Transnational corporations and the state

Argues that none of the extreme positions which are sometimes found in the literature are supported by recent developments. The nation state is not about to disappear as an economic unit. Nevertheless, the internationalization of capital does have considerable effects on the viability of national economic policies. Nor is it the case that Third World states are powerless in the face of the TNCs. While their ability to control or bargain with TNCs varies from country to country and with the state of the world economy, state intervention does not necessarily kill the TNC goose. However, the forms taken by state intervention and the distribution of the gains from such intervention cannot be divorced from a detailed analysis of the internal class structure of the country concerned and the development project which the state is attempting to implement