Prokla 118: Re-Regulierung der Weltwirtschaft (Summaries)

Abstracts

in (10.03.2000)

Summaries aller Aufsätze der Prokla 118, Vol. 30 (2000), Nummer. 1 in englischer Sprache

SUMMARIES PROKLA 118, Vol. 30 (2000), No. 1

Christoph Scherrer: Global Governance: From fordist Trilateralism to neoliberal Constitutionalism. The paper questions the emphasis proponents of global governance place on form over content as well as their narrow view of hegemony. Their theoretical approach, regime theory, originated in the policy community of internationally oriented capital groups who had gained hegemony within the USA. Regime theory was first used in support of international fordism. After this failed, these groups pushed for a neo-liberal global constitutionalism of property rights. The complex interplay between the hegemony of transnational corporations and the U.S. state becomes apparent in the struggle for a labor rights clause in the WTO.

Heribert Dieter: Re-Regulation of international financial markets? The financial crises of the 90s have underlined the need for a comprehensive re-regulation of international financial markets. Although a number of measures addressing both the erratic developments of exchange rates and the volatility of capital flows could be implemented, it is unlikely that we will witness a substantial change of the current system, which produces instability and enormous opportunities for profits at the same time. The main obstacles for a re-regulation of the international financial markets are not of a technical nature, but are the results of vested interests in the USA, namely of the "Wall Street Treasury Complex" (Jagdish Bhagwati).

Susanne Lütz: Recognition, Globalization and the Political Regulation of Financial Markets. The development of regulatory instruments and regulatory groups during the last three decades is discussed. The increasing complexity of financial markets was answered by an extension of formal and informal approaches to their political regulation but still there are a lot of unsolved fundamental problems.

Ulrich Brand, Christoph Görg: The Regulation of the Market and the Transformation of the Societal Relations with Nature. In the current debate on globalisation the concept of "Re-embedding" plays a prominent role. The authors criticise this term - which derives from Karl Polanyi - and confront it with the approach of "regulation theory". Regulation theory offers a more precise way of analysing the actual transformation processes as well as the possibilities and limitations of political and intentional regulation. It is argued, that in the emerging postfordist mode of regulation ,,the political" does not stand opposite ,,the economic" but both spheres have a contradictory relationship: The political sphere develops institutional ensembles which enable the creation and stabilisation of markets. This relationship is demonstrated by the transformation of the societal relationships with nature especially the conflicting field of biodiversity politics.

Cord Jakobeit: The paper starts with a presentation and critique of regime theoretical approaches to the understanding of world economic developments after 1945. Within the debate on re-regulation, the normative-idealistic calls for a global environmental organisation seem to ignore what we have learned so far about the change and the effectiveness of international regimes. A fundamental regime change requires the consensus of the hegemon and/or the hegemonial group. And regime effectiveness does not primarily depend upon hierarchical organisational structures. Rather than advocating a global environmental organisation, from an ecological perspective the reform-minded transnational discourse networks would be better adviced to work for the acceptance of ecologically oriented indicators for economic development within all existing organisations of the world economy.

Dirk Messner Is foreign policy still foreign policy ... and what exactly is domestic policy? Some Observations on the Transformation of Politics in the ,,Era of Globalism". Globalization processes are emphatically changing the coordinate system of politics. The ,,epoch of the nation state" is drawing to its end. Dirk Messner discusses four core elements involved in the change of the architecture of politics in the ,,era of globalism": (1) the rapidly growing differentiation of the foreign relations of nation states as an indicator of the erosion of the classical bounds of domestic and foreign policy; (2) the trend toward the formation of a world society; (3) the growing density of transboundary networks and global problems that lead not only to an increase of international relations based on interdependency (a phenomenon long familiar to us) but to an erosion of the ,,internal sovereignty" of nation states, which is turning the rules of international and global politics upside down; (4) the change of the form of political power under the conditions of globalization.

Jim O'Conner: Seattle and the Anti-WTO Movement. The article describes the political and economic contradictions underlying the Seattle conference of the WTO. He outlines that the US aimed at a further liberalization of world markets in order to stabilize the national economy which is exposed increasingly to threats of financial instability. The Anti-WTO movement is fragmented; three major parts exist: labout movement, the greens and the internationalists. As O'Conner points out the discussion between these differnt movements were dominated by considerable differences of opinion; further more labour and the greens face free rider problems, which hamper building up an independent Anti WTO movement.