The Actors of Constraint

Political discourse tends to deal with economic constraints on an incantatory mode, as if they resulted from ‘market forces’ or ‘speculation’. This article tries to identify the economic agents and organizations that impose constraints on states. Far from actively plotting or speculating against the states, most of these actors work in total symbiosis with them. Their operating logics are different, depending on whether they are public or private. Private agents tend to focus on pursuing their own economic interests, while public organizations defend the institutional logics that define them.