
Today's global economy was largely established by political events and decisions in the 1980s and 90s, when scores of nations opened up their economies to the forces of globalization. In Free Traders, Malcolm Fairbrother argues that politicians' embrace of globalization was much less motivated by public preferences than by the agendas of businesspeople and other elites. Drawing on over one hundred interviews with decision-makers, and analyses of archival materials from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., Fairbrother tells the story of how each country negotiated and ratified two agreements that substantially opened and integrated their economies: the 1989 Canada-U.S. and trilateral 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Contrary to what many commentators believe, these agreements-like free trade elsewhere-were based less on mainstream, neoclassical economics than on the informal, self-serving economic ideas of business. While the stakes in the globalization debate remain high, Free Traders uses a comparative-historical approach to sharpen our understanding of how globalization arose in the past to provide us with clearer trajectory for how it will develop in the future.
This book investigates the extent to which political decisions regarding North American economic integration were driven by elite agendas rather than public democratic preferences. Malcolm Fairbrother, a sociologist specializing in political economy, utilizes a comparative-historical framework to examine the ratification of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement. He argues that these policies were shaped primarily by the informal economic ideologies of business leaders and political elites, challenging the assumption that such agreements were purely the result of neoclassical economic consensus.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars in the field of political economy recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of how elite interests shape international trade policy. Readers frequently note the clarity of the comparative-historical methodology, which provides a structured look at the political origins of modern economic integration.
Page Count:
272
Publication Date:
2019-10-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190635452
ISBN-13:
9780190635459
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