The article examines the ways in which the state actually participates in governing the global economy, notwithstanding the ascendance of deregulation and privatization, and notwithstanding the growing authority of non-state actors. The basis for this participation derives from the embeddedness of crucial components of the global economy in national territories. The question becomes one of understanding the specific type of authority/power this participation might entail for the state vis-a-vis global actors and processes. If the state indeed has such authority, or could in principle have it, can this be a bridge to a politics of the global for citizens - who are, after all, still largely confined to the national domain for the full exercise of their powers? If national state participation in setting up the legal and institutional infrastructure for globalization does indeed contain a set of channels for citizens to demand participation in global politics - including, importantly, the right to demand accountability from global actors - then the formal and informal capabilities of citizens to do so, as well as their disposition to do so, become crucial. This is the subject of the second half of the article.
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