The Return of the State : Protestors, Power-Brokers and the New Global Compromise

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp) for our publishing activities. [...] Page 1 INTRODUCTION As the full implications of a globalized economy become more apparent, it becomes ever more evident that many of the functions of government, in particular the supply of public goods and the pursuit of social objectives, will some- how have to be undertaken at the global level. [...] For much of the public and many of the protestors, the source of the new corporate power stems from the way that free-trade agreements and economic globalization have created a “levels problem.” They have allowed large transnational corporations to operate at the global level while governments and their related systems of democratic and legal accountability have remained stuck at the national leve [...] It moves from the protestors to the power-brokers and argues that, despite their pronouncements to the contrary, the elites of the world economy are beginning to take the concerns of protestors very seriously. [...] In addition to putting direct pressure on the White House, the airlines donated a total of $585,000 to the Democratic National Committee in the run-up to the presidential election in November.