The Myth of the Powerless State Governing the Economy in a Global Era

by Weiss, Linda

• ISBN13: 9780745615820
• ISBN10: 0745615821
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-04-22
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

It is widely claimed that as the integration of the world economy advances, national governments are becoming less relevant, losing their powers not only to influence macroeconomic outcomes and to implement social programmes, but to determine strategies for managing the industrial economy. In the face of such claims of state powerlessness, this book proposes that what lies behind some of the most successful economics today is a series of state-informed and state-embedded institutions for governing the economy.The book's central proposition is that the impact of external economic pressures is to a large degree domestically determined, varying in important measure according to the robustness or weakness of national institutions. This thesis is advanced through an analysis of the sources and varieties of state capacity for governing industrial transformation. Focusing on the unravelling of Sweden's distributive model of adjustment, on the evolution of developmental states in East Asia, as well as on the parallel strengths of the German and Japanese systems of industrial co-ordination, it is shown how different types of state capacity - "developmental", "distributive" and "dual" - impact on industrial vitality and domestic adjustment to the international economy. The comparative perspective developed in this study indicates that, as world economic integration proceeds, state capabilities will matter more rather than less in fostering social well-being and wealth creation.This book will be essential reading for 2nd- and 3rd-year undergraduates in comparative politics, political economy and political sociology as well as to all those who have an interest in the nature and prospects of the state in the face of changes to the world economy.

Author Biography

Linda M. Weiss is an Australian professor of political science at the University of Sydney, specialising in the international and comparative politics of economic development.

Table of Contents

Preface

The State is Dead. Long Live the State

Introduction

The Phenomenon of `State Denial'

Scope of the Argument

The Book in Outline

The Sources of State Capacity

Introduction

The Problem of State Capacity

Approaches to State Capacity

Conclusion

Transformative Capacity in Evolution: East Asian Developmental States

Introduction

Institutions and Economic Performance

Institutional Capacities for Industrial Transformation

The Changing Basis of State Capacity

Forms and Dynamics of Governed Interdependence

Conclusion: State `Power' in East Asia

Limits of the Distributive State: Swedish Model or Global Economy?Introduction

Distributive State Capacity

The Model Unravels: External Pressures?Undermining from Within

The Limits of a Distributive Strategy

Explanations of the Swedish Strategy

Conclusion

Dualistic States: Germany in the Japanese Mirror

Introduction

The German Case: How `Developmental' is the State?The State in the Rise of German Industrial Power

Geopolitical Submergence of Transformative Capacity

Private-Sector Governance: A State-informed System of Coordination

Postwar Developmentalism: Innovation Without Change

Reconstituting Transformative Capacity

Dual Capabilities and National Prosperity

How `Distributive' is the Japanese State?Conclusion

The Limits of Globalization

Introduction

What does `Globalization' Mean?The Question of Novelty

The Question of Magnitude

The Question of Distribution

The Question of Mobility

The Myth of the Powerless State

The Extent of Government Powerlessness

Convergence Versus Varieties of State Capacity

Adaptivity of the State

The State as Victim of Midwife of `Globalization'

The Emergence of `Catalytic' States

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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