Globalization against Democracy A Political Economy of Capitalism after its Global Triumph

Globalization has reconfigured both the external institutional framework and the intrinsic operating mechanisms of capitalism. The global triumph of capitalism implies the embracing of the market by the state in all its variants, and that global capitalism is not confined to the shell of nation-state democracy. Guoguang Wu provides a theoretical framework of global capitalism for specialists in political economy, political science, economics and international relations, for graduate and undergraduate courses on globalization, capitalism, development and democracy, as well as for the public who are interested in globalization. Wu examines the new institutional features of global capitalism and how they reframe movements of capital, labor and consumption. He explores how globalization has created a chain of connection in which capital depends on effective authoritarianism, while democracy depends on capital. Ultimately, he argues that the emerging state-market nexus has fundamentally shaken the existing institutional systems, harming democracy in the process.

1. Introduction; 2. Capitalism in institutional reconfiguration by globalization: a theoretical framework; 3. Institutional oligopoly and embedded coordination: concentrative movements of capital; 4. Human (im)mobility, social poverty and political inability: 'economic man' on the segmented labor market; 5. The shaping of the caged anarchy: standardized consumption, atomized consumers; 6. Global inequalities challenge democracy: sociopolitical impacts of transnational stratification; 7. Conclusion.

Guoguang Wu is Professor of Political Science, History, and Chair in China and Asia-Pacific Relations at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He previously served as an editor for the People's Daily in Beijing, and participated in political reform of China in the 1980s in the capacity of a policy advisor and speechwriter to the national leadership. He is the author and editor of eight books, including China's Party Congress: Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional Manipulation (Cambridge, 2015).