Unpacking citywide inclusive sanitation through the territorial political economy framework

Decentralisation and the flexible combination of infrastructures and technologies are advocated to expand access to safe sanitation amid rapid urbanization, worsening water scarcity, resource depletion, and climate change. Yet, narrowly technical approaches such as the citywide inclusive sanitation approach tend to underestimate social and political bargaining and the role of structural power in shaping access to basic urban services. Building on international political economy, this article develops the territorial political economy framework to explore specific sanitation systems’ distribution of structural power in security, production, and finance. Utilizing this framework, the study constructs a typology of five sanitation bargains, derived from theoretical insights, expert interviews, scientific case studies, and key policy documents. Each bargain represents an ideal typical combination of technology, organisation, and finance, with the corresponding spatial and social distribution of costs, benefits, risks, and opportunities. Together, this enables a political economy analysis of sanitation systems in cities that is sensitive to both multiscalar negotiations and distributional outcomes associated with sanitation provision in the city. When expanding sanitation services to so-far unserved areas in the cities, the paper shows how the limitations of the citywide inclusive sanitation approach in its current form can be overcome. It enables to explicitly consider the implications of embedded structural power on households when assessing and selecting technological options and organizational models for providing access to safe sanitation inclusively across the city.

‘China’s Disequilibrium’ in ISDS: an interplay of China’s trade-offs and domestic institutions to investment treaty policy

Abstract This article explores China’s limited engagement in Investor-State Dispute Settlment (ISDS) despite its significant foreign investment inflows, termed “China’s Disequilibrium”. Despite having liberal ISDS provisions in its Bilateral Investment Treaties(BITs), China has faced only nine claims and has never lost a case. Using a political-economic framework, the article examines domestic factors influencing China's stance on ISDS, highlighting its shift from ideological resistance to acceptance. The paper argues that China’s ambivalent mood to ISDS render it to adopt a bifurcated strategy: internationally, it incrementally liberalizes investor-State Arbitration to protect Chinese investors abroad; domestically, it relies on local remedy to protect foreign investors and discourages the use of investment treaty arbitration. This approach contrasts with other jurisdictions and partly explains China’s Disequilibrium in ISDS.

Essential, invisible, discriminated and exchangeable: labour migrants in the EU

ABSTRACT This article aims to lay bare the contradictions between on the one hand the technocratic discourse of the EU praising the contribution of migrant workers to the economy of receiving countries and on the other hand the discriminatory impact of law and policy in the fields of free movement and immigration. Drawing from Luca Mavelli’s concept of neoliberal citizenship, it submits that both free movement law and EU immigration law are connected to a broader transformative framework of neoliberal political economy where rationalities of value exclude, dispose or sacrifice those with low economic or emotional value for receiving countries.

The political economy of earnings management in municipally owned enterprises

PurposeDespite the growing body of empirical literature on earnings management in municipal bodies and enterprises on the municipal level, the theoretical foundations often remain limited. This article contributes to filling this research gap by discussing the agency relationships between entities, managers, politicians and the electorate based on the framework of political economy or, more specifically, economic theory of political action. It derives theoretical explanations for earnings management in municipally owned enterprises based on political-economic approaches and provides conceptual guidelines for further theoretical and empirical research in this field.Design/methodology/approachThe article discusses three specific theoretical approaches of political economy (political budget cycles/election cycles, interest fragmentation and partisan ideology) and applies them to the governance structures of municipally owned enterprises. For each of the perspectives, predictions about the use of earnings management and its possible motivations are derived.FindingsThe study shows that political budget cycles/election cycles, interest fragmentation and partisan ideology in municipal decision-making bodies can serve as possible explanations as to which extent managers of municipally owned enterprises present manipulated financial statements. All three approaches can help to explain the prevalence of earnings management but lead to different results regarding the methods and aims of earnings management.Originality/valueAs a significant portion of the current literature on earnings management in municipally owned enterprises lacks a theoretical foundation, our article aims to fill this caveat. To do so, we introduce three new conceptual perspectives that explain the prevalence of earnings management in such enterprises and the political-economic environments that are more likely to produce manipulated financial statements.

