The Political Economy of Financial Policy Space in the Global South: Senegal and Ghana compared

近年来，对于西非的大多数政府来说，避免下一场债务危机和进行急需的投资一直是一项微妙的平衡行动。“新冠肺炎”带来的政府支出增加以及不断上升的债务比率，为多边谈判带来了一种新的融资架构，包括重新评估IMF的特别提款权。自西非独立以来，政府活动的资金问题一直是个问题。为了通过历史和比较分析丰富这些反复出现的挑战，本项目从数量和质量两个方面发展了“财政政策空间”的概念。从数量上讲，它包括来自税收、借款和援助支付的政府收入。定性地，它描述了政府试图通过中央银行和促进国家金融体系来改善自己的融资条件。总而言之，该项目询问加纳和塞内加尔自独立以来财政政策空间增加了多少。拟议的项目使用“合并比较”来分析货币和金融关系阻碍和使西非各国政府能够在独立后时期执行其政策优先事项的方式。该项目有助于国际政治经济学中关于“国际金融从属关系”和“政策空间”的新一轮辩论。之所以选择这两个国家，是因为这两个国家在经济上相对相似，但在货币制度和政治稳定方面存在差异。加纳在2016年面临本币贬值40%，最近拒绝了Covid的债务减免，以向全球市场证明它在财务上可以自力更生。就塞内加尔而言，它仍然是备受争议的FrancCFA货币联盟的一部分，最近强烈抱怨，与白俄罗斯相比，非洲国家为其欧元债券支付了几个百分点的溢价。因此，塞内加尔在争取更公平的全球金融的斗争中，正在国际舞台上卷土重来。这两个国家正变得越来越自信，未来几年将不得不偿还数十亿欧元的欧元债券债务，不仅提供了历史上的途径，也提供了当代进行富有成效的比较的途径。

Averting the next debt crisis and making much-needed investments have been a delicate balancing act for most governments in West Africa in recent years. Higher government spending in the face of Covid-19 and rising debt ratios have brought a new financing architecture, including a reassessment of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, to the table of multilateral negotiations. The financing of government activity has been in question in West Africa since independence. With the aim of enriching these recurrent challenges through historical and comparative analysis, this project develops the concept of “financial policy space” in a quantitative and a qualitative dimension. Quantitatively, it encompasses government revenues resulting from taxes, borrowing, and aid payments. Qualitatively, it describes the government's attempts to improve its own financing conditions via central banks and the promotion of the national financial system. In sum, the project asks to what extent financial policy space has increased in Ghana and Senegal since independence. The proposed project uses "incorporated comparison" to analyze the ways in which monetary and financial relationships have hindered and enabled West African governments to pursue their policy priorities in the post-independence period. The project contributes to the emerging debate on "international financial subordination" and "policy space" in International Political Economy. The two countries were chosen because they are relatively similar economically but differ in terms of monetary systems and political stability. Ghana faced a 40% devaluation of its currency in 2016 and recently rejected debt relief under Covid to prove to global markets that it can stand on its own two feet financially. Senegal, for its part, remains part of the controversial Franc CFA currency union and recently complained strongly that African countries pay a premium of several percent for their Eurobonds, compared with Belarus, for example. Senegal is thus making a comeback on the international stage in the fight for fairer global finance. Both countries are becoming increasingly self-confident, will have to repay billions of euros of Eurobond debt in the coming years, and offer not only historical but also contemporary avenues for fruitful comparison.