Financialization of Sovereignty and Stateness - Bonds Contracts and the Financial Accountability of the State in Comparative Historical Perspective

This paper will address, through a multiple empirical case-based investigation, the way sovereignty is being challenged by the structure of global sovereign bond market. Rather than considering sovereignty as an essence, precisely defined by philosophy or juridical, it will display a “multisite” empirical analysis of sovereign debt issuing, regulating, and restructuring to understand how sovereignty is precisely embodied and embedded. Firstly, it will go into Treasury departments of different countries and analyses how, during history, sovereignty has shifted from debt regulation to debt competition. It will show how this shift has been framed simultaneously at the national and international level. Secondly, it will look at recent international controversies (Argentina versus holdout creditors) and negotiations regarding sovereign debt restructuring to understand ambivalences of sovereignty embodiment in developing countries. Different definitions of sovereignty are made explicit when states are issuing bonds and making promises, enshrined in contractual laws that circumscribe “sovereign immunity”, but also fiscal figures and economic policies future scenarios included in “prospectus” and road show presentation. These cases help to analyze how International Finance Architecture is being contested and re-stabilized in international arenas such as United Nations and IMF. By using interviews with official sector members and representatives of capital market organizations, it will explain how a sociological analysis of debt issuing and regulating devices draw a structural and processual approach of sovereignty.