ABSTRACT

The participation of national states in the implementation of a global economic system is not new, but it has intensified enormously over the last decade. The rise of private authority in governance is receiving considerable attention; with important exceptions, the role of the national state is not. The new normativity can be seen at work in the design of the 'solution' to the Mexican economic crisis of December 1994. There is a new intermediary world of strategic agents that contribute to the management and coordination of the global economy. The role of the new intermediaries is also revealed in the strategic work done by leading financial services firms in the wake of the Mexican financial crisis. The intermediaries worked with the Mexican government, but on their terms – this was not a government to government deal – to secure acceptability in the new institutionalized privatized domain for global economic transactions.