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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

The political power of the finance industry

Résumé

This paper takes a tangential approach to financialisation. It is not so much concerned with the "power of finance" (Orléan, 1999) as with its political power, i.e. its ability to shape public policy. Instead, it focuses on the political consequences of financialisation. There are two main approaches to the study of the political power of finance. The first is based on the study of its influence based on its lobbying activities (Culpepper and Reinke, 2014). In this conceptual model, financial actors are external to the public policy-making process. The second conceptualises the latter as a regulatory process, in which financial actors play a role on an equal footing with public actors (especially the executive branch) (Lazega, 2020). I focus on two sequences related to the 2007-2008 financial crisis: the design of the bank rescue plan during the crisis and the 2012 banking reform. The methodology combines qualitative analysis of journalistic sources and network analysis. The latter articulates the analysis of business networks (interlocking directorates) among the top 100 French companies between 2006 and 2014 and the analysis of the network formed by the main think tanks in 2008 (n=40). The qualitative analysis aims to identify the role of the main financial actors in each of the sequences studied. The network analysis contextualises this action by measuring the position of these players in the business and think tank networks. Firstly, the business network was affected by the financial crisis. Its development underwent a brief phase of recentralisation at the time of the crisis, which may reflect a process of collective mobilisation. Secondly, the financial actors who play the most decisive role in shaping these public policies also occupy key positions in the corporate network and, for some of them, in the policy-planning network, in particular Michel Pébereau. These positions reveal different forms of status, one economic, the other political. The combination of these two forms of status seems to give these actors the legitimacy to participate in this regulatory process and even the power to shape it in their own interests. Thirdly, the circulation between senior civil servants and the financial sphere strengthens the argument for joint regulation between peers. The actors who play the most important role in these sequences, such as François Pérol, are emblematic of the phenomenon of pantouflage and retro-pantouflage (Rouban, 2010). These results confirm the relevance of an approach based on joint regulation rather than influence.

Domaines

Sociologie
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Dates et versions

hal-04149082 , version 1 (03-07-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04149082 , version 1

Citer

Catherine Comet. The political power of the finance industry: influence or joint regulation?. Finance Dynamics, IESEG School of Management, Oct 2022, Lille, France. ⟨hal-04149082⟩
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