The Infrastructure of Global Governance: Quasi-Regulatory Mechanisms and the New Global Finance

In this article, I evaluate specialized forms of intelligence gathering and judgment determination at the heart of contemporary global governance and their connection to the debate about the of the international financial architecture (IFA). What I have called embedded knowledge networks (EKNs) are exemplified by the major U.S. debt rating agencies, Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and Standard and Poor's (SP and second, as a possible solution to the lack of transparency characteristic of emerging markets (and thus attractive to Leslie Elliott Armijo's transparency advocates [see pp. 379-396]). Whether or not rating agencies emerge at the end of the Basel II process as key elements in the self-regulation of capital adequacy may not be as important as the observation that in emerging markets as well as in the Eurozone, ratings are now essential market data--something that was not the case as recently as five years ago. (4) In a sense, there has already been a reform of the IFA whether this is endorsed in Basel II or not. Lack of real substantive progress on the archite cture proposals could be said to have been sidelined by the development of a new quasi-regulatory infrastructure. Even if Randall D. Germain is correct and the politics of inclusion are now characteristic of some features of the IFA, it is not clear that the official IFA is where the substance of regulation now lies (see pp. 411-426). This article focuses on part of what I suggest is that substance. Elsewhere, I and a coauthor examine the Basel II proposals. (5) I have organized the article in three parts. I begin by considering the characteristics of embedded knowledge networks as mechanisms of global governance. I then examine key dynamics of the new global finance and the rating agencies and conclude with a look at the logic of this private system of quasi-regulation. Embedded Knowledge Networks: The Infrastructure of Global Governance Social scientists often discuss the organization of contemporary social life dichotomously, focusing on either its market or state dimensions. (6) Some other formulations have sought to incorporate hybrid organizational structures, such as community or private associations. …