Globalization from the Ground Up: A Domestic Perspective

Abstract

Globalization is often understood largely in neoliberal, economic terms, as if it were a force of nature. For some, globalization is all about competition - a competition for markets and investments that is global in scale and more intense than ever before. For individual corporations to succeed, for example, they must become more efficient, taking full advantage of new technologies and moving various components of their operations around the world, so as to lower costs and expand their markets. States are expected to follow suit by deregulating their markets, privatizing governmental services, lowering taxes, and, in the process, becoming more effective in attracting new businesses and, of course, jobs to their geographic region. The viewpoint of globalization that forms this chapter however, begins not in the inevitability of global markets, but in the role of domestic law and politics in producing certain market conditions (global or otherwise). In discussion, globalization is usually presented in a way that assumes a top-down phenomenon, emphasizing scale and homogeneity. By contrast, the perspective I take is from the bottom up, taking into account the areas where domestic law and local communities are caught up, and too often caught out, by globalization.

Keywords: glovalization, neoliberalism, administrative law, domestic law, public/private distinctive