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The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies
Nation states, asserts the world-renowned business strategist Kenichi Ohmae, are dinosaurs waiting to die. In this profoundly important book Ohmae argues that not only have nation states lost their ability to control exchange rates and protect their currencies, but they no longer generate real economic activity. As a result, he maintains, they have "already" forfeited their role as critical participants in the global economy. Once efficient engines of wealth creation, nation states today have become inefficient engines of wealth distribution, whose fates are increasingly determined by economic choices made elsewhere. Ohmae contends that four great forces -- capital, corporations, consumers, and communication -- have combined to usurp the economic power once held by the nation state. In the first full-scale analysis of this global phenomenon, Ohmae explains exactly how communications now control the movement of capital and corporations across national borders, how demanding consumers determine the flow of goods and services, and how harmful government policies are increasingly disciplined by the actions of informed consumers, profit-seeking corporations, and currency markets.
Old habits die hard and the habits of power die hardest of all. While governments cling to jingoistic celebrations of nationhood that place far more value on emotion-grabbing symbols than on the welfare of their citizens, Ohmae reveals that within their borders a revolution has been born. He documents how affluent economic zones forming natural "business units" have arisen throughout the world, bringing real, concrete improvements in the quality of life. These new engines of prosperity, which Ohmae calls"region states," have emerged, for example, between San Diego and Tijuana, Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and Hong Kong and the adjacent portion of the Chinese mainland. He describes how these region states, each inhabited by 5 to 20 million people, have closer links to other region states in the global economy than to their "host" nations, and constitute essential growing markets for the goods and services of global corporations.
Ohmae concludes that the emergence of the region state changes deeply and forever the global logic that defines how corporations operate and how the governments of nation states understand their proper role in economic affairs. Managers and policymakers must remember that people came first, and borders came afterwards. This masterful analysis will redefine the workings of the global economy for generations to come.
Old habits die hard and the habits of power die hardest of all. While governments cling to jingoistic celebrations of nationhood that place far more value on emotion-grabbing symbols than on the welfare of their citizens, Ohmae reveals that within their borders a revolution has been born. He documents how affluent economic zones forming natural "business units" have arisen throughout the world, bringing real, concrete improvements in the quality of life. These new engines of prosperity, which Ohmae calls"region states," have emerged, for example, between San Diego and Tijuana, Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and Hong Kong and the adjacent portion of the Chinese mainland. He describes how these region states, each inhabited by 5 to 20 million people, have closer links to other region states in the global economy than to their "host" nations, and constitute essential growing markets for the goods and services of global corporations.
Ohmae concludes that the emergence of the region state changes deeply and forever the global logic that defines how corporations operate and how the governments of nation states understand their proper role in economic affairs. Managers and policymakers must remember that people came first, and borders came afterwards. This masterful analysis will redefine the workings of the global economy for generations to come.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
Kenichi Ohmae
102 books73 followersa Japanese organizational theorist, management consultant, Former Professor and Dean of UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and author, known for developing the 3C's Model
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 16, 2017
This is another book that seems more useful for people in 2015 than when it is written. A lot of good information about changes in balance of power between Regional Economies and Nation States. Foreshadows some of the recent cases where local laws begin to trump national ones. Not quite the Anarchist wet dream that some people think it is from reading the title, but definitely worth the read.
September 5, 2019
For me this is a 5 star book. Others might not be interested.
Ohmae worked as an international business consultant for McKinsey, and as a business professor at UCLA.
He wrote this in the mid-90's. In the mid-10's I started thinking along the same lines, so there was a eureka moment for me when I read this.
The basic idea is that that nation-state is a creature of the past, particularly the 20th century. They're still around, but their governments are becoming increasingly zombified: running social programs on autopilot, and incapable of doing much that is economically constructive. Instead, we are transitioning to a world or regional economies: often groups of big metropolitan areas, frequently crossing national and sub-national borders. For example, the thriving part of China is mostly along the southeast coast, physically distant from Beijing, and frankly trying to stay unnoticed by them as much as possible. Alternatively, I live in a small city in rural Utah; almost everything here can be classified as orbiting the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake City and its environs) or Las Vegas. We are torn.
Ohmae asserts that as this evolution goes on, national governments will become increasingly unresponsive to their citizenry, and more focused on areas not part of the regional economy layer. So, they focus on farmers, the poor, those without internet access, and so on. The rest of us, meanwhile, move to the big or bigger city, and are busy making as big a boatload of money as we can, all the while bemoaning governments that don't get what we do.
Ohmae worked as an international business consultant for McKinsey, and as a business professor at UCLA.
He wrote this in the mid-90's. In the mid-10's I started thinking along the same lines, so there was a eureka moment for me when I read this.
The basic idea is that that nation-state is a creature of the past, particularly the 20th century. They're still around, but their governments are becoming increasingly zombified: running social programs on autopilot, and incapable of doing much that is economically constructive. Instead, we are transitioning to a world or regional economies: often groups of big metropolitan areas, frequently crossing national and sub-national borders. For example, the thriving part of China is mostly along the southeast coast, physically distant from Beijing, and frankly trying to stay unnoticed by them as much as possible. Alternatively, I live in a small city in rural Utah; almost everything here can be classified as orbiting the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake City and its environs) or Las Vegas. We are torn.
Ohmae asserts that as this evolution goes on, national governments will become increasingly unresponsive to their citizenry, and more focused on areas not part of the regional economy layer. So, they focus on farmers, the poor, those without internet access, and so on. The rest of us, meanwhile, move to the big or bigger city, and are busy making as big a boatload of money as we can, all the while bemoaning governments that don't get what we do.
April 17, 2020
A short book that presented some interesting ideas. Basically, how four forces capital, corporations, consumers and corporations were making national borders irrelevant and the nations state as an institution outdated. Suggested that the rise of several regional economies sch as the PRD, the maquiladora and southern california nexus suggested that borders were being usurped. On the path to globalisation much of what he was saying was unquestionably right; but it would be interesting to hear his opiions now given the events of the financial crisis, covid and rising nationalism.
to-keep-reference
October 18, 2016Mediante las actividades de las corporaciones transnacionales, la mediación y ecualización de las tasas de ganancia fueron desvinculadas del poder de los Estados-nación dominantes. Más aún, la constitución de los intereses capitalistas unidos a los nuevos Estados-nación postcoloniales se desarrolló en el terreno de las propias transnacionales y tendió a formarse bajo su control. Mediante la descentralización de los flujos productivos, nuevas economías regionales y una nueva división mundial del trabajo comenzó a ser determinada.
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Imperio Pág.187
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews