Kathryn C. Lavelle, Ph.D. – Ellen and Dixon Long Associate Professor of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

The financial crisis that officially began in 2008 with the fall of Lehman Brothers seems to be going on for a very long time. In previous crises, such as the Asian problems in 1998, we heard a lot (and a lot of complaints) about how the IMF and the World Bank tried to solve the problems. But for better or worse the crises at least publicly seemed to end. Now the mess keeps morphing, and we hear about the Fed and the European Central Bank and Obama and Congress and the Germans… but most of the press coverage about the IMF in recent years has involved a hotel room in New York.

What’s going on? Are the Bretton Woods institutions only capable of addressing financial meltdowns in poorer countries? Is this problem simply too big? Or have the international institutions been doing more than they get public credit for, as U.S. and European press accounts focus on their own institutions? Professor Lavelle, a leading expert in both international financial governance and how U.S. political processes influence that system, will give her views and kick off discussion.

Very best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest…

Professor. Kathryn C. Lavelle’s research focuses on the politics of finance both internationally and in the United States. Her next book, Money, Banks, and the American Political Process, will be published by Cambridge University Press in the coming year. It investigates the sources of innovation and instability in the U.S. financial system that originate in the organization and operation of the political system. She derived the analytical framework for this and for her recent book from her experience working as a Congressional fellow on the staff of the House Committee on Financial Services for Chairman Barney Frank in the 2006-7 academic year. Since that time, she has used extensive archival evidence and interviews to provide additional evidence about how financial policy is made.

In 2011, Professor Lavelle published Legislating International Organization: The US Congress, the IMF, and the World Bank (Oxford University Press), which explores the intersection of national and international politics in the American legislature with respect to the Bretton Woods institutions from their origins to the present. Her first book, The Politics of Equity Finance in Emerging Markets (Oxford University Press, 2004), analyzed the historical and political processes that led to the ownership structures of large firms in middle and low-income countries. Dr. Lavelle has held fellowships and grants from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, American Political Science Association, Hagley Museum and Library, and West Africa Research Association. In the spring semester of 2010, she was the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Global Affair at the Munk Centre, University of Toronto. She is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convene each Friday when classes are in session in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

March 9: Germany and the European Union. Ken Ledford, Associate Professor of History

March 16: Spring Break – No Discussion

March 23: Environmental Dimensions of Fracking. Matthew Sobel, William E. Umstattd Professor of Industrial Economics, Professor of Operations, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

March 30: Just Do It or Just Say No? The Politics of Sex Education. Mark Carl Rom, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, Georgetown University

April 6: Election 2012: Twenty Years After the “Year of the Woman.” Karen Beckwith, Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science

April 13: Russia’s Presidential Election. Andrew Barnes, Associate Professor of Political Science, Kent State University

April 20: TBA

April 27: Obama and Alinsky, or: What Happens When a President Thinks Like a Community Organizer. Justin Vaughn, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Cleveland State University