Globalization and the state

Abstract

There are a number of problems with this way of approaching the Left´s strategic dilemmas in the face of globalization. The premise that globalization is a process whereby capital limits, escapes or overtakes the nation state may be misleading in two senses. First there is often an overestimation of the extent to which nation states were capable of controlling capital in an earlier era; it is as if the Left´s mode of practice was adequate in relation to the nation state and thus encourages a similar mode to be adopted at the global level: the problem is just one of running faster on the new terrain. But even for those not given to such illusions, there is a tendency to ignore the extent to which today´s globalization both is authored by states and is primarily about reorganizing, rather than by-passing, states; it promotes, in this sense, a false dichotomy between national and international struggles and diverts attention from the Left´s need to develop its own strategies for transforming the state, even as a means of developing an appropriate international strategy.