Globalization in Question

Globalization in Question: The International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance is a text on globalization by Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson, published in 1996 by Polity Press.

Hirst and Thompson note that globalization is an important topic, not only in economics, but also in the social, political and managerial sciences. There is much talk of the "global village" and it is often argued that a truly global economy has emerged, or is in the process of emerging. This global economy, it is further argued, in what might be termed the "globalization hypothesis", has made domestic economic strategies useless in the face of the world market, in which a new breed of truly transnational corporations are the dominant actors. The authors question the extent to which this globalization hypothesis is an accurate portrayal of how things actually are, and whether this is how they ought to be. There is a strong polemical element to the book.

The authors argue on the basis of the following five interrelated points:

Having criticized a strong version of the globalization thesis, Hirst and Thompson identify five major characteristics of the international economy that they wish to emphasize.

Hirst and Thompson ask whether the globalization hypothesis is overstated, or is it the case that we are really in a new stage in international economic, political and cultural relationships. In doing so, they trace out the present configuration of international economic, political and cultural tendencies. They look at the implications of these developments for policy and for the likely future direction of development. They stress, as the title suggests, the importance of "governance", and the ways in which nation states and international governance might interact with the processes at work. Their aim is to provide a rebuttal to the arguments of those who think that global market forces either should be obeyed, or cannot but be obeyed. Their conclusion is that "there are still opportunities for the development of governance mechanisms at the level of the international economy that neither undermine national governance nor hinder the creation of national strategies for international control".

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