POLS 374 Foundations of Global Politics

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POLS 374 Foundations of Global Politics

• Lecture 1 Globalization Debates
• September 26, 2006

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Lead Question
• What is globalization?

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What is globalization? Some Definitions
• Globalization refers to all those processes by
  which the peoples of the world are incorporated
  into a single world society, global society.
• Globalization can be defined as the
  intensification of worldwide social relations
  which link distant localities in such a way that
  local happening are shaped by events occurring
  many miles away and vice versa.

The old form of interdependence
Globalization Even the US can catch a cold
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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What is globalization? Some More Definitions
• Characteristics of the globalization trend
  include the internationalizing of production, the
  new international division of labor, new
  migratory movements from South to North, the new
  competitive environment that accelerates these
  processes, and the internationalizing of the
  state making states into agencies of the
  globalizing world.
• Globalization refers to the processes whereby
  social relations acquire relatively distanceless
  and borderless qualities, so that human lives are
  increasingly played out in the world as a single
  place.
• Globalization is what we the Third World have for
  several centuries called colonialization.

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What is globalization?
• Key point There is much disagreement and even
  more loose talk about globalization, which
  creates the basis for a lot of confusion,
  distortion, and poor analysis.

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What is globalization?
• The Blind Man and the Elephant Understanding the
  Different Views of Globalization, or

Globalization is in the eye of the beholder
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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Touching the elephants tusk
• I see, the elephant is very much like a spear!

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Touching the elephants ear
• I see, the elephant is very much like a fan!

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Touching the elephants tail
• I see, the elephant is very much like a brush!

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Touching the elephants trunk
• I see, the elephant is very much like a coiled
  snake!

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Touching the elephants foot
• I see, the elephant is very much like a tree
  stump!

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What is globalization?
• And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and
  long, each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and
  strong, though each was partly in the right, and
  all were in the wrong! (from the poem, The
  Blind Men and the Elephant)

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What is globalization?
• Key lesson Keep in mind that when different
  scholars or commentators talk about
  globalization, they are not always talking
  about the same thing, or they are talking about
  one aspect of a much bigger process.
• What they say about their part of the
  globalization elephant may be right, but only
  in a limited sense

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Five Broad Conceptions of Globalization

• No. 1 Globalization as internationalization
• No. 2 Globalization as liberalization
• No. 3 Globalization as universalization
• No. 4 Globalization as westernization and
  modernization
• No. 5 Globalization as respatialization

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Five Broad Conceptions of Globalization

• Internationalization
• Internationalization as greater contact and
  stronger interdependence between countries
• States still matter

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Five Broad Conceptions of Globalization

• Liberalization
• From book the process of removing state-imposed
  restrictions on movements between countries in
  order to create an open, borderless world
  economy

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Five Broad Conceptions of Globalization

• Universalization
• We might also use the term homogenization
  suggests that the world is becoming one big
  mono-culture, where we all are exposed to and
  share the same set of values, practices, beliefs
  and ideologiese.g., the universal belief in
  human rights, democracy, individual
  liberty/freedom of choice, capitalism, and so on
• Also suggests the emergence of truly globalized
  (or denationalized) economy a Starbucks on every
  corner, a global media environment, the
  decreasing significance of nationality in the
  ownership and control of firms (i.e., the
  development of global firms)

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Five Broad Conceptions of Globalization

• Westernization
• This is more narrow form of universalization, in
  which the world is becoming more homogenized in
  terms of western and American values and
  practices specifically
• Some see this a new form of imperialism

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Five Broad Conceptions of Globalization

• Respatialization
• A little more abstract than the other
  conceptions, respatialization implies that the
  world is becoming reorganized in ways in which
  traditional political boundaries (i.e., country
  borders) take on different and often less
  significant meaning
• Highlights the rise of supraterritoriality

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Fact or Fantasy?

• Two Extreme Positions
• Globalist
• Ultra Skeptic

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Fact or Fantasy?

• Globalists
• Globalists come in all ideological stripes, from
  die-hard radicals to gung ho supporters
• The common thread between these two groups is the
  belief that globalization is already a
  ubiquitous, all-important and all-encompassing
  phenomenon in short, they believe that
  globalization is already here and is only
  getting stronger
• They disagree, however, on what can or should be
  done about globalization some wish to embrace
  it, some wish to stop it and even push it back

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Fact or Fantasy?

