ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the situation resulting from the pressure that global capital, through the world financial market, has placed on the nation state, thereby constraining its ability to fulfil certain regulatory functions that, until recently, have been part of its main prerogatives. It focuses to assess the importance, especially to rural areas, of the abandoning of regulatory functions by the nation state or, what amounts to the same thing, the state's growing lack of power to enforce them. It also focuses on the economic problems of less favoured rural zones, and the role of the state in 'correcting' the problem of marginalization. The consequences of a reduction in the extent of state autonomy caused by globalization differ quite markedly depending upon the country or socioeconomic context in question. The chapter explains the need for state and concludes with reference to the double challenge for rural areas–the threat of progressive marginalization versus the dangers inherent in adaptive restructuring.