The Politics of Financial Citizenship - How Do Middle Class Expectations Shape Financial Policy and Politics in Emerging Market Democracies?

This pioneering project breaks new ground through the first systematic investigation in comparative perspective of the economic, political and social dynamics of the emergence of new financial middle classes in emerging market democracies. How does the emergence of a new financial middle class - that is citizens with the ability to borrow, save and invest via the formal financial system - impact democratic consolidation in emerging market democracies and vice versa? In what ways do middle class aspirations for social protection and mobility, situated at the intersection of state designs to grow the middle class and ongoing dynamics of financial sector expansion, give rise to new constellations of financial and social policy provision? And to what extent do these new political dynamics narrow down democratic space in fostering close alignment between government interests and the policy preferences of a small group of comparatively well to do citizens, or enable new, more expansive forms of (financial) citizenship, conceptualised as the ability to access, participate in and mobilise around the governance of the financial system, and polity at large? These are the questions this project seeks to address through the generation of rich sets of new quantitative and qualitative data, deploying large N and small n analysis, with an empirical focus on Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where original fieldwork will be conducted. Its research objectives are threefold: i) to comprehensively map the rise of the financial middle class in emerging market democracies and their financial strategies and aspirations; ii) to systematically assess the impact of emerging market democracy middle classes on financial policymaking and social policy provision; and iii) to critically interrogate contentious political mobilisations around emerging discourses of financial governance and citizenship.