• Ultra Skeptics
• Some simply deny that anything significant or
  different is happening except for some new
  technologies that make it easier to communicate
  across borders, the world is the same as it has
  always been.
• Actually, what they mean is that the most
  significant aspects of world politics or
  international relations has remained largely
  unaffected by all the new forms of technology,
  production, communication, and so on

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Fact or Fantasy?

• Ultra Skeptics
• More specifically
• Nationality still matters American firms are
  still American, Japanese ones are still Japanese,
  French ones are still French, and so on
• Borders and states still matter National
  governments continue to exercise preponderant
  power new transnational forms of governance are
  an illusion corporations are still subservient
  to states, and so on

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization More Questions

• What Drives Globalization?
• Or, how does globalization work?

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What Drives Globalization?
• Several competing explanations

• Idealist approaches
• Materialist approaches

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What Drives Globalization?
• Idealist Approaches

Idealist approaches regard globalization as the
product of mental forces or subjective processes,
such as imagination, invention, metaphor,
identity and ideology
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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What Drives Globalization?
• Materialist Approaches

Materialist approaches focus on concrete (often
economic) processes. Marxism, for example,
asserts that capitalism shapes society is very
specific and generally unavoidable ways
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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• What Drives Globalization?
• Individualist versus Structuralist Approaches

This debate is reflected in the first division,
in that structuralists are generally materialists
and individualists are often idealists
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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Additional discussion on agency and structure
• Consider the following questions
• What causes people to engage in acts of
  terrorism?
• Why are some people and countries poor while
  others are rich?
• Where does racism come from?
• Why do people vote or not vote?

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)

• Additional discussion on agency and structure
• Key point embedded in all of your responses are
  assumptions about agency and structure.
• If you believe that individuals are ultimately
  and mostly, if not completely, responsible for
  their own actions and for the conditions of their
  lives, then you believe that agency matters most.
• If you believe that people are products of their
  environmentthat they are shaped by forces over
  which they have limited controlthen you believe
  that structure is important

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization More Questions

• A third aspect of the methodological debate on
  globalization concerns the relationship between
  the analyst and the analyzed

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Change and Continuity

• In discussion globalization, we need to consider
  how globalization may be or is, in fact, changing
  the world in which we live
• But on this point, we need to be careful in not
  assuming that change is a generic thing, but,
  rather, can and does take place in different
  domains or areas

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Change and Continuity

• The author discusses five separate areas in his
  chapter geography, production, governance,
  identity, and knowledge

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Change and Continuity

• Production
• Refers to the economy, to the nature of economic
  relations within countries, between countries,
  and beyond countries

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Change and Continuity

• Governance
• Refers to the role and significance of the state.
  Will states continue to be the dominant actor in
  world politics? Or will other actorsfrom
  corporations to supranational organizations
  (e.g., UN, IMF, WTO, EU)eventually usurp the
  state? Or will the role of the state simply
  change?

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Change and Continuity

• Identity
• Refers to how people define themselves? Will
  nationality continue to matter? Or will
  transnational identities take on greater
  significance? What identities will be most
  important in the future?

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Change and Continuity

• Knowledge
• Refers to how people seek to understand
  themselves and the world around them? What is
  knowledge? Who has it? How should it be used?

For Augustine, all true knowledge proceeds from
God.
"The only source of knowledge is experience -
Albert Einstein
The preservation of the means of knowledge among
the lowest ranks is of more importance to the
public than all the property of the rich men in
the country. - John Adams
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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Liberation or Shackles?

• Another important aspect of the debates on
  globalization are the normative questions
• Is globalization good or bad?
• Does the process enhance or degrade the human
  condition?
• Is globalization progress or decay?

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Liberation or Shackles?

• When we consider the normative aspects of
  globalization, we also need to be careful about
  being too general instead, we need to think of
  different areas in which globalization is having
  an impact security, equality, democracy

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Liberation or Shackles?

• Security
• This does not just refer to security from an
  external enemy (although this is important), but
  security in a more general sense ecological
  security, economic security, cultural security,
  security from intentional violence

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Liberation or Shackles?

• Equality
• What effects is globalization having on economic
  and political equality? Are the costs of
  globalization borne equally? How about the
  benefits?
• How are different groups being affected
  between/among social classes, countries, men and
  women, races, urban and rural areas, children,
  and so on

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Globalization Debates (ch. 1)
Globalization Liberation or Shackles?

• Democracy
• Does globalization necessarily imply greater
  democracy and political power for ordinary
  citizens? Does globalization enhance
  participation, transparency and accountability in
  the governance process?