The OECD and the International Political Economy Since 1948

Matthieu Leimgruber, Matthias Schmelzer, Matthieu Leimgruber, Matthias Schmelzer

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9783319602424
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319602431
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: History

This book explores the history of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and its place within capitalist development. Since 1948, the OECD and its forerunner, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) worked on almost every subject of interest to national governments ranging from economic growth to education (PISA rankings), statistics, to the environment. With varying success the OEEC/OECD thus played a key role as a warden of the West and of capitalist development. However, it has remained one of the least understood international organizations. Bringing together a number of case studies by scholars from around the world, this first source-based volume on the history of the  OEEC/OECD in global governance offers not only a new understanding of the Organization's key areas of activities, but also its multiple relations to member states, other international organizations, and private networks. The volume thus critically re-examines postwar international history, most importantly decolonization and the Cold War, through the prism of one international organization in its various contexts.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction: Writing Histories of the OECD
• From the Marshall Plan to Global Governance: Historical Transformations of the OEEC/OECD, 1948 to Present
• Part I Being Part of the West
• Western European Vs. All-European Cooperation? The OEEC, the European Recovery Program, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), 1947–1952
• A Socialist Developing Country in a Western Capitalist Club: Yugoslavia and the OEEC/OECD, 1955–1980
• Shall We or Shall We Not? The Japanese, Australian, and New Zealand Decisions to Apply for Membership in the OECD, 1960–1973
• The Construction of a Western Voice: OECD and the First UNCTAD of 1964
• Part II Managing the Economy
• From Post-war Reconstruction to Multi-level Neo-corporatism: The OEEC/OECD and Steel During the Cold War
• A Crisis Manager for the International Monetary and Financial System? The Rise and Fall of the OECD Working Party 3, 1961–1980
• Peer Pressure in Paris: Country Reviews at the OECD in the 1960s and 1970s
• “Positive Adjustments”: The Emergence of Supply-Side Economics in the OECD and G7, 1970–1984
• Part III Coping with Socio-ecological Challenges
• The Narrowing-Down of the OEEC/OECD Migration Functions, 1947–1986
• Engineering the Free World: The Emergence of the OECD as an Actor in Education Policy, 1957–1972
• Negotiating Environment: The Making of the OECD Environment Committee and the Polluter Pays Principle, 1968–1972
• Gendering Development: The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, 1981–2000
• Index