New structural power theory in an age of financialisation: structural power, systematic luck, structural constraint, and state power

Strong versions of financial structural power theory argue that in an era of financialisation financial market interests now dominate liberal capitalist states. This paper accepts that financial interests often get what they want from state actors. The question is, does this reflect finance’s structural power, or potentially, other mechanisms as well. While finance’s structural power can be important, the paper elaborates an expanded version of New Structural Power theory that offers a broader account of how states and finance interact, focussing on concepts of state-finance mutualism involving relations of ‘systematic luck’ and ‘structural constraint,’ neither of which necessarily entail coercive power on the part of finance and which accord an active role for the state.