The Nation-State and Globalisation

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The Nation-State and Globalisation
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Objectives of Lecture

• Critically explore the relationship between the
  development of the nation-state and capitalism
• Assess competing explanations of ways in which
  contemporary processes of globalization are
  impacting on states

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Structure of Lecture

• Section One Exploration of two approaches to
  understand relationship between Market and the
  State
• Section Two Analyzes of Contemporary Processes
  of State Restructuring

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Section One Two Competing Accounts of Capitalism
and Nation-State

• Liberal understanding of state and market of
  Cerny and Strange which understands these as
  distinct entities
• Open Marxist account of state/market which
  understands the state as a regulatory agent and
  manifestation of wider social relations of
  production

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• Liberal View
• Relatively simple. State and Market as separate
  (potentially oppositional) entities.
• If not a zero sum power game between the two than
  certainly a balance of power between the two
  entities

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• For Strange and Cerny Expansion of Markets,
  particularly transnational markets undermines the
  autonomy and/or effectiveness of national public
  policy
• See also Michael Mann, Saskia Sassen, Popular
  policy discourse and oddly Hirst and Thompson

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• Clearest Statement is provided by Susan Strange
• The impersonal forces of world markets,
  integrated over the postwar period more by
  private enterprise in finance, industry and trade
  than by the cooperative decisions of governments,
  are now more powerful than the states to whom
  political authority is supposed to belong

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• Cerny position is more complicated. For Cerny
  what is in decline is not so much state capacity
  as state autonomy
• Increased openness forces shift from welfare to
  competition state
• Shift from welfare to enterprise,
  self-sufficiency to flexible shift to market
  conditions and macroeconomic to the microeconomic
  

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• Historical Materialist Approach
• Modern State is a product and reflection of
  capitalist relations of production
• Modern State product of absolute property and the
  division of economic and political

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• The State is thus manifestation of wider set of
  social relations
• It is a regulatory agency whose purpose is to
  insure the maintenance of capitalism (the
  completion of circuit)
• Talk of autonomy is nonsense

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• There is difference between rather dismissive
  approach to globalization of Woods and other
  scholars who seriously consider the impact of
  changes in the composition of global markets on
  how state performs regulatory function.
• For example Burnham and Depoliticisation

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• Although methods share little in common and
  critically influence understanding of
  contemporary processes there is a least a
  superficial similarities between the conclusions
  of certain Marxists and Cerny. But process and
  history are important.

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Contemporary Processes of State Restructuring

• In a sense we need to assess different theories
  of state transformation through a empirical
  analyses testing different theories
• However, there are problems with seeking
  empirical answers to questions of state
  transformation through a simple analyse of
  policy.

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• The same concrete phenomena can look very
  different depending on the analytical position
  you approach it from
• For example, Strange/Harvey on failures of
  systems of financial regulation

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• Also question of establishing material/ideational
  cause
• Finally, problem of an wealth of evidence. A
  accurate assessment of global state restructuring
  requires an impossibly broad knowledge of
  political economy

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• Nevertheless I would argue that we are witnessing
  a new dominant state form developing and that the
  composition of state can be understand as
  reflecting changes in composition of global
  markets. 7 policy areas.

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• Monetary policy Establishing of Independent
  Central Banks and rules based regimes which
  remove policy from political contestation

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• Financial regulation Market-based and Formal
  legal regulation

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• Corporate Governance Move to system based upon
  market/ shareholder discipline
• German Corporate Sector Supervisory and
  Transparency Act in 1998
• US 2002 SarbanesOxley Act

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• Industrial Policy Shift from securing
  competitiveness of particular national firms to
  meso-level competitiveness of the space

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• The organisation of public services
  Transformation of state itself into a sphere of
  accumulation

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• Labour Market Regulation Individualisation of
  Wage-Labour Relation. Flexibility. Welfare states
  become tools to promote competitiveness

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• Regulatory Reform
• Independent regulatory agencies
• Purpose of reform is correct market failures and
  enhance competition \
• Market based regulation
• Globally recognized regulatory standards

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• Serious Problems with attempting to attribute
  changes to either ideological mirage of
  Globalisation or domestic politics. However,
  there is no reason to necessarily privilege the
  spatial nor overstate previous autonomy

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Conclusion

• How we understand the basic relationship between
  state and market/capital is critical to how we
  understand globalisation
• Our answers to the key questions concerning the
  state almost over determines our answer to
  subsequent questions concerning welfare etc
• Difficult questions to reach definite conclusions
  to!

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• Have a good break!