Islamism and Globalisation: Unpacking the Dialectics of Ideology and Socio-economic Change in the Middle East

The ascension of Islamism in the Middle East is an articulation of the profound and far-reaching transformations transpiring within the political and cultural spheres. As a construct, Islamism is at the center of the public discourse regarding the interplay between Islam, Muslims and power. Despite disparities among Islamists in their perceptions of extremism, political participation and societal engagement, they hold in common several fundamental ideological tenets. Notwithstanding the enigmatic nature of these tenets, the diversity among Islamists in the extent to which they materialize these principles into action is profound. It is imperative to contextualize Islamism within the historical, social and economic contexts that have exerted an impact on its ideology and practices. In this regard, it is particularly important to situate contemporary Islamism within the context of globalization. The primary objective of this paper is to situate the emergence of Islamism within the framework of political economy and underscore the dialectical relationship between Islamist convictions and socio-economic transformations. The paper argues that by leveraging economic opportunities, Islamism has created alternative methods of existence. Islamism is seen as a confluence of organizations and endeavors that advocate for the diffusion of Islamic principles. Nonetheless, it has identified a battleground in the marketplace, where it can pursue a counter-hegemonic conflict with the dominant narrative of the establishment.

Disaster Journalism Through a Political Economy Framework: An Analysis of the Turkish Press Coverage of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes

AbstractOn February 6, 2023, devastating earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 struck the Kahramanmaraş region of southeastern Türkiye, affecting eleven Turkish provinces, killing more than 50,000 people, and collapsing or severely damaging approximately 300,000 structures. This study examines the coverage of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake in the Turkish press through a content analysis of news articles published in the 10 days following the earthquake. The aim of the study is to investigate the presence and manifestations of political bias in the news based on political economy theory. For this purpose, two newspapers representing opposing views, Sabah and Cumhuriyet, were selected. As a result, it was observed that both newspapers devoted a remarkably limited amount of their coverage to scientific data and needs. However, it was observed that there were significant differences between the two newspapers in terms of topics, photo preferences, news actors, accused persons, and representation of aid donors. In addition, economic and political biases were found in the media's portrayal of earthquakes. Cumhuriyet focused more on the negative, while Sabah focused more on the positive, emphasizing relief efforts that served to foster a sense of solidarity and shift the narrative away from negativity. In addition, the study observed an excessive focus on soccer players, showing that newspapers may prioritize such coverage to optimize profitability, suggesting a potential commercial agenda underlying news content decisions.

Effective climate finance coordination? Stakeholder perceptions, climate change policy implementation and the underlying political economy factors in Kenya

ABSTRACT The last two decades have seen an increase in climate financing channelled to the Global South from multiple sources, putting a spotlight on climate finance coordination challenges in recipient countries. However, the climate finance coordination debate has largely been centred at climate finance provision at the global level. Emerging literature has called on recipient countries to establish effective climate finance coordination mechanisms. Yet, the calls have not clarified what accounts for an effective coordination mechanism. This paper addresses the gap by analyzing stakeholder perceptions of effective climate finance coordination in Kenya. Kenya has instituted a legal and institutional framework to guide climate finance coordination, but challenges of coordination persist. Using the political economy framework, the paper analyzes political economy factors influencing stakeholder perceptions and climate change policy implementation to identify political contestations that need to be reconciled. Data is drawn from relevant literature, 29 key informant interviews and 4 focus group discussions at the national level in Nairobi and at the sub-national level in Turkana County. Deductive thematic analysis is adopted for coding and analyzing data. Results indicate that different ideologies, interests, incentives, politics, power relations and contestation over resources largely influence stakeholder perceptions of an effective climate finance coordination mechanism and climate policy implementation. The operationalization of the National Climate Change Council and the National Climate Change Fund are the most contested. The paper calls on policy actors to reconcile political issues of contention for recipient countries to institute coordination mechanisms that gain ownership and widespread legitimacy from stakeholders.

