Internationalization and Domestic Politics.

Internationalization and Domestic Politics. Robert O. Keohane and Helen V. Milner, (eds.) (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). , 1996) 308 pp. The preface alone signals the problems that considerably diminishthe impact of this volume. The editors state that the periodical thatcommissioned this project, the International Organization, where Keohaneand Milner serve as editors, declined to publish it as a special issueor as a companion to one of the regular editions. There are severalreasons why this book does not contribute effectively to existingliterature. First and foremost, it is largely synthetic, compilingpieces that do not add to works already published by the same authorseither in International Organization(1) or in other forums.(2) Secondly, the stylistic presentations are written in a circuitous cir��cu��i��tous?adj.Being or taking a roundabout, lengthy course: took a circuitous route to avoid the accident site. manner not easily understandable to the lay reader. The authors misapply mis��ap��ply?tr.v. mis��ap��plied, mis��ap��ply��ing, mis��ap��pliesTo use or apply wrongly.mis��ap fundamental concepts such as capitalism and transaction cost. Capitalismis, in essence, used by the authors as a synonym for resources ratherthan as a system of complex social relations. Transaction cost seeminglyrefers to intra-institutional bargaining. Consequently, the analysisdoes not fully address the mechanisms that determine price and createefficiency and thus it largely ignores the daily fluctuations of theopen market. Finally, the authors offer little that iscounter-intuitive; the scope and breadth of interest is limited totraditional research. Consequently, this volume is largely predictable, suffers fromtruisms, and is not worthy of the high stature almost automaticallysecured by the fact it was published by Cambridge University Press aspart of its prestigious series of Cambridge Studies in ComparativePolitics. While the assembly of academics is first-rate, the viewsrepresented offer little contrast. The group lacks intellectualdiversity and appears incapable of deviating from the dominant line. Thebook offers continuity rather than novelty and it functions as acodification The collection and systematic arrangement, usually by subject, of the laws of a state or country, or the statutory provisions, rules, and regulations that govern a specific area or subject of law or practice. of orthodoxy in the field. Indeed, this highly-placed circle is inside the same `theoreticalloop' that lacks the tools to properly address technologicaladvancements, the recent innovations in the field of communication,changes in political culture since the collapse of communism and thedramatic expansion in the scale of international economic activity.These essays are limited mostly to high-brow scholarship with adispassionate tone that is steeped in the discourse of the 1970s. Assuch, they often ignore the new ground being broken in the rich andevolving multi-disciplinary field of political economy. The writersstress economics without fully elucidating the nuanced politicalprocesses that formed the various systems of influence andpower-wielding described in the book. The general tone of this volume favors the current agenda andpolicies of the nascent World Trade Organization, which is to succeedGATT See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. GATTSee General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). . The authors are laissez-faire liberals in the classical,pre-progressive, nineteenth century sense. They essentially propagatethe elitist, anti-regulation manner of governance that is pro-businessand pro-status quo. The result is an impoverishment of the debate,primarily due to the imbalance between the neoliberal ne��o��lib��er��al��ism?n.A political movement beginning in the 1960s that blends traditional liberal concerns for social justice with an emphasis on economic growth.ne approach and theadverse consequences that internationalization The support for monetary values, time and date for countries around the world. It also embraces the use of native characters and symbols in the different alphabets. See localization, i18n, Unicode and IDN. internationalization - internationalisation often has had on themiddle and, most notably, on the lower strata of both industrialized aswell as developing societies The work's narrow approach is further evidenced by therelative absence of material concerning Western Europe, where the driveto consolidate internationalization has been the most vigorous, andwhere the national states still assert the lion's share ofrole-making power. Other regions, including the Americas, are trying toduplicate the major successes of the European Union. Hence, a closerlook at the particular variables that governed its evolution could haveenriched this work.(3) The end of the Cold War has resulted in a challenge to thetheoretical concept that the state is central and sovereign in globalevents. Many contemporary scholars--whose views are not represented inthis book--consider the state to be more of an actor rather than thecontrolling factor in a very complex system composed of domestic forcessuch as the existence of a civil society, trade unions and politicalparties, as well as ethnic, religious and cultural bonds. Furthermore,all of these elements are affected by catalysts that includenongovernmental organizations (NGOs), regional confederations,international associations and, perhaps most importantly, multinationalcorporations. Consequently, the application of the terminternationalization does not leave sufficient room for exogenousconcepts such as interdependence, inherent to the cross-border nature ofcommerce, that has recast the theories of international relations.Moreover, the works almost ignore emerging literature concerning theimportance of these elements and references to feminist critique and therole of religion or socialist thought. The hypothesis is based on the strength ofinternationalization--as interpreted by the participants--which isalmost an invalid concept in the 1990s. In analyzing domestic and globalfactors that are mostly nongovernmental, it ironically relies on astate-centered paradigm. The editors never use the term that manyexperts in the field prefer: globalization globalizationProcess by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation . Globalization is oftenpreferred because it lends more credence to such non-state-based,extra-political phenomena such as multinational corporations that betterexemplify the broader processes of modernization and commodification Commodification (or commoditization) is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, or, in other words, to assign value. As the word commodity has distinct meanings in business and in Marxist theory, commodification ofcapital. If the books' scholars wonder why policymakers do not payenough attention to their research, the apparent answer is thatlaypersons and professionals alike need explanations that go beyondobsolete models.(4) (1) Examples include: Ronald Rogowski, Commerce andCoalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989); Frances McCall Rosenbluth, FinancialPolitics in Contemporary Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989);Stephan Haggard, Developing Nations and the Politics of GlobalIntegration (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, 1995)(2) See Robert 0. Keohane, "International Institutions: TwoApproaches" International Studies Quarter) (1988) 32: 379-96, hisInternational Institutions and State Power: Essays in InternationalRelations Theory International relations theory attempts to provide a conceptual model upon which international relations can be analyzed. Each theory is reductive and essentialist to different degrees, relying on different sets of assumptions respectively. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1989); and the bookon political economy he coedited with Judith Goldstein, Ideas andForeign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change (Ithaca, NewYork This article is about the City of Ithaca and the region. For the legally distinct town which itself is a part of the Ithaca metropolitan area, see Ithaca (town), New York.For other places or objects named Ithaca, see Ithaca (disambiguation). : Cornell University Press, 1993). Previous works in the same veinwere Keohane's Transnational Relations and World Politics(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press The Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. , 1972); andcoauthored with Joseph S. Nye, Power and Interdependence: World Politicsin Transition (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1977).(3) Geoffrey Gartett, who did not contribute to this collection,published an article concerning "International Cooperation andInstitutional Choice: The European Community's InternalMarket," in International Organization (1992) 46: pp. 553-60.(4) For good analyses of globalization and the changed conditions foreconomic transactions see Steven Gill, American Hegemony and TrilateralCommission. In addition, see Suzan Berger, National Diversity &Global Capitalism, a work that, quite surprisingly, is not cited by theauthors in the present book, and Eric Hellner, States of the Emergenceof Global Finance.Itai Sneh is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History atColumbia University.