Daniel Drache

The Return of the Public Domain after the Triumph of Markets: Revisiting the Most Basic of Fundamentals

This prospective paper is about ‘after the triumph’, a short-hand for a much larger and more powerful idea, namely, the return, reconstitution and redeployment of the public domain in a post-Seattle and post-Washington consensus world order (Williamson 1990, 1999). The emergence of the global economy with its predilection for market fundamentals, tough zero-inflation bench-marking, an unstoppable political dynamic of one worldism and silence on the need for an expansive notion of the public sphere is unquestionably the watershed event of our times. The meta-narrative of globalization has no rivals as the last grand political discourse of the twentieth century and if we understand anything about the endless capacity of the globalization narrative to reinvent itself in a new guise when conditions demand it, today is one of those defining moments. A new kind of state is emerging with its own particular institutions, practices and innovative forms as theorized by Held (1995) and Castells (1996). Yet after the battle in Seattle and the 2008 global financial crisis, the future prospects of ‘market fundamentalism’ are increasingly troubled. A turning point has been reached in the debate over the rising costs and elusive benefits of globalization.The contemporary rebundling of identity and territory makes available policy space for the re-entry of the public domain. If there are to be clear sites of national authority and a stable international community, the re-emergence of the public domain, in which consensus, co-operation and public discourse figure predominately, has a compelling, if neglected, role to play as one of the co-ordinates that will rebundle ‘identity and territory’ in Ruggie’s evocative words. With material and institutional dimensions that are large and complex with overlapping aspects, the public domain should not be used interchangeably with the public sector, with which it is often confused. Nor should it be limited to the provision of public goods, a staple of modern economic liberalism. In the primary sense of the term, the public domain is about the resources carved out from the market that empower and transform both the state and non-state actors.

Deadlock in the Doha Round: The Long Slow Decline of Trade Multilateralism

This paper argues that deadlock in the Doha Round of trade negotiations is due to the increasing complexity of economic globalization. It represents a transformative shift on the part of Member nations away from the current model of trade multilateralism and towards smaller negotiating platforms. We examine two main reasons for this changing pattern in international economic relations. First, with the rise of new global trading powers such as India, China and Brazil, the geopolitical playing field is in flux and the steady accumulation of political and market power in the global South has sapped the WTOs forward momentum. The second factor in the decline of trade multilateralism is a cocktail of rigid rules, non-tariff protectionism, and a crisis of representation that throws sand in the institutional gears of multilateral trade. The paper concludes with a discussion of trade multilateralism in historical context.

Globalisation, world trade and the cultural commons: Identity, citizenship and pluralism

There is no consensus on the role that culture plays in the processes of globalisation for the very simple reason that culture is a difficult and elusive term to define, and is subject to global pressures and national constraints. We define culture as a set of ideas and practices embedded in the plural and diverse historical experience of a society. Cultural practices are the markers of public memory. The cultural commons is that portion of culture that remains in the public domain, in which artists, as individuals and citizens, exchange ideas and promote creativity. As such, the boundaries of the cultural commons are constantly shifting and evolving. They are intensely conflicted because many governments and international institutions are locked in a dichotomous discourse, unable to grasp how culture can be a commodity and tool of identity at the same time. Culture is central to social relations and building cohesive societies because it intersects with closely held social values, public perceptions and popular sovereignty. The thing that makes any systematic examination difficult is that culture is simultaneously a tradable commodity, a tool of identity for groups and individuals and a strategic resource for national societies. Inevitably, these three aspects are often at odds with each other. This article examines three key dynamics in the global cultural economy. First, thanks to new information technology, media products, from books to television, movies and music, are sold around the world. Rapid technological change and the spread of digital communication have facilitated the phenomenal growth of the global cultural economy. Global flows of media and entertainment carry with them a set of unequal relations. The global circuitry of cultural trade carries products south and profits north. International legal rules have become more restrictive with respect to intellectual property, introducing new imbalances into north-south trade flows. Second, the Doha round of world trade negotiations has significant implications for the future of the cultural commons. Ongoing negotiations around Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Trade-related New Political Economy, Vol. 11, No. 3, September 2006

When Labour and Investment Standards Almost Mattered: A Putative History Lesson in Trade Politics that Ought Not to Be Forgotten

When the international order was redesigned from scratch in the late 1940s, policy makers had to decide whether a global trade organization could extend beyond trade and address issues like labour standards, developmental needs and human rights. Like today they needed a rules-based system to organize the world economy. Indeed they had to find the optimum structure for such a body in which liberalism, in the words of the Economist, would be “freed from theology”1 and effect a compromise between market forces and the democratic aspirations of people.

Anti-Dumping in Dispute Settlement: The Trade Predator’s Persistent Dilemma – National Tribunals, Square Shooters or a Minefield of Bias?

The paper provides an empirical overview of anti-dumping measures from 1994-2011, anti-dumping initiatives north v. south and south-south and the targeting of China’s many export industries. The conclusion is that anti-dumping is often stigmatized by economists and trade lawyers as ‘rule rigging’, but governments continue to rely on this policy instrument to protect jobs and industries from abnormally cheap goods flooding the market. Trade centric ties between countries have tightened and states are more globalized than ever before. Deep integration has forced governments to manage their openness and as countries are in a race to compete, those who come out on top do better to have the state address the far-reaching imbalance of trade centric growth and the asymmetries in market prowess between countries. In the recent period China has been much more active in bringing antidumping suit against its competitors and major trading partners but it is by far and away more a target than a complainant. Member states will continue to bring disputes to the WTO in very small numbers. By contrast, anti-dumping and countervail measures and duties are an alternative dispute settlement mechanism and the organization of international trade has become more politicized. Countries will continue to file complaints with the WTO and launch investigations into predatory pricing practices before their national tribunals. Legally sanctioned protectionism has become a prominent feature of international trade at a time of intense globalization despite the expert advice of lawyers and economists to shut it down. Anti-dumping investigations before national tribunals have long been a right of governments to insulate their economies against highly volatile conditions in the international environment that distort the transactions of a world trading system.

