ABSTRACT
The globalization was proceeding through myriad decentralized initiatives, a deliberate effort to support globalization through public policy was also emerging. Actors like the Trilateral Commission promoted a global agenda, now widely referred to as neoliberalism, whose goal was to ease the way for the mobility of capital. This agenda was developed over time through give-and-take among major global economic actors. In the case of trade, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an institution that was little more than a framework for negotiating trade deals, was replaced by the World Trade Organization, which was based on rules binding on nations, authoritative decision-making procedures, and a bureaucracy empowered to enforce its decisions. The growing power of the WTO, NAFTA, IMF, World Bank, and similar international economic institutions provoked debate over the nature of the changes that were occurring. Some portrayed them with either satisfaction or alarm as the development of a world government that was superseding national sovereignty.
