14 - Is the state being ‘transformed’ by globalisation?

Summary

It is time to revisit the orienting questions of this volume and to consider how far our answers take forward the debate on globalisation and the state. What do the pressures of global capitalism imply for the state's ability to govern the domestic economy? How does increasing economic openness affect the institutional capacities and policies of the world's governing authorities? The chapters in this book have been concerned to draw out the implications of interdependence for the capacity of policymaking authorities at the centre of national structures of governance. Three objectives inform their analyses. The first has been to appraise the impact of globalisation, in its various manifestations, on the state's capacity to provide social protection and industrial governance. A further aim has been to specify the institutional conditions under which states are more or less able to mediate such impacts effectively. A final objective has been to elucidate how far, and in what ways, domestic political institutions, in performing that mediating role, are themselves being transformed.

Below we outline the three broad conclusions of the book on these issues, the questions raised for further research, and the way in which the perspective of this volume can help to advance the globalisation–state debate. Our three general conclusions concern: (1) the impact of globalisation on national governance; (2) the institutional conditions which blunt or sharpen the effects of interdependence; and (3) the impact of globalisation on institutional change. They structure the discussion that follows.