Abstract

Politics in the 1990s was characterized by the state versus globalization dichotomy, but there are also other possible futures. Concrete initiatives such as the Tobin tax seem to promise a new phase in the politics of globalization. The idea of a low rate tax on financial transactions questions both the laissez-faire capitalism justified by mainstream economics and the laissez-faire globalization mystified and reified by an increasing number of philosophers and sociologists. The global financial markets have become an established, powerful structure. The Tobin tax may well be the political response that will make that structure vulnerable to collective conflict and deliberate revision. It is also innovative because it simultaneously defends the autonomy of states and opens up new, path-breaking global ethico-political problems of governance. Suddenly, politics of globalization seems to be also about authority, democracy, social responsibility and justice.