Globalization, Depoliticization and “Modern” Economic Management Peter Burnham This article argues that most of the approaches on globalization fail to adequately theorize the relationship between states and markets in so far as they see states and markets as isolated, fragmented aspects of social reality existing in a purely external and contingent manner. After critically evaluating these approaches, the article re-evaluates the relationship between state and market by emphasising the way in which Marx dealt with that problem. By focusing on “modern” economic management in Britain, it argues that the process of international restructuring are undertaken by national states in an attempt to reimpose a tighter labour discipline. Finally it suggests that the current governing strategies can be characterised in terms of “depoliticization” which corresponds to a shift form discretion to rules in economic policy, to a reassertion of the boundaries separating the political from the economic, and to the fragmentation/devolution of decision making in numerous areas.