ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the political economy of the global transformation. The share of American gross domestic product (GDP) in relation to global GDP had declined; the control of American corporations over key international markets remained high and was even growing. Strange argued that the global articulation of power was constituted by a complicated amalgam of public and the private authority. The superior innovative capacities of the firms, bolstered by government-sponsored military research, bestowed onto certain segments of the Americas economy, an unalloyed competitive advantage. The financial crisis began in the US financial system, even if it was aided and abetted by global forces and dynamics. The Carr suggests through his analysis of the foundations of mass society in the middle years of the twentieth century, when society exerts pressure on the operation of government, government in turn becomes much more involved in society, including the economy and its financial system.