Globalization and the changing architecture of the state: the regulatory state and the politics of negative co-ordination

Abstract

Globalization is reconfiguring the modern state. Differences in types of co-ordination are pivotal to understanding the changing nature of the state. These changes are best captured in Scharpf's distinction between positive and negative co-ordination which can be used to explore the mutations of the state. In place of those state structures which provided a framework for bargaining - be it corporatism or the developmental state - it is argued that emergent forms of coordination of economic behavior provide a procedural foundation for the self-regulation of economic governance. One significant exemplar of the emergence of this new state architecture is the growing importance of independent central banks in the management of monetary policy. The article explores these issues through an analysis of changes in central bank independence in Western Europe and East Asia.