ABSTRACT
Much of the recent process of global restructuring has involved the transformation of states and their patterns of governance. Arguably, this is because current global economic integration is a political project in which states author changes in regulatory institutions appropriate to global market participation. Historically, states have always mediated social and political relations with local and global dimensions. The relative balance of these dimensions has varied across space (the state system) and time. The colonial system, for example, combined European mercantilism with colonial export economies. Decolonization involved a movement to reverse the colonial condition and emulate European national protectionism. Today, we find that movement in decline as states adopt policies that weaken national protections and strengthen global market relations. This chapter will examine this movement as a contradiction between the governance of markets (the “global state”) and the governance of space (the nation-state).
