Globalization and its Discontents (original) (raw)
Related papers
Globalization Today: At the Borders of Class and State Theory
Science & Society, 2009
Much of the literature to date suggests simple rejection or blanket acceptance of strong versions of the constructs transnational capitalist class (TCC) and transnational capitalist state (TCS). A more nuanced middle ground suggests that much of the problematic uses of these concepts stems from failure to distinguish the multiple ways Marx employed the term class and the centrality of internal relations and distinction among levels of analysis central to his intellectual project. A better positioning allows for the relevance of a TCC/TCS framing going back centuries in an understanding of capitalism as a world system, and application of these terms in the current conjuncture. Clarity is gained by moving beyond a dichotomy contrasting national and transnational capitalist class concepts, instead understanding the central question as the way states and capitalist fractions position themselves within the globalized political economy.
The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Class
This book maps the changing field of power generated by elite relations among the world's largest corporations and related political organizations. It provides an in-depth analysis that spans the three decades of the late 20th and early 21st century, when capitalist globalization attained unprecedented momentum, propelled both by the transnationalization of accumulation and by the political paradigm of transnational neoliberalism. This has been an era in which national governments have deregulated capital, international institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the World Economic Forum have gained prominence, and production and finance have become more fully transnational, increasing the structural power of capital over communities and workers. Within this context of transformation, this book charts the making of a transnational capitalist class, reaching beyond national forms of capitalist class organization into a global field, but facing spirited opposition from below in an ongoing struggle that is also a struggle over alternative global futures.
Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites
The class and social structure of developing nations has undergone profound transformation in recent decades as each nation has incorporated into an increasingly integrated global production and financial system. National elites have experienced a new fractionation. Emergent transnationally-oriented elites grounded in globalized circuits of accumulation compete with older nationally-oriented elites grounded in more protected and often state-guided national and regional circuits. Nationally-oriented elites are often dependent on the social reproduction of at least a portion of the popular and working classes for the reproduction of their own status, and therefore on local development processes however so defined, whereas transnationally-oriented elites are less dependent on such local social reproduction. The shift in dominant power relations from nationally-to transnationally-oriented elites is reflected in a concomitant shift to a discourse from one that defines development as national industrialization and expanded consumption to one that defines it in terms of global market integration.
2011
In the last 40 years, various authors have argued that a new transnational capitalist class (TCC) has emerged, which operates across the borders of national states. The approaches in question are debated widely in the social sciences, not only because of their theoretical assumptions and the empirical evidence provided, but also because international power relations are changing, not least in the context of the current crisis. The main claim of the authors in question appears to be validated by the advancing interna-tionalization of capital relations, and by the internationalization of the state. It appears that these processes have gained traction with the neoliberal transformation of capitalism. If this claim is true, it follows that there are far-reaching changes to state structures, the international state system, and the trajectory of social conflicts and struggles. Alterations in class relations are specifically important because they lead to new configurations of relations of forces 1 and power apparatuses, and, in a second step, to new arrangements of domination and regulation. The aim of this article is to review the approaches in question critically. We assume that existing theories of transnational class formation are characterized by significant weaknesses, both in terms of basic class and state theoretical assumptions, and in terms of accounting for the role of state apparatuses in class formation. For this reason, we have chosen Poulantzas's 6 Studies in Political Economy 88 FA L L 2 0 1 1 7
Since the end of the Cold War, scholars from numerous disciplines have theorized the rise of the "transnational" fraction of the capitalist class (Cox 1987;. Summarizing this concept, Leslie argues that the "transnational capitalist class" (TCC) "operate[s] across state borders to further the interests of global capital rather than of any real or imagined nation-state." Yet this body of literature suffers from significant lacunae. First, it mostly focuses on capitalists from the Global North, and largely overlooks the role played by their Southern counterparts in the global capitalist system. Second, transnational capitalists are conceived almost entirely in terms of corporations, while ignoring other capitalist actors. Finally, this literature presents insufficient empirical evidence to demonstrate that such a class actually exists. Further, this limited evidence refers almost exclusively to objective, material indicators such as "overlapping elite affiliations of corporate directors" (Carroll 2010). Yet these scholars do not interrogate the subjective, ideational basis of a would-be TCC. Building off of this analysis, this paper suggests avenues for advancing the study of transnational capitalists. These include a discussion of evidentiary standards, as well as the need for empirical research focusing on identity.
Rethinking the Transnational Capitalist Class
This article reflects on recent scholarship that clarifies the trajectory and significance of the transnational capitalist class (TCC) in the context of a global capitalism whose sharpening contradictions (if they are not creatively transmuted) portend the cumulative exhaustion of living labour and living systems. I attempt to clarify: 1) how key terms like global, transnational, regional and national apply within TCC formation; 2) how the distinction between a capitalist class in-itself and for-itself applies to the TCC; and 3) how insights from the Amsterdam School of transnational historical materialism, which embarked upon the first sustained research program on the TCC in the 1980s, can add nuance to our analysis. Although the world market has broadened and deepened and the circuitry of capital has become dramatically more transnational in the past half-century, as a class-for-itself, the TCC is a regional tendency that co-exists amid structures and practices of an era of capitalism fading but not extinguished – including massive north-south disparities (some of which have been intensifying through uneven development). A transnational capitalist and President at odds with the TCC script for global governance in a borderless world, Donald Trump personifies the liminal character of TCC formation in our time.
The Importance of a Perspective from Abroad
Critical Sociology, 2012
In this issue of the journal, William Robinson offers his analysis of the rise of transnational elites emerging outside of the traditional frame of nation-based capitalism. What is significant, in large part, is that unlike their national-capital predecessors, this new cadre has little concern for all that we refer to as social reproduction, industrialization, and local development. In its place, argues Robinson, are elites guided by a definition of global development rooted in the expansion of global markets and the integration of national economies into a global capitalist reality. This picture is a logical extension of a narrative that takes capitalism from a period of internationalization to globalization, and while the distinction between these two periods of capitalist development remains somewhat unclear we can agree significant changes are underway.