Generally, financialized capitalism is the era of „governance without government“—which is to say, that of domination without the fig leaf of consent. In this regime, it is not states but transnational governance structures such as the European Union, World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and TRIPS that make the lion’s share of the coercively enforceable rules that now govern vast swaths of social interaction throughout the world. Accountable to no one and acting overwhelmingly in the interest of capital, these bodies are „constitutionalizing“ neoliberal notions of „free trade“ and „intellectual property,“ hard-wiring them into the global regime, and preempting democratic labor and environmental legislation in advance. Through a variety of means, finally, this regime has promoted the capture of public power by private (corporate) power, while also colonizing the former internally, modeling its modus operandi on that of private firms.

The overall effect has been to hollow out public power at every level.

—Nancy Fraser, Cannibal Capitalism, (London: Verso, 2022), 130.