Overview: The new generation of free trade agreements is designed to promote market penetration in public service delivery. However attention to creating freer markets has come at the expense of basic governance protocols potential trumping the courts system, legislation and citizen voice.
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Warner, Mildred and Jennifer Gerbasi. "Rescaling and Reforming the State under NAFTA: Implications for Subnational Authority." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research December 2004 Vol 28(4): 853-73.
The new free trade agreements are rescaling governance in ways that have critical implications for subnational governments. The authors show how NAFTA’s governance structure is undermining subnational and local government authority in legislative and judicial arenas.
Gerbasi, Jennifer and M.E. Warner, June 2003. "The Impact of International Trade on State and Local Government Authority, " Dept. of City and Regional Planning Working Papers #204.
Gerbasi, Jennifer and Mildred Warner. 2004, "Is There a Democratic Deficit in the Free Trade Agreements? What Local Governments Should Know," Public Management 86:2 (16-21).
Gerbasi, Jennifer and Mildred E. Warner. 2007. "Privatization, Public Goods, and the Ironic Challenge of Free Trade Agreements," Administration & Society, 39(2): 127-149.
Gerbasi and Warner give a critical examination to major free trade agreements, highlighting the risk they pose to local regulatory power, legal processes, and traditional methods of dispute resolution.
Gerbasi, Jennifer and Mildred Warner, 2002. Why Should Local and State Governments Pay Attention to the New International Treaties?
This article is a popular review of the implications of NAFTA for state and local government sovereignty.
Greider, William 2001. “The Right and US Trade Law: Invalidating the 20th Century,” The Nation, October 15, 2001. View at The Nation's Web site.
This article investigates Chapter 11 of NAFTA, which allows conflicts to be settled out of the court system and out of public view, by 3-member offshore arbitration panels.
Mooney, Chris 2001. “Localizing Globalization,” The American Prospect 12(12) (July 2-16, 2001). View at The American Prospect's Web site.
Longworth, Richard C. 2001 “Government without Democracy.” The American Prospect 12(12) (July 2-16, 2001). View at The American Prospect's Web site.