State Sovereignty Under Siege in an Era of Globalization? The IMF, The World Bank & The NAFTA

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2002

Disciplines

Political Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Advisor

Gary Prevost, Political Science

Abstract

The globalization phenomenon has had a striking worldwide impact on numerous aspects of culture, economics, human rights, policy-making and the state. This paper examines the effects of globalization on state sovereignty. In order to remain appropriately focused, the paper's scope is limited to examining a few agents of globalization and their effects on state sovereignty, specifically discussing the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the North- American Free Trade Agreement. As such, the paper develops a hypothesis that attempts to explain the relationship between those agents of globalization and state sovereignty. The paper concludes that these agents of globalization do indeed usurp state sovereignty. These agents accomplish this by way of restricting available policy options to national governments through structural adjustment programs or by way of affording private investors the power to sue national governments for punitive damages and policy changes via a supranational dispute settlement panel in the NAFTA.

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