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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Original Title Page -- Original Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- List of Tables and Figures -- Dedication -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 Long Waves of Class Formation -- Class Formation in the World System -- The Temporal Dimension of Class Formation -- Class Formation and the Political Articulation of Class Interests -- Capital Fractions -- Concepts of Control -- Generations in the Bourgeoisie -- 2 The Rise and Fall of British Hegemony -- The Making of the British Class Structure -- The Rise of British Capitalism -- The Nature of the British State -- The Logic of Priority -- The Class Structure of the Pax Britannica -- The Heyday of British Industrial Capital -- The Aristocratization of the Bourgeoisie -- Britain's Imperial Decline -- British Foreign Investment -- The Incorporation of the Labour Movement -- The Downfall of the Liberal Party -- Towards the General Strike -- 3 Between New Deal and Fascism: Depression, War and Transition in Britain -- The Turn to Protectionism -- Corporate Liberalism in the 1930s -- The Strength of the State Monopoly Bourgeoisie -- The Structure of the British Economy During the 1930s -- The Declining Industries -- The Fordist Industries -- The Balance of Depression -- The Long Decline: Determination vs. Contingency -- 4 The Redefinition of Britain's Global Position 1941-73 -- Global Fordism -- Postwar Reconstruction of the Global Order and the Birth of the 'Special Relation' -- Britain's Relationship with Europe -- Early European Integration Projects -- Suez and the Special Relationship -- The Move Towards Europe -- The World Market and the British Political Economy in the 1950s -- The Multinationalization of the British Economy -- The Effects of City Dominance for British Monetary Policy -- 5 The Postwar Fordist Offensives.

First published in 1990, Global Capitalism and National Decline is a major contribution to the study of British political and economic decline. The author concentrates on the global nature of capitalism as the context for the development of national capitalism, and on the relationship between internal and external factors. A long-term view of British politics enables him to demonstrate that competing popular explanations of Britain's crisis and the rise of Thatcherism in response to it, are in fact interconnected. The long decline of Britain originating in the 19th century, the inherent weakness of the post-1945 settlement, and the critical events of 1970s, acquire their fullest meaning when seen as different layers' of one and the same historical process. Henk Overbeek takes the story of Britain's decline through to Margaret Thatcher's tenth anniversary in office. His book will be invaluable to scholars and students of economics, politics, and history. it offers a clear perspective on the problems of national decline within a global context, and on Britain's position in Europe and in the wider world.

This edited collection examines unemployment in Europe in the context of globalisation, the implementation of European Monetary Union and the Eastern enlargement of the EU. It combines theoretical chapters with detailed case-studies of Britain, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Central Europe.

This paper argues that the development towards a common migration policy in the European Union reflects the emergence of a new form of regionalism resulting from the recent structural transformations in the global political economy. The European governments are caught in a web of contradictory interests and tendencies. On one side, the logic of global economic restructuring dictates continued deregulation and flexibilisation of the labour market, implying increased high levels of immigration. On the other hand, the political backlash against globalisation pushes towards a closure of the external borders. The result is the construction of a Fortress Europe, with a set of specific cooperation agreements with the regions surrounding the European Union in order to regulate the inflow of migrants.