The sceptical thesis
Whilst the hyperglobalist thesis is extremely influential, it has been challenged by a number of sceptical theorists such as Hirst and Thompson (1999), Rugman (2000), Wade (1996) and Zysman (1994).
For these authors, the world today is not so different from what it was like even a century ago. In some respects - such as levels of trade and investment - the world economy is actually less open and integrated than it was before the First World War. The sceptics also question claims that the world today is ‘borderless’. As Hirst and Thompson (1999) note, flows of trade and investment are far from ‘global’. Rather, they are highly concentrated within the ‘triad’ of North America, Europe and Japan. In contrast, the developing countries receive only a minimal share of investment and trade. They estimate that two-thirds of the world’s population received just 16 per cent of foreign direct investment in the early 1990s. Nor can capital move effortlessly across national borders, as the extreme globalizers assume. In fact, if a company has invested a great deal of time and money in a particular location (for example, through training staff), the cost of ‘exit’ is considerable - indeed, it can be greater than paying higher taxes. Rather than being truly ‘global’, most firms continue to operate from a distinct home base (Wade 1996).Thus, for the sceptics, the world economy is far from being globalized. Rather, it remains: ‘an open international economy that is still fundamentally characterized by exchange between relatively distinct national economies and in which many outcomes, such as the competitive performance of firms and sectors, are substantially determined by processes occurring at the national level’ (Hirst and Thompson 1999: 7). Claims that the nation-state is in decline are thus ‘at best, premature and, at worst, ill founded’ (Gertler 1992: 48). Indeed, the sceptics point to the growth of government in the post-war period. For example, the share of government expenditures in GDP averaged 47 per cent in the mid-1990s, compared to just 21 per cent before the Second World War (Rodrik 1997: 49). For the sceptical authors, then, globalization has not laid waste the nation-state, for governments can and do continue to play an important role in the economy.
More on the topic The sceptical thesis:
- Separation Thesis and Connection Thesis
- Allan James. A Sceptical Theory of Morality and Law. Peter Lang,1998. — 277 p., 1998
- The new institutionalist thesis
- The hyperglobalist thesis
- Are we treating the conceptualist thesis fairly?
- The complex globalization thesis
- The ideational globalization thesis
- The globalization debate
- D. The Participant’s Perspective
- Index of Subject
- Preface
- The Basic Positions