ABSTRACT
Increasing international economic integration and the emergence of cross-border, and even globally, integrated networks of production and distribution raise the need for regulation that spreads across the customary regulatory (that is, state) boundaries and beyond the reach of traditional regulatory authorities. This increased difficulty in regulating business is welcomed by arch neo-liberalists: the placing of the activities of the private sector beyond the reach of the state fulfils a basic tenet of neoliberal philosophy – that is, the removal of the state from as much economic life as possible. For others, globalization, through its bypassing of the state, undermines democracy and excludes nonelite groups, whether they be labour interests in the developed world or developing countries, from decisions that have a significant impact upon their well-being.
