Shifting Hegemony or Shifting Authority?: Bringing Clarity to State/ Market Relations.

The relationship between state and market actors is often cast in terms of competition and conflict. In large part this attitude reflects a sense that financial market actors have become relatively more powerful than states, precipitating a disorderly retreat of the state in the face of the growing hegemony of financial markets. Yet this zero-sum view overlooks the deep complementarities and interdependencies evident in state/market relations. States have found market actors can enhance their pursuit of social welfare goals through product, market, and technology expertise and innovation. In turn, market actors have found they cannot predictably maximize profits without a stable regulatory structure, policy environment and legal infrastructure. Each depends, therefore, on the unique roles, knowledge and capabilities of the other to achieve their individual goals. This paper argues that shifting relations of complementary authority, therefore, rather than shifting relations of conflicting power, best characterizes state/market relations. It traces shifting patterns of authority relations evident across the twentieth century, identifies the main causes for these shifts, and investigates the implications of this argument on current debates in international political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]