Free Traders: Elites, Democracy, and the Rise of Globalization in North America

by Malcolm Fairbrother (Author)

Today's global economy was largely established by political events and decisions in the 1980s and 90s, when scores of nations opened up their economies to the forces of globalization. In Free Traders, Malcolm Fairbrother argues that politicians' embrace of globalization was much less motivated by public preferences than by the agendas of businesspeople and other elites. Drawing on over one hundred interviews with decision-makers, and analyses of archival materials from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., Fairbrother tells the story of how each country negotiated and ratified two agreements that substantially opened and integrated their economies: the 1989 Canada-U.S. and trilateral 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Contrary to what many commentators believe, these agreements-like free trade elsewhere-were based less on mainstream, neoclassical economics than on the informal, self-serving economic ideas of business. While the stakes in the globalization debate remain high, Free Traders uses a comparative-historical approach to sharpen our understanding of how globalization arose in the past to provide us with clearer trajectory for how it will develop in the future

Review
"This excellent study dissects the role that businesses, economists, and political elites each played in constructing hyper-globalization. Fairbrother eschews easy generalizations, yet provides a unified and convincing account that challenges accepted theories." – Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

"Liberals assume that since free trade benefits everyone it's rational for democracies to favor trade integration. Critics of such integration argue that if that is the case then the dark cabals that make trade agreements out of sight of mass publics are something that needs explanation. Malcolm Fairbrother resolves this contradiction. By showing us how in developed countries it's a mercantilist' 'folk ideology' among business elites that drives integration, while in developing countries free trade ideology among top bureaucrats carries the day, Fairbrother identifies the real pro-globalization coalitions at work in the global economy." – Mark Blyth, Brown University

"In this highly original book, Fairbrother presents North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a case study in really-existing globalization. Policy actors from all three partner-nations reflect on events and motivations in their own words, describing an agreement bearing little resemblance to the idealized 'free trade' described in macroeconomics textbooks. As we reflect back on the allegedly golden years of globalization, Fairbrother's work will give us a great deal to think about." – Sarah Babb, Boston College

About the Author
Malcolm Fairbrother is a professor of sociology at Umeå University, Sweden, and the University of Graz, Austria. He is also a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm.