Towards a global ruling class? Globalization and the transnational capitalist class

A transnational capitalist class (TCC) has emerged as that segment of the w orld bourgeoisie that represents transnational capital, the owners of the l eading worldwide means of production as embodied in the transnational corpo rations and private financial institutions. The spread of TNCs, the sharp i ncrease in foreign direct investment, the proliferation of mergers and acqu isitions across national borders, the rise of a global financial system, an d the increased interlocking of positions within the global corporate struc ture, are some empirical indicators of the transnational integration of cap italists. The TCC manages global rather than national circuits of accumulat ion. This gives it an objective class existence and identity spatially and politically in the global system above any local territories and polities. The TCC became politicized from the 1970s into the 1990s and has pursued a class project of capitalist globalization institutionalized in an emergent transnational state apparatus and in a "Third Way" political program. The e mergent global capitalist historic bloc is divided over strategic issues of class rule and how to achieve regulatory order in the global economy, Cont radictions within the ruling bloc open up new opportunities for emancipator y projects from global labor.