ABSTRACT

In the autumn of 1999 and the spring of 2000, the world witnessed largescale demonstrations in the United States against the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (1M F). These demonstrations were an angry manifestation of one side of what has become a bitter debate over what is popularly called 'economic globalization'. 'Economic globalization' is a term used to represent he increasingly dynamic forces of international trade and finance, and it implies a continuing growth over time in the volume of international trade and transnational capital movement, the number of countries engaging in these activities, and an increase in the politico-economic interdependence of participating nations. While economic globalization is a rather recent buzz-word, the basic phenomena it represents have existed for some time. Chase-Dunn et al. (1998: 2) point out that:

The degree of international connectedness of economic and political! military networks was already important in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The first 'transnational corporations' were the great chartered companies of the seventeenth century [which] organized both production and exchange on an intercontinental scale.