Challenges of globalisation to the nation state

Authors

• Paul Hirst

Abstract

It has become a commonplace to argue from the 1970s onwards that we have witnessed the creation of a truly global economy, one in which world market forces are stronger than even the most powerful states. In this new perspective nation states can no longer independently affect the level of economic activity or employment within their territories. The job of nation states is to provide the infrastructure and public goods that business needs at the lowest possible cost. This article argues that the rhetoric of globalisation is largely misplaced, the international economy does not correspond to the model of a globalised economic system nor have national states’ roles in economic governance declined to the extent suggested by the most enthusiastic proponents of the globalisation thesis. States are coming to function less as “sovereign” entities and more as the component parts of an international “polity”. Nation states are pivots between international agencies and sub-national activities, because they provide legitimacy as the exclusive voice of a territorially-bounded population.