Chaos, regimes and the future of the global economy

The international economy that evolved in the last half-century has been different than all other international economic periods starting from the Sixteenth Century when a world economy first began to emerge. The expansion of private organizations known as Multinational Business Enterprises (MBE) has been responsible for this change. MBEs have created a network of interdependence between states resulting in vast increases in global wealth but also, because of the nature of the market, vast problems of management and equity. States have created regimes to manage the global economy which in turn have been altered by the activities of private actors in the system. Private interests have significant roles in trade, monetary affairs, development, and technological change all of which have rendered the states' role in managing the global economy extremely complicated. It is this tension between private interests and states' responsibility for the public good that is the focus of this thesis. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).