ABSTRACT
Globalisation is understood in many ways, but in this chapter the objective is to describe the political economy of globalisation. This means that we will not simply describe ‘political’ decision-making or ‘economic’ phenomena at the global level, but consider how political and economic dimensions of globalisation interact and are co-determined. For example, we typically think of government offi cials and policymakers as ‘political’ agents, and think of bankers and business owners as ‘economic’ agents. But the government cannot maintain power and implement policies without economic resources, and businesses require the legal and physical infrastructure that governmental power makes possible. Through a political economy lens, we examine how states and markets – or politics and economics – are never categorically separate but continuously interactive and mutually determining.
