This article highlights a counterintuitive dynamic of neoliberal globalization. India has controversially liberalized foreign investment rules in the politically sensitive food retail sector. Critics argue that India bowed to pressure from multinational corporations, consistent with a common view that under neoliberalism markets eclipse state power. We suggest by contrast that policymakers seek multinational firms to strengthen their capacity to govern food markets that for centuries have been dominated by networks of local traders. These traders use informal conventions of market governance that have long proven resistant to centralized state control. Global retailers promise to transform these opaque, “traditional” systems into transparent, “modern,” supply chains that comply with liberal rule of law principles. Thus we argue the turn to multinational capital should neither be understood simply through the logics of state capture or welfare economics, but rather also as a political governance project that illustrates how different kinds of markets produce different conceptions of the state.

中文翻译：

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通过市场治理：集市经济中的跨国公司

本文强调了新自由主义全球化的一种违反直觉的动态。印度在政治敏感的食品零售行业放宽了外国投资规则，这引起了争议。批评者认为，印度屈服于跨国公司的压力，这与新自由主义下市场超越国家权力的普遍观点一致。相比之下，我们建议政策制定者寻求跨国公司来加强其管理几个世纪以来一直由当地贸易商网络主导的食品市场的能力。这些交易者使用非正式的市场治理惯例，这些惯例长期以来被证明可以抵抗中央集权控制。全球零售商承诺将这些不透明的“传统”系统转变为符合自由法治原则的透明、“现代”供应链。政治治理项目，说明不同类型的市场如何产生不同的国家概念。