RESEARCH ARTICLE

Simone Deos & Fernanda Ultremare | Review of Political Economy 

This paper undertakes a critical assessment of the historical origins and institutional evolution of central banks as key components of the modern monetary system, with a particular focus on the Brazilian Central Bank (Banco Central do Brasil, BCB) and its planning of a digital currency (CBDC). By situating Brazil's CBDC, Drex, within a broader historical and political context related to the making of money, we shed light on the power dynamics embedded in the choices of monetary designs. The advent of CBDCs provides a unique vantage point from which to illuminate these processes and to evaluate the prospects for reconfiguring the architecture of monetary governance. Adopting a political economy analysis of CBDCs, our study interrogates the extent to which such innovations could support a paradigm shift. By analyzing the Brazilian case, the paper aims to address a gap in the literature concerning the political dimensions of money, and particularly the structural design of contemporary monetary systems.

Full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HD3FYVSEGGPI8VJKIBNS/full