Economic globalization and the internationalization of authority: Limits and contradictions

Abstract

The post-war internationalization and globalization of production, finance and exchange has not been matched by a corresponding internationalization of political authority, especially with regard to economic matters. Indeed, it could be argued that a central contradiction in the development in the post-war global political economy lies in the territorialization of political authority and identity, usually identified with the nation-state, and the universalization of economic forces, increasingly associated with the deepening and spread of commoditization and marketization of social life. Thus, in so far as one speaks of the problem of global economic management, viewed from the perspective of the most powerful states and social forces in the world order, one is discussing attempts to create a more developed international political and civil society, that is, involving formal organizations (such as the G7, IMF, World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) as well as informal, private forums (such as the Trilateral Commission, World Economic Forum, the Bilderberg meetings) in a strategic process which is designed to configure the limits of political discourse with regard to national and global economic policy.