Global Instability: Uncertainty and New Visions in Political Economy presents a series of papers that address the political consequences of globalization for states and their populations, while exploring the issue of alternatives to the model of globalization we are presently experiencing. The focus moves from the world of international agreements to the national and sub-national dilemmas that are posed by attempting to manage a set of global developments within a given territory. The initial chapter, by Daniel Drache, explores a still-born post-war international...

Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. In such a context politics and democracy become irrelevant. This collection of essays develops a more critical and grounded analysis of the nature and implications of globalization. Many of the contributions to this book conclude that there are real political choices to be made. Even though the economic context has changed, politics still matters.

This volume discusses the effects of globalization on changing power relationships between transnational corporations (TNCs), and transnational capital, the state, and subnational groups. TNCs have expanded their power with the deepening of market relations, but they are not causing the state to wither away. Indeed, neoliberal changes often occur with the permission or even encouragement of powerful states. Transnational capital has weakened labour groups in order to make production more competitive, but the disadvantaged groups may mobilise to counter the power of transnational capital....