Description
The neoliberal emphasis on minimal state involvement in the economy, which has
dominated mainstream economic thinking from the 1980s, has come under
increasing challenge. The growth of sovereign wealth funds, the expansion of state
owned enterprises, and the re-emergence of state-led industrial strategy has
generated a renewed focus on the active role of the state and the rise (or return) of
what is often called state capitalism. This paper examines the reaction to this
phenomenon within key institutions of global economic governance. While existing
work in this regard has focused on the bastions of neoliberal thinking, namely the
World Bank, IMF and WTO (Alami and Taggart 2024), this study turns to UNCTAD as
a significant yet understudied case. Given UNCTAD’s historical association with
structuralist economics and advocacy of state-led development, it provides a useful
counterpoint. Through a discourse analysis of key policy documents, we compare
UNCTAD’s approach to state capitalism with that of the WTO across central trade-
related policy domains. This comparison offers insight into how these institutions
conceptualise and operationalize state capitalism in line with their respective norms,
mandates, and institutional histories.
