The British Labour Government and the 1976 IMF Crisis

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Sovereignty, Regimes, and ‘Cooperation’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 1-19

3. IMF Conditionality and the United Kingdom, 1944–70: ‘My Appeal was Essentially Based on Bogus Dignity’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 20-47

4. New Directions for Labour, 1970–74: ‘We Must in the Future Alter the Priorities in Favour of Economic Growth’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 48-61

5. Burden-Sharing and Loosened Conditionality, 1974–75: ‘The Nature of What Constitutes a Sustainable Balance of Payments has been Radically Changed’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 62-78

6. Labour Economic Policy, March 1974–May 1975: ‘A Phoney Phase’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 79-100

7. Labour Economic Policy, June 1975–March 1976: ‘We Knew we were Riding a Crisis’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 101-120

8. Burden-Shifting and Tightened Conditionality, 1975–76: ‘The Practice of Financing the Status Quo is Coming to an End’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 121-130

9. Currency Crisis and Restricted Policy Options, March–August 1976: Opening ‘Pandora’s Box’

   • Mark D. Harmon

   Pages 131-157

10. Driven to the IMF, September–November 1976: ‘The Market’s Verdicts are Merciless and Effective’

    • Mark D. Harmon

    Pages 158-192

11. Crisis Resolution, December 1976 — January 1977: ‘It is Mad but we have No Alternative’

    • Mark D. Harmon

    Pages 193-227

12. Conclusion

    • Mark D. Harmon

    Pages 228-233

13. Back Matter

    Pages 234-272

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The British Labour Government and the 1976 IMF Crisis examines the external pressures vis-à -vis British economic policy that culminated in the 1976 UK-IMF crisis. The postwar development of IMF loan conditionality is reviewed as well as the growing incompatibility after 1974 between the Government's domestic political imperatives and Britain's external economic constraints that led to the crisis. More generally, the case study demonstrates the coercive and constraining nature of 'international cooperation' in contemporary international relations.

• economic growth
• economic policy
• government
• international relations
• Policy
• sovereignty
• British Politics

'Remarkably well documented...every student of that period must read it.' - Tony Benn, MP

'A valuable account of a turning-point in British economic history.' - Edmund Dell

• University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

  Mark D. Harmon

MARK D. HARMON

Policies and ethics