Title: Risk, Social Protection and the World Market
Abstract: The constitution of markets in particular sectors or locations is part of a larger process, currently led by the multilateral organisations concerned with global and regional economic governance, of building the world market.1 In broad ideological terms, this global liberal project can be traced back to Adam Smith, and the pioneering Manchester opponents of protectionism, Richard Cobden and John Bright; and in this context, it is widely associated with ideas of free trade, peaceful commerce, democracy and cosmopolitanism. However, the liberal focus on trade always abstracted away from the unequal relations of production that lie behind it, and as currently constituted, the project crucially goes beyond the promotion of trade to promote the restructuring of the social relations of production with a view to providing an exploitable proletariat on a global scale. To this end, it engages multilateral organisations, states, firms, citizens and workers and seeks to extend and sustain markets through the dissemination of the "politics of global competitiveness" (see Cammack 2006, 2009a, 2010). It ascribes to multilateral organisations the role of managing (promoting, co-ordinating, regulating and legitimising) the politics of competitiveness at a global level, and supporting states in its adoption and implementation. It gives states the responsibility for adopting and practising the global principles on which it is based, maintaining a domestic environment conducive to private investment (in relation to credit, product and labour markets, fiscal policy, investment in infrastructure and education and support for innovation and entrepreneurship), securing compliance from firms and workers within their territory, and legitimising the global liberal order to their citizens in general.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 31
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