State or Public Service Broadcasting? Assessing the Making of a National Television Service in Botswana

This paper uses the political economy framework to examine developments surrounding the establishment and structuring of Botswana Television since its introduction as a national broadcaster in 2000. The focus is to identify the broadcasting model for Btv, and establish whether PSB or SB would be appropriate for a national television in Botswana context. Data obtained through documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews showed that Btv has always been funded and structured to operate from either the Government Ministry of Transport and Communications, or the Office of the President. Consequently, the channel’s broadcasts are predisposed toward the ideologies of the ruling elites, than those of the public. Therefore, we argue that Btv should be re-structured and allowed to operate in the interests of both the state and public. Doing so could result in collective use of state media and safeguard against unnecessary government control. Thus, for developing contexts such as Botswana, we suggest a hybrid model of both PSB and SB.

“A Hard Road With Personal Costs”: How Digital-First Nonprofit News Founders Navigate Precarity

As the journalism industry descends further into economic collapse, precarity has become an increasingly useful concept in studies of newswork. While a growing body of literature has begun to consider how founders of startup journalism outlets navigate their own precarious self-employment, the existing scholarship pays little attention to journalists working at digital-first nonprofit newsrooms. This study draws on a political economic framework and in-depth interviews with founders of nonprofit news organizations in the United States to understand how these newsworkers experience and navigate various forms of precarity. Findings from this research confirm that precarity is ubiquitous among nonprofit news founders, and that financial precarity is particularly acute. Founders rely heavily on their personal and professional communities for support in navigating their precarious working conditions, and find great satisfaction in providing high-quality news and information to their communities. This study adds to growing calls for a labor turn in journalism studies and contributes to the literature on journalistic precarity by extending the concept to examine nonprofit newsrooms and their founders. Additionally, these findings provide insight into specific ways in which the burden of precarity on founders can be reduced.

The political consequences of technological change that benefits low-skilled workers

Abstract Technological change often increases demand for high-skilled jobs, with low-skilled losers turning to the populist right in response. The political effects of technological change that increases demand for low-skilled workers are largely unknown. The growth of the salmon fish-farming industry in rural Norway improved the labor-market situation for low-skilled workers, and we find that support for the populist right-wing party increased in municipalities that benefitted from the industry growth. The electoral change is due to a right-wing shift on the economic, but not the cultural dimension. Our results support political economy frameworks that point to lower demand for state interventions after positive labor market shocks, but raise the question of in what contexts support for populism will decline.

European long‐term care marketisation: A political economy framework

AbstractThe study of European long‐term care (LTC) marketisation is dominated by institutional and ideational perspectives. In contrast, political economic theoretical frameworks have received little attention. This is paradoxical, because marketisation is an inherently political economic phenomenon. The financialisation of LTC systems, the growth of private for‐profit providers and the rise in cross‐national investments are proceeding apace, yet, they have been neglected by conventional approaches. This paper presents a political economy theoretical framework to study LTC marketisation. In contrast to conventional perspectives, it locates the drivers of marketisation within (neoliberal) capitalism; conceives of the state as significantly aligned with the interests of the business sector; interprets ideology as often originating in the material interests of the latter; examines ‘power struggles’ between, in particular, private providers on one hand and the public/non‐profit sector and care workers on the other hand. These power struggles take place in LTC financing, privatisation, regulation, financialisation and labour flexibility. In those struggles, private providers assert their power (structural, institutional and instrumental) to shape marketisation; however, they can encounter resistance. The framework also examines the outcomes of marketisation and is illustrated empirically by reference to Irish LTC.