Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to explain the process of policy change that occurred within the IMF during the 1990s in the area of capital account liberalization. Specifically, the paper compares the policies pursued in the aftermath of the Mexican crisis (1994-95) with the policies pursued after the Asian crisis (1997-98) supporting a constructivist political economy explanation of policy change. Showing the influence of economic ideas on the policies pursued by the IMF, the argument is that the governance of the international financial regime has shifted from a system of centralized cooperation to a system decentralized cooperation. Whereas the former revolved around the role of an intergovernmental organization such as the IMF, the latter builds upon the cooperation of states and non-state actors within the framework of a public-private partnership.