States in the global economy: bringing domestic institutions back in

Introduction : bringing domestic institutions back in / Linda Weiss -- Disappearing taxes or the 'race to the middle'? Fiscal policy in the OECD / John Hobson -- Withering welfare? Globalisation, political economic institutions, and contemporary welfare states / Duane Swank -- Globalisation and social security expansion in East Asia / M. Ramesh -- France : a new 'capitalism of voice'? / Michael Loriaux -- The challenges of economic upgrading in liberalising Thailand / Richard Doner and Ansil Ramsay -- Building institutional capacity for China's new economic opening / Tianbiao Zhu -- New regimes, new capacities : the politics of telecommunications nationalisation and liberalisation / David Levi-Faur -- Ideas, institutions and interests in the shaping of telecommunications reform : Japan and the US / Mark Tilton -- Diverse paths towards 'the right institutions' : law, the state and economic reform in East Asia / Meredith Woo-Cumings -- Managing openness in India : the social construction of a globalist narrative / Jalal Alamgir -- Guiding globalisation in East Asia : new roles for old developmental states / Linda Weiss -- Governing global finance : financial derivatives, liberal states, and transformative capacity / William Coleman -- Is the state being 'transformed' by globalisation? / Linda Weiss

General opinion holds that globalisation limits the state's capacity for domestic government. This book questions the thesis that the state's role has been restricted. The contributors argue that globalisation can enable as well as constrain, and that its effects depend on the character of a country's domestic institutions

The growing interconnectedness of national economies and an expanding awareness of global interdependence in the 1990s have generated lively debate over the future of national governance. In a world of mobile capital, are states vital to the social and economic wellbeing of their citizens? A number of changes in the state's domestic and international environment - ranging from regulatory reforms and welfare state restructuring to the proliferation of intergovernmental agreements - have promoted the view that globalisation has a negative impact, compromising state capacities to govern domestically. This book challenges the 'constraints thesis'. Covering vital areas of state activity (welfare, taxation, industrial strategy, and regulatory reform), the contributors focus on a range of issues (finance, trade, technology) faced by both developed and developing countries. The contributors argue that globalisation can enable as well as constrain, and they seek to specify the institutional conditions which sharpen or neutralise the pressures of interdependence