State power, world trade, and the class structure of a nation: An overdeterminist class theory of national tariff policy

This dissertation develops a new non-essentialist theory of the global trade policies pursued by the contemporary state, focusing especially upon modern tariff policy. Though a topic attracting perhaps unprecedented analysis throughout the history of economic thought, this understanding differs from existing theory in two important ways: (i) its incorporation of overdeterminist logic in understanding the workings of a deeply interconnected world economy; (ii) its utilization of class theory in delineating the existence of manifold processes of surplus value creation and distribution comprising a global class structure. In these two concepts, overdetermination and class, this dissertation presents a new understanding of trade controls, and a new argument against their use as economic policy. Case studies include examination of the emergence and impact of trade protection in post-colonial American society, and new insight into the rise of the Asian Miracle economies and New Protectionism of the late twentieth century.