This text challenges the popular view that globalization threatens the nation-state in determining national policy. It examines the fundamental issue of competitiveness and market power in an increasingly borderless and co-dependent world. Despite this increased threat to the nation-state as an effective manager of the national economy, the authors argue that there are a number of options and alternatives open to governments to protect themselves from the global business cycle.

This text examines the process of trade policy making in Japan and takes the US/Japan trade talks of the mid 1980s as a focal case study. Four key areas are covered: pharmaceuticals; telecommunications; electronics; and forestry products. It should be of use to academics and policy makers alike by highlighting Japan's trade policy against the background of domestic imperatives.

Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City focuses on the controversial, neglected theme of citizenship. It examines the changing role of citizens; their rights, obligations and responsibilities as members of nation-states and the issue of accountability in a global society. Using this interdisciplinary approach, the book offers an innovative collection of work from Robert A. Beauregard, Anna Bounds, Janine Brodie, Richard Dagger, Gerard Delanty, Judith A. Garber, Robert J. Holton, Warren Magnusson, Raymond Rocco, Nikolas Rose, Evelyn S. Ruppert, Saskia Sassen, Bryan S. Turner, John...

What does it mean to be political in an age of postmodernization and globalization? Where former debates on globalization have so far remained polarized between purely economic perspectives, political perspectives that are resolutely state-centric, and sociological perspectives that narrowly focus on the role of global cities. This text focuses on the controversial theme of citizenship. It examines the changing role of citizens; their rights, obligations and responsibilities as members of nation-states and the issue of accountability in a global society. Using an interdisciplinary approach,...

Examining the powerful idea of the return, reconstitution and redeployment of the public domain in a post-Seattle and post-Washington consensus world order, this innovative book is the most forward-looking and comprehensive examination of the need to rethink the tenants of global free trade.

In the past two decades, countries have focused on broadening and guaranteeing market access, and as the pendulum swings back for the market, the issue of investing in the public domain becomes a priority. The authors believe that devising new institutions of governance for a globalizing world...

The major problems facing the world as it gets used to the twenty-first century are global inequality, poverty, war and militarism, oppression, exploitation and ecological sustainability. Far from solving these problems, economic and political neo-liberalism seems to be plunging us deeper into them. Diverse opposition movements have arisen over the years to combat these problems, which the groups generally consider to be the result of globalization. These opposition movements suffer greatly from being opposed to lots of things without necessarily putting forward realistic alternative...

Fiscal cutbacks, the public's declining confidence in government, and new ideologies are forcing the public sector in industrialized democracies to undertake major reforms. In these essays contributing authors examine changes to the political and economic envirnoment and the ways in which governments have responded. The essays attempt to explain what is happening in government in the late 20th century and suggest changes that can be expected in the future.