Rating Politics: Sovereign Credit Ratings and Democratic Choice in Prosperous Developed Countries – A Summary of the Argument

Abstract This article summarizes the core argument of ‘Rating Politics: Sovereign Credit Ratings and Democratic Choice in Prosperous Developed Countries’, co-authored by Zsófia Barta and Alison Johnston and published by Oxford University Press. The book shows that credit rating agencies have become central actors in global governance by dint of their propensity to assign penalties and rewards to the political and policy choices of sovereign governments. It explores the logic according to which those penalties and rewards are meted out, and argues that these rewards and penalties not only constitute a violation of democratic sovereignty, but potentially undermine long-term economic growth and social and political stability, thereby also weakening countries’ long-term debt-servicing capacity.