counsel of some;pry the Japanese economy open and has been unwilling or unable to copy institutions(Boltho make it compete on our grounds was the message of 1996).GDP per work hour among seven of the most others.America did not succeed in doing much of either. prosperous countries came close together between the Yet in the 1990s,its economy has flourished.Globalizers 1950s and the 1980s (Bover 1996.37).Countries at a offer it as the ultimate political-economic model-and so high level of development do tend to converge in pro- history again comes to an end.Yet it is odd to conclude ductivity.but that is from a decade's experience that the one best model has something of a tautol- at last appeared.Globalization,if it were realized,would What I found to be ogy. mean a near uniformity of conditions across countries. true in 1970 remains Second,even if all Even in the 1990s,one finds little evidence of globaliza- politics have become tion.The advanced countries of the world have enjoyed true today:The global,economies re- or suffered quite different fates.Major Western Euro- main local perhaps to pean countries were plagued by high and persistent un- world is less interde- a surprising extent. employment;Northeast and Southeast Asian countries pendent than is usu- Countries with large experienced economic stagnation or collapse while China economies continue to continued to do quite well:and we know about the ally supposed. do most of their busi- United States. ness at home.Ameri- Variation in the fortunes of nations underlines the cans produce 88%of the goods they buy.Sectors that point:The country that has done best,at least lately,is are scarcely involved in international trade,such as gov- the United States.Those who have fared poorly have ernment,construction,nonprofit organizations,utilities. supposedly done so because they have failed to conform and wholesale and retail trade employ 82%of Ameri- to the American Way.Globalizers do not claim that cans (Lawrence 1997,21).As Paul Krugman says."The globalization is complete,but only that it is in process United States is still almost 90%an economy that pro- and that the process is irreversible.Some evidence sup- duces goods and services for its own use"(1997.166) ports the conclusion;some does not.Looking at the big For the world's three largest economies-the United picture.one notices that nations whose economies have States,Japan,and the European Union-taken as a unit, faltered or failed have been more fully controlled,di- exports are 12%or less of GDP(Weiss 1998.176).What rected,and supported governmentally than the American I found to be true in 1970 remains true today:The world economy.Soviet-style economies failed miserably:in is less interdependent than is usually supposed (Waltz China,only the free-market sector flourishes:the once 1970).Moreover,developed countries,oil imports aside, much-favored Swedish model has proved wanting.One do the bulk of their external business with one another. can easily add more examples.From them it is tempting and that means that the extent of their dependence on to leap to the conclusion that America has indeed found. commodities that they could not produce for themselves or stumbled onto,the one best way. is further reduced. Obviously,Thomas Friedman thinks so.Tip O'Neill. Reinforcing the parochial pattern of productivity,the when he was a congressman from Massachusetts,de- famous footloose corporations in fact turn out to be clared that all politics are local.Wrong,Friedman says, firmly anchored in their home bases.One study of the all politics have become global."The electronic herd," world's 100 largest corporations concludes that not one he writes."turns the whole world into a parliamentary of them could be called truly "global"or "footloose." system,in which every government lives under the fear Another study found one multinational corporation that of a no-confidence vote from the herd"(1999,62,115). seemed to be leaving its home base:Britain's chemical I find it hard to believe that economic processes direct company.ICI(Weiss 1998,18,22:cf.,Hirst and Thomp- or determine a nation's policies,that spontaneously ar- son 1996.82-93.90,95ff.).On all the important counts- rived at decisions about where to place resources reward location of most assets,site of research and develop- or punish a national economy so strongly that a govern- ment,ownership,and management-the importance of a ment either does what pleases the "herd"or its economy corporation's home base is marked.And the technologi- fails to prosper or even risks collapse.We all recall re- cal prowess of corporations corresponds closely to that cent cases,some of them mentioned above.that seem to of the countries in which they are located. support Friedman's thesis.Mentioning them both makes Third,the "transformative capacity"of states,as Linda a point and raises doubts. Weiss emphasizes,is the key to their success in the First,within advanced countries at similar levels of world economy (Weiss 1998,xii).Because technological development that are closely interrelated,one expects innovation is rapid,and because economic conditions at uniformities of form and function to be most fully dis- home and abroad change often,states that adapt easily played.Yet Stephen Woolcock,looking at forms of cor- have considerable advantages.International politics re- porate governance within the European community,finds mains inter-national.As the title of a review by William a"spectrum of approaches"and expects it to persist for H.McNeill (1997)puts it,"Territorial States Buried Too the foreseeable future (1996,196).Since the 1950s,the Soon."Global or world politics has not taken over from economies of Germany and France have grown more national politics.The twentieth century was the century closely together as each became the principal trading of the nation-state.The twenty-first will be too.Trade partner of the other.Yet a study of the two countries and technology do not determine a single best way to concludes that France has copied German policies but organize a polity and its economy.National systems dis- 696 PS December 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.Further reproduction prohibited without permission.Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission