Ask whether a new president can share power with other branches of government

...They are structural developments within the liberal state resulting from the implementation of a global corporate economy, and they began with Ronald Reagan...

...Today we can add the outsourcing of soldiering to private contractors even in war theaters, as is the case in Iraq...

...But there is a third cause, one that has re­ceived far less attention and has been obscured by the declaration of a national security emer­gency...

...4) A critical component of economic de­regulation, beginning in the 1980s, was the privatization of formerly public functions . Privatizing prisons and outsourcing of particu­lar welfare functions to private providers are probably the most familiar cases...

...A new president genuinely willing to respect the bal­ance of power and willing to cancel the Patriot Act wí11 still be in a structural position of grow­ing power in today's liberal state...

...The executive branch can actually handle private contractors with little if any oversight by Congress...

...The fact that economic globalization might be contributing to the growth of executive power and the debilitation of Congress falls out of the picture when you frame matters in terms of na­tional emergencies...

...Finally, we have the Treasury's positive reaction to the ac­quisition of shares in U.S...

...port operations was strongly supported by George W. Bush...

...A more nuanced argument in the literature emphasizes state adaptation to the new conditions repre­sented by economic globalization...

...Her most recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press, 2008) and A Sociology of Globalization (W...

...W. Norton, 2007) . 6. DISSENT I Winter 2009...

...A hollowed­out Congress confined to domestic matters weakens the political capacity of citizens to de­mand accountability from an increasingly pow­erful and globally oriented executive . Today, the liberal state produces its own democratic defi­cit...

...This is separate from questions of national se­curity and abuses of executive privilege . It will take more to stop this consolidation of power than having an administration that does not ahuse its executive power and that would elimi­nate the Patriot Act, though this would cer­tainly make a difference...

...This frame cannot accom­modate the fact that this process began more than twenty years ago and continued no mat­ter which party was in power . Nor has the globalization literature focused on this growing power imbalance . One reason for this blind spot is that the writers tend to consider the state as a whole and to argue that either not much has changed for the state or that the state has become much weaker...

...This privatization has reduced the over­sight role of Congress but added to the role of the executive through specialized commissions . One recent case that brings some of these is­sues to light is the extent to which Congress has been left in the dark as to the amount of taxpayers' money going to private contractors who now handle a growing range of military activities...

...My research has identified at least five trends in the global economy that feed execu­tive power: (1) Certain parts of the administration (the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the office of the Trade Representative, and so on, and the equivalent institutions in other countries) have played a critical role in building a global cor­porate economy...

...The growing power of the executive is a deeper problem than the combination of national security threats and abuses of power can explain . It is a process that began in the 1980s and goes beyond party pol­itics-it is part of the structural evolution of the liberal state . The big question is how a pres­ident intent on redemocratizing our state wí11 use today's greater power of the executive . Much has been said since 2001 about the erosion of our liberal democracy...

...It began in the 1980s, when the current globalization phase took off, and has continued since . There are several reasons for this oversight...

...highways with minimum public notice and safety guidelines, privileging global free trade over national road safety...

...There is an ironic possibility in all of this . Can a president intent on fighting for a better and more just democracy actually use that ex­panded executive power to do this...

...In fact, economic globalization has had its own autonomous effect in sharpening execu­tive power and in weakening the legislature...

...This process started long before the second Bush administration and cuts across political parties...

...SASKIA SASSEN is the Robert S. Lynd professor of sociology and a member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University...

...It is the fact that the development of a global corporate economy has further strength­ened the executive branch and weakened the legislative...

...The effort by Dubai Ports World to acquire control over the security of several U .S...

...The participation by the state in the implementation of a global economic system has engendered a whole range of new types of cross-border collaborations among specialized government agencies focused on the globaliza­tion of capital markets, international standards of all sorts, and the new trade order . (3) The major global regulators, notably the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, as well as many lesser known ones, negotiate only with the executive branch...

...but even here the focus is not on the redistribution of power inside the state . Finally, that economic globalization went hand in hand with a sharp increase in execu­tive power goes against three strongly held be­liefs: that global markets need small government to thrive, that economic globalization weakens the state, and that strong (including global) mar­kets feed democracy...

...And could the emergent internationalism of the executive branch, now used to further the global corpo­rate economy, be used to address some of our pressing global challenges...

...This indicated a recognition by the executive branch that the global economy is becoming partly denationalized...

...Among the leading causes usually mentioned are the Pa­triot Act, particularly its use by the Bush-Cheney administration to strengthen executive power, and our deeply flawed electoral system . Both are indeed critical factors feeding the de­mocracy deficit...

...T HE PARTICULAR kinds of executive power growth I describe here are not excep­ tions...

...They have become stronger over the last two decades because of globaliza­tion, thereby feeding the power of the admin­istration . This pattern repeats itself across the world as states become incorporated into the global economy...

...financial firms by foreign governments-among them China, Dubai, and Singapore-with several other such acquisitions in the making...

...At the same time, the policies associated with this incorporation-deregulaDISSENT l Winter 2009 . 5 COMMENTS & OPINIONS tinn and privatization-remove various over­sight functions from Congress . (2) Intergovernmental networks centered largely in the executive branch have grown well beyond matters of global security and crimi­nality...

...As the global corporate economy and the supranational system expand, executive power grows...

...Yet another example was Bush's will­ingness to allow long-haul Mexican trucks ac­cess to U .S...

...5) A final bundle of issues makes visible the alignment of the executive with global cor­porate logics in a range of domains-which is not always negative, by the way...

...COMMENTS & OPINIONS Beyond Party Politics The New President and the Growth of Executive Power Saskia Sassen EvowA PRESIDENTintent on redemoc­ratizing our state will find it to be hard work...

...More recently, and not as posi­tive, was Bush's insistence that no environmen­tal and labor standards be included in the new set of free trade agreements under discussion in the fall...