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Conclusion 201

with the recognition that information-based commodity activities con-
stitute America's most promising growth sector, rebellious (but not
revolutionary) international organizations were contained or disas-
sembled. In conjunction with this, American officials radically modi-
fied the very ground on which the free flow struggle was to take place
and elevated it into the quest for free trade. During these years, the
ITU was restructured to reflect the new 'realities' of international
business and the GATT became the core nodal point through which
neo-liberal reforms could be institutionalized and ideologically pro-
mulgated. By the mid-1990s, even UNESCO (with the United States
remaining a non-member!) officially recognized the practical (if not
legal) supremacy of the free flow of information.
Although Cox understands the state to act as a mediator in the
internationalization process (and the contemporary role of the state in
legitimizing the neo-liberal reordering of domestic and international
relations), elaborations of inter-corporate and intra-state capacities,
6
structural disparities and outright conflicts are lacking. This is a result
of his tendency to focus on complex capital-labour relationships
rather than the organizational and institutional nodal points that
directly shape these relations. But unlike the work of Schiller, for
Cox, this has been a sin of research neglect rather than theoretical
omission. While production and class relations are central to Cox's
methodology, 'other factors enter into the formation or nonformation
of real historical classes.' These, Cox explains, include 'agencies of
collective action that can evoke and channel class consciousness.' 7
Thus, while Cox stresses capital-labour relations, these are understood
to be dynamic and directly conditioned by organizations and institu-
tions that mediate these relations. These mediations directly influence
the intellectual capacities of human agents. The spatial and temporal
integration of such relations constitute historical structures, struc-
tures, that are both constructed and usually resistant to deconstruc-
tion efforts. In these processes, Cox understands the state to be a
central agent, consecrating dominant forms of production both insti-
tutionally and ideologically. 'How the state does this,' writes Cox, 'has
to be explained because it in tum explains the structuring of power
within society.' 8
However, in Cox's Production, Power, and World Order, and in his
subsequent work, the focus has been on macro-processes. The lack of
research by Cox and other Gramscians on micro-processes - particu-
larly those shaping American state mediations- has contributed to a
view that the future holds few opportunities for the United States to