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Power, Politics and the City of London after the Great Financial Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

Sukhdev Johal ,
Michael Moran  and
Karel Williams
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Abstract

Four faces of power are summarized, based on the established literature in political science and the work of Foucault: they are power over decision, the power of agenda control, hegemonic power and capillary power. The four faces correspond also to four strategies used by City elites in the UK to protect markets from democratic control. Strategies have developed out of conjunctural crises. The most recent strategy, which involved a form of capillary power, was greatly damaged in the financial crisis of 2007–8. Since then the City has been obliged to retreat to a reliance on the exercise of power over decision, which involves open lobbying.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 49 , Issue 3: The Power of Finance: Before and After the Great Financial Crash , July 2014 , pp. 400 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2014 

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Footnotes

*

Sukhdev Johal is Professor of Accounting and Strategy at Queen Mary, University of London. Contact email: [email protected].

Michael Moran is Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester Business School. Contact email: [email protected].

Karel Williams is Director of the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the University of Manchester. Contact email: [email protected].

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