ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the differentiating effects with reference to changes in two regions: the changes in the Southeast associated with the promotion of London as a global financial center; and the changes in the Northeast associated with deindustrialization resulting from inward investment and the restructuring of manufacturing within the UK. The UK economy and polity were not merely passive victims of external globalization processes, for dominant political forces within the UK played a decisive role in the emerging shape of the globalizing economy. One of the particularly important aspects of the "upward" move by the regulatory powers of national states has been the creation of macroregions, such as North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union, as a result of agreements between national states. The political economy of Thatcherism sought to create more space for market forces as the primary mechanism for steering and restructuring the national economy, giving particular prominence to the role of global markets.
