ABSTRACT
The post-war international economic order in the Western world was a compromise between the principles of economic liberalism and national interventionism, labelled ‘embedded liberalism’ (Ruggie 1982:393). On the one hand, it consisted of the acceptance of the principles of multilateralism and tariff reductions, which led to several consecutive GATT negotiation rounds furthering international free trade. On the other hand, the right of national governments to maintain capital controls and to intervene in their own economy in order to ensure domestic stability via economic growth and social security was generally accepted. This hegemonic world order rested on the Fordist accumulation regime, a specific organisation of the social relations of production at the national level. Its core features were the mass production of consumer goods and mass consumption (Holman 1996:16). The corresponding form of state was the Keynesian welfare state, characterised by interventionism, a policy of full employment via budget deficit spending, the mixed economy and an expansive welfare system (Gill and Law 1988:79-80).
