Protectionist interests

The first force underlying the disintegration of the earlier form of globalization was protectionist interests, shown most decisively in the United States in the interwar years. The highly protectionist policies of the world’s biggest and most successful economy undermined liberalism elsewhere.

Yet these forces have happily been significantly modified and ameliorated by

contemporary economic developments. Internationally integrated transnational companies are reluctant to collaborate with trades unions on their demand for protection. Developing countries have been affected by the same trends. Inward foreign direct investment and intraindustry trade diffusetraditional protectionist interests. The concept of a purely national business sector has become increasingly irrelevant and, just as in industrial countries, this diffuses protectionist lobbying. In addition, the existence of multilateral institutions and a web of strong international

commitments makes it far more difficult for protectionist interests to capture legislatures, as they

once did. Even the Bush administration, wedded though it is to unilateralism, has never said that it should ignore its obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO), even though it is the most binding multilateral economic commitment the United States has.