Globalisation and its Discontents

Most analyses of globalization convey the message that it is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. In such a context politics and democracy become irrelevant. This collection of essays develops a more critical and grounded analysis of the nature and implications of globalization. Many of the contributions to this book conclude that there are real political choices to be made. Even though the economic context has changed, politics still matters.

List of Tables Preface Notes on the Contributors Introduction; S.McBride & J.Wiseman PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES What is Globalization; G.Teeple The Politics of Globalization and Labour Strategies; S.McBride PART II: POLITICAL AGENCY AND THE INSTRUMENTS OF GLOBALIZATION Globalization as Discipline: The Case of Australia and International Finance; D.Bryan & M.Rafferty Creating the Institutions of the Global Economy? Central Bank Independence in Japan and Italy; B.MacLean, A.Croci & P.Bowles The Right Thing: Globalization and the Policy Process: A Case Study; R.Watts International Financial Institutions, International Capital Flows and Financial Liberalization in Developing Countries; J.Busumtwi-Sam Benchmarking, Global Best Practice and Production Renorming in the Australian Coal Industry: The Impact of Globalization; B.Bowden & B.Russell PART III: CONTRADICTIONS AND AMBIGUITIES Global Markets and State Power: Explaining the Limited Impact of International Tax Competition; M.Webb The Making of the Citizen Self and Citizen Other: Canada's Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program; N.Sharma Globalization and Cross-Border People Movements: The Case of Recent Revisions in U.S. Immigration Legislation; T.Cohn The ICFTU Labour Clause Proposal: A Legal and Political Critique; M.Swenarchuk A 'Double Movement': Implications of Globalization and Pluralization for the Canadian Welfare State; J.Rice & M.Prince PART IV: CRISIS, LEVELS OF ACTION AND ALTERNATIVES Economic Turmoil in Asia: A Crisis of Globalization; J.Price Rethinking Global Strategies; M.G.Cohen Alternatives to Oppressive Globalization; J.Wiseman Index

STEPHEN MCBRIDE is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University. His previous books include Not Working: State, Unemployment and Neo-Conservatism in Canada, winner of the Smiley Prize for the best book on the study of government and politics in Canada; Dismantling a Nation: The Transition to Corporate Rule, co-authored with John Shields; and The Training Trap: Ideology, Training and the Labour Market, co-edited with Thomas Dunk and Randle Nelsen.

JOHN WISEMAN is Associate Professor at the School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Global Nation: Australia and the Politics of Globalization; Alternatives to Globalization: an Asia-Pacific Perspective; and New Economic Directions for Australia, co-authored with J. Camilleri, B. Frankel, R. Watts and P. Christoff. He was joint winner of the International Lelio Basso Prize for Political and Economic Alternatives awarded by the Lelio Basso Foundation, Rome, 1998.