Inter-State Competition and Transnational Capitalists across the North-South Divide: Different Strategies, New Configurations of Power

• In Event: 4149 - Current Topics in World-Systems Research

Abstract

The contemporary era is one of increasing tumult, uncertainty, and divergent assessments of the period’s most salient dynamics. Existing research emphasizes the rise of the BRICS bloc of states, on one hand, and the rise of a transnational capitalist class on the other. Yet, only a small body of work has considered how these dynamics intersect—that is, how transnational capitalists shape, and are shaped by, inter-state competition. Moreover, existing research neglects explicitly comparative inquiries: do transnational capitalists in the global North and the global South interact with inter-state competition differently? This article explores these questions by analyzing two cases in which transnational firms in the global North and South attempted to shape state institutions at domestic and international levels to strengthen trade liberalization. Through this comparative analysis, we argue that, while firms in the global North and South increasingly share preferences for trade liberalization, the way in which these firms pursue that goal vis-à-vis states and inter-state organizations is shaped by their historical relationship to the institutions of US-led hegemony. Transnational firms in the global South seek to foment inter-state competition in order to decenter US leadership, while their counterparts in the North seek to minimize and accommodate inter-state competition to preserve US leadership and their own private authority. As the agency of transnational capitalists in both the North and South rests on the production of new coalitions, both are contributing to the geographical recentring of institutional power in the world economy.

Authors

• Amy Adams Quark, William & Mary

• Elias Alsbergas, William & Mary