Abstract:

This paper offers an interpretation of the history of international financial globalization based on an analysis of the dilemmas of public policies aimed at promoting economic development. After having shown that the century now ending has seen several waves of integration and disintegration, the paper underlines the limits of the technological theory. The interpretation defended underscores the logic which, for national authorities, consists of giving priority to one type of risk rather than another : the risk of a financial accident or that of squandering opportunities for growth. The end of the Cold War has lessened the political consequences of a financial accident - at least in Europe - and brought to the fore the risk of wasting growth opportunities, causing a wave of financial integration that is reminiscent of the situation that prevailed before the First World War -and perhaps for the same reasons.


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