ABSTRACT
Increasing international economic integration and the emergence of cross-border, and even globally, integrated networks of production, distribution and markets mean that activities that need regulation spread across the customary regulatory (that is, state, or in the case of Europe, EU) boundaries and beyond the reach or scope of traditional regulatory authorities. This development is welcomed by arch neoliberalists: the placing of the activities of the private sector beyond the reach of the state
fulfils a basic tenet of neo-liberal philosophy – that is, the removal of the state from as much economic life as possible. For others, globalization, through its by-passing of the state, undermines democracy and excludes non-elite groups, whether they be labour interests in the developed world or whole countries from the developing world, from decisions that have a significant impact on their well-being.
