Page 79 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Politics in a Small World 65

of the state, as Saskia Sassen suggests, as an assemblage of territory,
authority, and rights, a bundle of institutions that form over a long period,
but which can be disassembled and re - bundled in different ways when

specific historic conditions make it possible and attractive to key social
actors (Sassen, 2006 : 6). Whilst the national state bundled limited terri-

tory, the authority of state officials, and citizens ’ rights together, the
internationalizing state is beginning to remake each of these elements
across national borders.
First, the internationalization of the state is marked by the integration
of policy and even law - making across borders. Each branch of the domes-
tic state now takes on an international dimension, resulting in trans-
governmental networks that share information, harmonize regulation,
and develop new ways of enforcing international law. Anne - Marie
Slaughter distinguishes between vertical and horizontal networks. In hori-
zontal networks, state officials come together with their counterparts from

other states: as regulators, bureaucrats, judges, or elected politicians. They
share information and they may set standards for regulating activities
within and across territories, as well as developing agreements and enforce-
ment mechanisms. The networks involved in IGOs are mostly of this kind,
but there is, in addition, now a vast array of meetings between govern-

mental officials as well as continual information gathering and exchange
amongst those who share globalizing sympathies. In vertical networks, on
the other hand, state officials delegate some of their authority to a “ higher ”

or “ supranational ” organization which is authorized to make binding
decisions for its members. The institutions of the European Union are the
most highly developed supranational organizations. Also supranational
in this sense are the growing variety of international courts (for example,
the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia, and so on) which have been authorized by some,
not all, state offi cials to make judgments that are, at least in principle,
binding on states themselves (Slaughter, 2004 ).
Second, there is a trend towards the “ de - statization ” of the political
system as a product of neo - liberal globalization (Jessop, 1997 ). De -
statization involves the state, which often nominally remains the major
sponsor and director of economic and social projects, cooperating to an
increasing extent with NGOs and para - governmental organizations to
realize its objectives. In such cases, the state does not give up authority
within its own territory. It rather hires it out to other agencies. This shift
is very evident in Britain as a product of neo - liberalist reorganization of
relations between the state and the market. There has, for example, been
some privatization of branches of the British state, with semi - autonomous