The impact of globalization on state sovereignty

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the impact of globalization on state sovereignty, with special attention to a sphere of particular state regulatory concern, the welfare state. As economic globalization has increased, most states have engaged in a variety of efforts to attract, or, at a minimum, to retain the investments of private investors within their territorial boundaries and to make the conditions attractive to their own non-mobile capital. All of these activities have been regulated by and are the consequence of state action. Firms and wealthy individuals have also engaged in 'endless varieties of doings and practices' to increase profits and to enhance their incomes, many of which challenge the neutrality of the economic location of firms and individuals. The result has been the comprehensive legal and institutional abuse of the state—the state has been used to augment and protect both the wealth of the nation and the wealth of individuals while it has been starved of resources needed to build and maintain a strong and accessible civil society.