The Principles of Global Trade: The WTO

The world trade order is the central field of struggles for harmonization between the social integration of the nation states and the functional integration of the world economy. It would be a mistake, however, to look at this harmonization exclusively with regard to the differentiation between system integration and social integration (Lockwood 1964; Archer 1996). The world economy’s functional integration cannot advance without a corresponding transformation of the relationship between national and transnational solidarity. In this context, I start from the basic assumption that functional integration is not possible without accompanying social integration — that is, that it cannot be stabilized and implemented against the resistance of opposing forces. In the long run, the world economy’s functional integration will only be feasible as a legitimate order. Without such a basis it would be permanently threatened by a fall back into national protectionism.