Governing under Stress Middle Powers and the Challenge of Globalization

by Clarkson, Stephen; Cohen, Marjorie Griffin

• ISBN13: 9781842773031
• ISBN10: 1842773038
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-13
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

This volume is the first work to emerge from a major international comparative research project to explore the political economy of governance under conditions of globalization in Canada, Mexico, Norway and Australia. The essays throw a new light on globalization by examining it from the perspective of these nations on the "semi-periphery." Opening chapters examine the international institutions, including NAFTA, the WTO and the EU. In the second Part, contributors detail the constraints these countries face and the possibilities for their continuing to pursue policies unique to the needs and democratically defined goals of each country. And in the concluding Part, they discuss the new economic, political and social issues that arise as the shape of governance changes.

Author Biography

Stephen Clarkson is in the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto.

Marjorie Griffin Cohen is Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Table of Contents

Preface	x
Gordon Laxer
Introduction: States under Siege	1	(11)
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
Stephen Clarkson
Globalization and the Social Question	12	(21)
Janine Brodie
PART I Semi-peripheral Countries: Norway, Mexico, Australia, Canada
Globalization in Norwegian: Peculiarities at the European Fringe	33	(18)
Øyvind Østerud
Norway, the EEA, and Neo-liberal Globalism	51	(19)
Dag Harald Claes
John Erik Fossum
The Rise and Fall of an `Organized Fantasy': The Negotiation of Status as Periphery and Semi-periphery by Mexico and Latin America	70	(20)
Teresa Gutierrez-Haces
Mexico: Relocating the State within a New Global Regime	90	(20)
Alejandro Alvarez
Australia: Asian Outpost or Big-time Financial Dealer?	110	(22)
Dick Bryan
Australia: Neo-liberal Globalism and the Local State	132	(21)
Ray Broomhill
Global Governance and the Semi-peripheral State: The WTO and NAFTA as Canada's External Constitution	153	(22)
Stephen Clarkson
International Forces Driving Electricity Deregulation in the Semi-periphery: The Case of Canada	175	(22)
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
PART II Dealing with the Centre
Money on the (Continental) Margins: Dollarization Pressures in Canada and Mexico	197	(21)
Paul Bowles
Taking Investments Too Far: Expropriations in the Semi-periphery	218	(21)
David Schneiderman
The Rule of Rules: International Agreements and the Semi-periphery	239	(24)
Stephen McBride
John Erik Fossum
PART III Comparing Economic Performance
Zonal Structure and the Trajectories of Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Norway under Neo-liberal Globalization	263	(28)
Satoshi Ikeda
About the Contributors	291	(4)
Index	295