The Politics of Anti-Dumping in Dispute Settlement: The Trade Predator's Constant Dilemma

While countries continue to negotiate new mega free trade agreements in the EU and the US, they increasingly rely on anti-dumping laws to protect their industries from predatory pricing and the high costs of global structural change. Legally sanctioned protectionism has become a prominent feature of international trade at a time of intense globalization despite the expert advice of lawyers and economists to shut it down. Anti-dumping investigations before national tribunals have long been a right of governments to insulate their economies against highly volatile conditions in the international environment that distort the normal practices of a world trading system. The paper provides an empirical overview of anti-dumping measures from 1994-2011, anti-dumping initiatives north v. south and south-south and the targeting of China’s many export industries.

'Rowing and Steering' Our Way Out of the Modern Staples Trap of Resource Capitalism

This paper examines policy ‘short-termism,’ the loss of manufacturing competitiveness (‘the Dutch disease’) and long-term rent-seeking behaviour from the corporate sector has become, by default, the low Canadian policy standard post NAFTA. The crushing disappearance of permanent jobs from the manufacturing sector has altered the job prospects of Canadians looking for employment. Twenty years ago, over twenty percent of full-time jobs were in manufacturing. Today, despite incredible resource commodity booms only one in ten workers is employed there. Nor have natural resources provided a large source of employment. The share of jobs in energy industries is less than seven percent, down from ten percent in 1990, and still falling (Cross, 2008). Of course, there are benefits for resource rich Alberta and in terms of corporate profits. Regional growth leads the national trend. The skewing of the economy is putting people and the northern model of resource capitalism at risk. The paper argues that Canada has been both blessed and cursed by its vast resource wealth. The global boom in commodity prices for Canada’s energy, mineral, and agricultural exports beams the wrong message to the political class. It tells them thinking and planning for tomorrow is unnecessary when record high global prices and free trade drive Canada’s economic development at a frenetic pace. But it is possible to escape the staples trap and the paper identifies the six critical factors that transform the dynamics of export-led growth for strategic ends.

Getting on Track: Social Democratic Strategies for Ontario

Social democrats have always understood that business will act differently if the rules governing economic life are changed: it is not because they share a commitment to gender equality that Scandinavian employers pay women and men wages that are virtually equal -- they do so because those are the rules. A modern NDP government must take immediate steps to define a coherent industrial strategy. It must devise new policies and develop industrial arrangements to change the ways firms behave, corporations invest, labour markets function, and companies compete. Piecemeal measures, the contributors to this collection insist, are not going to make the industrial sector more efficient. According to them, a redefinition of industrial strategy will only work if higher rates of growth in productivity are institutionalized and entire sectors produce differently than they do now -- without cutting wages or making labour markets more competitive than they already are. The social determinants of productivity, the contributors argue, are key to a different future -- especially in light of the wide range of issues exposed by the feminization of labour markets, the rise of the service industry, and the decline of the welfare state. The authors emphasize the continuing importance of a full employment strategy and the urgent need for income security for workers in highly fragmented labour markets, and outline tough new measures designed to close the wage gap between men and women. They delineate a fresh perspective on dealing with deficits, make a strong case for wide-reaching social welfare reform, and propose a framework by which Ontario can rebuild its shattered industries. Getting on Track convincingly demonstrates that if a modern social democratic administration expects to be dynamic and socially effective it has to have an economic strategy to restructure the economy while upholding its traditional commitment to social equality.

Symposium on Progressive Modes of Nationalism in New Zealand, Canada and Australia: Introduction

tended to proceed in two phases: (i) an elite liberal phase when the movement was most likely to serve bourgeois interests, and (ii) a mass populist phase when nationalist appeals tended to be associated with demands for social justice as well. Clearly nationalist ideologies and movements can be utilised by political leaders for a variety of purposes, and parties on the Left in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, whether they be of the Social Democratic variety or Marxist-Leninist, need to be very clear about when it is or is not progressive to support nationalist movements and national sentiments.

The Enigma of Canadian Nationalism

issue of independence and national viability played such an important role in Canadian politics. Indeed, there are a number of striking parallels between this and the early inter-war period. At that time the nationalist movement devoted its efforts to ending the last vestiges of British rule; in the recent past we have seen the emergence of numerous groups committed to ending the American domination of Canada. On both occasions nationalism surfaced as an economic issue-jobs and development -as a cultural concern-the creation of indigenous cultural institutions-and as a source of intensive political conflict. Nationalist politics ran the gamut of the political spectrum, from the far left to the far right.’ But, perhaps because of their intensity these movements tend to be short-lived and have failed to achieve a sustained impact on Canadian politics. Brief, intense periods of activism are typically followed by rapid decline and collapse. Each time the various movements involved are thus forced to begin anew, without being able to build effectively on the past. This haphazard development has left a deep imprint on present-day English Canadian nationalism. A major reason behind the precarious nature of these movements is their inability to come to terms with Canada’s developmental crisis. Two broad and contradictory streams of nationalism dominate Canadian history-a progressive nationalism of dependency employed by popular and democratic forces as an instrument of change, and a reactionary nationalism of domination used by the state and elites as an instrument of power. The origins of both these traditions reflect the peculiarities of Canada’s place in the world economy as a white settler colony. It is by exploring these dimensions that one begins to understand why nationalism in Canada remains so central to the survival of the two