and the power of socio-economic groups and interests can increase or
decrease together. For example, trans-national corporations have stimulated
a capacity for autonomous state action on economic issues. Similarly, a
reduced state capacity to intervene in the economy may be deliberately
selected by state élites in order to protect other state capacities, such as in
the area of control and repression, and thus reduce the expression of griev-
ances by economically disadvantaged groups.
Strong state interventions are likely to encourage interest groups to mobi-
lize to exert pressure on policy-makers or even colonize parts of the state
apparatus. State autonomy and group power may increase simultaneously,
but only temporarily as newly mobilized and empowered groups exert influ-
ence and reduce the scope and possibly capacity for further state interven-
tions, at least in that particular policy area. We are thus presented with the
intriguing conclusion that state intervention in the economy provides an
environment supportive of working class mobilization and participation in
policy-making.
The thrust of this theory is that political analysis needs to recognize a
dialectical relationship between state and society. In activating group iden-
tities, politicizing some social conflicts and not others, and selecting social
identities on which political conflict is based, the state influences the mean-
ings and methods of politics for different groups and classes. The state is not
solely the product of social cleavages and interests. Sectional interests and
classes seek to influence the state. But the way they do so, and their capac-
ity to do so, depends on the state structures with which they interact.
Globalization and the nation state
It has been argued that the forces of globalization are increasingly rendering
the state obsolete. Thus debates about the nature of the state become redun-
dant. How convincing is this stance?
There is by no means consensus on what ‘globalization’ means (the fate
of many terms that are more buzz-words that no discussion of current affairs
dares omit than scientific concepts), but the term tries to capture aspects of
international relations which must be delineated if the argument about the
contemporary relevance of the state is to be assessed.
Economically, ‘globalization’ refers to an accelerating process of interna-
tional transactions in the form of trade, investment and capital flows. For
example, in developing countries the share of international trade in total
output increased from 10 per cent in 1987 to 17 per cent in 1997. Over the
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