The End of Weberian State Building & the Overtaking of Corporate Influence

• In Event: 41020 - Section on Political Economy of the World-System Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: State

Abstract

Since the 1990s, globalization and particularly global capitalism have accelerated the accumulation of capital, degradation of natural resources, displacement of people, and volatility of labor, all of which are taking place at such a pace that as a means of self-soothing, States have become increasingly reluctant to acknowledge the extent to which we are unprepared to face the consequence of capital. As it applies to Western state-building, the Weberian concept of state-building has always been on par with what we know to be accurate: states are sustained on their ability to monopolize violence. The progression of violence production today increasingly does not fall under the State but under private entities of the Global North that fare well under these conditions. The accumulation of wealth and global expansion has created an influential bubble of State allies that reach beyond the State.

Various scholars have addressed the role of state-building, governmentality, biopolitics, necro-politics, and state-aligned entities with state-sanctioned permission to operate violently; this work intends to add to this by discussing the connection between state-building, global capitalism, and the increasing systemic influence of private entities overtaking States in terms of financial and political capacity. The essential focus of this piece is to theorize how market liberalization has recalibrated the understanding and capacity of the Western State. In global capitalism, multinational corporations have continued to muddy the legal and financial waters of accountability. Corporations have done so, mainly by using paths created by the West of colonialism and imperialism, which produces enough sustained disenfranchisement for the West to have political influence and for Western corporations to have economic opportunities. 

Author

• Cameron Farrar, Syracuse University