Quinn Slobodian Unpacks ‘Crack-Up Capitalism’ at WTO Forum
On September 13, 2024, Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, spoke at the World Trade Organization Public Forum about his book “Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy.“
In conversation with Gopalan Balachandran, Co-Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, Slobodian explored how globalization has led to the proliferation of special economic zones, tax havens, and other legal entities that operate outside traditional regulatory frameworks.
Slobodian’s book traces the global hunt for “free market fantasies” from Hong Kong in the 1970s to South Africa in the late days of apartheid, from the neo-Confederate South to the medieval City of London. He argues that since the 1990s, globalization has shattered the traditional map of nation-states, leading to an explosion of new legal entities like tax havens, free ports, city-states, and gated enclaves.
The discussion covered how these zones challenge traditional notions of national sovereignty and democratic oversight. Slobodian contended that these new spaces, freed from ordinary forms of regulation, taxation, and mutual obligation, represent attempts by ultracapitalists to decouple free-market principles from democratic governance.
The event, part of the WTO Public Forum’s annual gathering of stakeholders from civil society, academia, business and government, provided a platform for examining critical questions about the future of global capitalism and its relationship to democratic institutions.
The session was organized by Loveth Onwujei, Richard, Katherine and Olivier Alric, with video coverage provided by the Geneva Trade Platform (GTP). Slobodian’s talk generated a lively Q&A session, covering topics such as the potential for “leftist zones,” the shift from manufacturing to services in special economic zones, and the historical precedents for these economic experiments.
Quinn Slobodian is Professor of International History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He is also a contributing writer to the New Statesman, co-editor of Contemporary European History, and co-director of the History and Political Economy Project. Learn more about Quinn Slobodian at his faculty profile.