In this thesis, the relation between the internationalization of capital and the national state in the context of globalization is put under critical scrutiny. Elucidation of the dynamics of the globalization process constitutes a crucial significance for the understanding of the contemporary transformations in the capital accumulation and the state. It is aimed to propose a conceptual framework to transcend the dualist comprehensions between the political and economic, capital and the state, and global and national that are widespread within the analyses of globalization. It is asserted that dualist conceptualizations obscure the elucidation of the underlying social relations that pave the way for the internationalization of capital. It is argued that a relational perspective, which emphasizes the social relational character of the state and capital, can explicate the contradictory unity of the political and economic by conceiving these phenomena as forms of presence of the capitalist relations of production. It is claimed that a relational perspective provides a fertile framework of analysis for the elucidation of the process of globalization by overcoming the juxtaposition of the global capital and the national states through the argument that they exist in and through their internal relations within the capitalist relations of production. It is proposed that, the internationalization of capital should not be conceived as a recent phenomenon, but as an incessant process reconstituted through different forms beginning from the historical constitution of the capitalist relations of production. Furthermore, a relational perspective, which conceives the international system of national states not as in opposition to the international capital accumulation but as an indispensible internal part of it, is proposed. In the thesis, neo-Gramscian analyses, the regulation school and the relational approaches are critically examined in terms of their conceptualizations of the relations between the political and economic, capital and the state, and global and national. It is intended to propose a conceptualization that enables the elaboration of the continuity and unity of the internationalization of the capitalist relations as well as their differentiation and uneven development.

ABSTRACT FROM GLOBALIZATION TO EMPIRE: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DOMINANT META-NARRATIVES Mercan, A. Serkan M. S., Department of Political Science and Public Administration Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Galip L. Yalman September 2007, 172 pages &ldquo / Globalization&rdquo / and &ldquo / empire&rdquo / are the dominant meta-narratives of 1990s and 2000s successively. The liberal perception/presentation of the former finds its expression in the claims of trans-(supra)-nationalization. In addition, the theoretical and pejorative usages of the latter, which has flourished since 9/11 attacks to the World Trade Center in New York are also based on similar claims of trans-(supra)-nationalization. However, these claims seem not convincing in a world in which nation-states secure their central role in the organization of capitalist social relations. In this thesis, those meta-narratives will be critically evaluated by also taking into account the role of the US in world capitalist system. Such a critical outlook is essential for highlighting the persistence of capital relation with its contradictory nature and for developing some tentative ideas about the ways in which the organization/management of contemporary world capitalism as a multiple state system should be analyzed. Keywords: Globalization, empire, nation-state, capital relation, trans-(supra)-nationalization