State Reaction to Globalization,a Class Centered Analysis: The Case of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

This paper seeks to compare the reactions of two states to the process of globalization: (1) Barbados and (2) Trinidad and Tobago. The major contention is that state reaction to the process of globalization is not necessarily in defense of the population who elect governments to office, but rather their response is dependent on the type of economic elites within the nation-state, and the extent to which the social formation allows national elites to couch their interest in nationalist terms. The major hypothesis advanced is that the more the economic elites stand to benefit from the process of globalization, the more they will urge the state to push ahead with the process of globalization, even if it has negative consequences for the population. On the other hand, the more the economic elite stand to lose in terms of material well-being, the more they will urge the state to resist the process, making their argument in nationalist terms. This diminishes the state’s ability to transform the society and reduce inequality. A combination of content analysis of the major daily newspapers in each country in 2002 as well as interviews with key informants provides the data for this study.