Socio-Economic Rights in the World Market: China, India, and the Gang of Four

Abstract

The entry of China and India into the global economy involves not only the internal transformation of those two societies, but also a significant step towards what Marx called the ‘completion of the world market’ – the expansion of foreign trade and the transformation of social relations of production, and with that the intensification of competition across the global economy. They represent crucial cases, therefore, for the gang of four international organizations most closely concerned with the governance of labour markets, social policy and trade – the ILO, the OECD, the World Bank, and the WTO. Over the past two decades these organizations have converged, along with the IMF and the multilateral regional banks, on a programme aimed at reshaping socio-economic rights to make them consistent with and supportive of the rule of capital, and competitiveness in the global economy. This paper analyses the manner in which the Gang of Four seek to fit social and economic rights to the exigencies of the world market, and explores in detail the engagement of the OECD with China and India. In terms of the overall project of which this is a part, the objective is to sketch in the background against which regional development banks and emerging economies engage in the wake of the financial crisis.