From Trade Liberalisation to Transnational Governance and TTIP: How Dani Rodrik, Karl Polanyi and the Varieties of Capitalism Studies May Help Us to Understand the Present State of Globalization

Abstract

This paper discusses the fundamental tensions between economic globalization and democratic politics in the field of international trade governance. The move towards mega-regional trade agreements, as heralded by the controversies over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), has greatly accentuated grievances and is therefore of exemplary importance in the realms of transnational governance. Based on the theoretical frameworks of Karl Polanyi and Dani Rodrik, we examine the decoupling of these agreements from national and democratic control and the resulting legitimacy impasses of transnational governance. Arguing that politics is not a mistake that gets in the way of markets, we submit our own conceptualization of transnational legitimacy. In doing so we suggest a new type of conflicts law which does not seek to overcome socio-economic and political diversity by some substantive transnational regime but responds to diversity with procedural safeguards, thus ensuring space for cooperative problem-solving and the search for fair compromises.

Keywords: Dani Rodrik, Karl Polanyi, Mega-regional trade agreements, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, conflicts law, globalization, democracy, democratic legitimacy, international trade