Review by Choice Review
An activist political and social scientist, George (president, Transnational Institute) offers a polemic against what she sees as a vast conspiracy of business and government leaders against the interests of ordinary people. In this view, the World Trade Organization, the European Union, and other organizations serve as a smoke screen for shifting power from elected officials to business leaders, thus subverting democratic governments. As her main evidence, George offers what she considers the pernicious effects of international treaties, starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement and extending into the present with the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. George begins with an overview of the current role of lobbyists in making policy, then offers a critique of transnational treaties and describes their regulatory requirements. She goes on to explore the way that the United Nations has, in her opinion, been subverted and the central role of the economic forum in Davos in organizing the assault on democracy. This volume will reaffirm the beliefs of those who see the world as the author does, but it will not convince skeptics that a conspiracy is at hand. In sum, it is not a reasoned argument. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students and faculty. --Joshua L. Rosenbloom, Iowa State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
