Nation states are shrinking to give way to the market state
The state is not withering away! On the other hand, it has assumed a new shape. With the end of the Cold War in the 90s, the state has shrugged off its welfare clothes to put on a fresh fabric, suiting the milieu of the market-driven mantra. Thus, it is the market state* which is calling the shot in place of the nation state. The role of the state is witnessing dramatic changes to a prodder, facilitator, and a coalition-builder. During its tenure as nation state, its role was to make, buy and regulate.
Once the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, where professional revolutionaries and their followers ran an economy based on the state capitalism, the TINA (there is no alternative) factor of the western capitalism came to the fore, unchallenged and unrefuted. With the advent of the millennium, the western capitalism, represented by Trans National Companies, established their presence in almost all countries worth their name. Consequently, only words worth mentioning in the parlous of the market state were liberalisation, deregulation and maximisation of profit in place of law, regulation, and welfare, which were the inherent characteristics of the nation state. Talking a leaf out of TNCs the only route the market state moves is that of wealth creation for the big business and for citizens. For the latter, that is if (and it is big if) he lives up to the expectations of the neo-liberalism.
Omnipresent TNCs
According to a study by the intelligence department of the US government, ten major TNCs in the world have an annual turnover larger than the GNP of 150 of the 185 members of the United Nations! Even some of the NGOs have more clout in the international affairs compared with some of the nations. In this onslaught of the capital, various arms of the nation state are melting and are forced to tread in the path of privatisation and structural adjustments.
Welfare of the downtrodden and the oppressed is gone with the wind. They, instead, are presented with opportunities for making wealth for themselves. The state has no role or no say in this whole process, rather it is a mere facilitator. The whole thing is left to the market forces, whose terms are dictated by the global capital, assuming the form of international economic institutions and regional and multi-lateral trade groupings at some times and as private capital as most of the times. The market state is expected to formulate polices and enact laws suiting the profit maximisation for the businesses and the society at large. The metamorphosis of the nation state into market state is taking place in the age of globalisation.
If the nation state is defined by sovereignty within a specific territorial border, the market state operate sans borders. The modern technological devises and various factors pieced together in the clauses of WTO such as free movement of goods and services and factors of production ensure that the market state can live and operate in a global economy. Only exception to this norm may come when it comes to the internal security and the defence. In the former, the role is reversed from openness to total surveillance with little room for privacy and in the latter it is total militarisation of the state from head to toe. The market state has to make way for the global capital which defies all norms concerning restrictions. By digging their own graves, national languages, customs and cultures are singing tributes for the global capital.
Too old to stand
When the recession/meltdown/stagflation hit the world economy, proponents of the market state came out with the argument that nation states do not possess the wherewithal to live in a world of global capital and its mysterious ways of operations – putting the last nail on the coffins of the nation state. According to them, the economic and political policies were too traditional in nature so much so that they have to be dismantled and altered to face the new threats and the new challenges; and the nation states were forced to acquiesce in before the mighty of power of the capital and no questions asked from any quarter.
Since two decades, the nation state governments have been dismantling laws and removing hurdles to participate in the hidden world of global capital, tumultuous world of commodities and fast-changing world of information (ICT). Domestic production of goods and services has taken a back seat and the thrust is on maximum profit from finite raw materials available in the nature. Citizens are clearly told that government is no longer interested in their welfare, rather the focus is on maximisation of wealth with citizens left to fend for themselves.
Global village
When it comes to finished goods, it does not matter which is the origin of the country. That is because the market state has to live in a borderless world. The current generation of customers are moulded in such a way that they ask only the question whether a particular product and service meets his/her requirement/s. That is the reason many big ticket companies are flocking to China and elsewhere to reap dividends from the cheap labour and the low tax system existing there. Thus, national pride has gone for a toss and in its place market acceptability has gained acceptance. The distinction between the domestic and the foreign is getting blurred.
The transition of the nation state to the market state has also overshadowed international financial institutions and other world bodies such as IMF, World Bank and the UN who were the power-that-be during prime of the nation state. In fact, these bodies were the creation of the nation-states. The reason for their fall from the grace is also that the amount of money transacted by TNCs and their sidekicks outnumber the money handled by the Bretton Woods institutions and they wield more clout in the corridors of power than the world organisation.
-
The word market-state was coined by Philip Bobbitt in 2002.