The multinational corporations now developing budgets often bigger than medium-sized countries — these live in a global space which is largely unregulated, not subject to the rule of law, and in which people may act free of constraint.

Ashdown is warning that economic power has outgrown the legal and political frameworks designed to restrain it. By comparing corporate budgets to those of “medium-sized countries,” he emphasizes that multinational firms can wield state-like influence—yet operate across borders where no single government’s laws fully apply. The “global space” he describes is the realm of transnational finance, supply chains, and regulatory arbitrage, where companies can shift profits, operations, and accountability between jurisdictions. The quote argues that this mismatch—globalized power versus nationally bounded law—creates a governance vacuum in which actors can evade democratic oversight and social constraints, threatening fairness, labor standards, and the rule of law itself.