PR 1450 Introduction to Globalization

1
PR 1450Introduction to Globalization

• Lecture 2
• Political globalization
• Chris Rumford

2
Globalization

• Last week we established that globalization can
  be thought of as the growing compression of the
  world. Global unicity (to use Roland
  Robertsons terminology) has been brought about
  by processes (economic, political, cultural)
  through which the world has become
  interconnected, and which have led to an
  awareness that the world is a single place

3
Political globalization

• This week we will focus on
• the political processes that have contributed to
  globalization
• the extent to which politics is instrumental in
  driving globalization
• the ways in which processes of globalization
  impact upon politics
• whether a truly global politics is possible.

4

• According to Tony McGrew (2005) there are four
  dimensions to political globalization
• stretching of politics across frontiers events
  in one location have a knock-on impact
  elsewhere
• thickening of structures of world-wide
  political interaction transnational governance
  and regulation e.g. WTO, UN on one hand, INGOs on
  the other
• speeding up of political contact
  instantaneous communications, rapid
  decision-making and policy responses
• deepening domestic issues are
  internationalized and world-affairs are
  domesticated

5

• For McGrew, a key feature of globalization is
  the emergence of a conspicuously global politics
  in which the traditional distinction between
  domestic and international affairs is no longer
  valid (McGrew, 2005).
• In other words, politics everywhere are related
  to politics everywhere else
• In addition, the state has become a fragmented
  policy-making arena, permeated by transnational
  networks and international treaties. Between
  1976-95 1,600 treaties were signed, of which 100
  created international organizations (Held and
  McGrew, 2002)
• National government is locked into global and
  regional systems of governance (UN, G7, NATO,
  IMF, EU, NAFTA, APEC)

6
Global politics beyond IR

• There are 3 processes driving political
  globalization
• global geopolitics globalization of democratic
  politics of nation-statehood. Globalization has
  legitimized spread of nation-state
• global normative culture e.g. human rights and
  environmental awareness. Global culture centred
  on rights of the person forms a reference point
  for all democratic societies
• polycentric networks non-territorial/multiplici
  ty of sites. E.g. idea of global civil society.
  Loose structures of horizontal coalitions. What
  Appadurai terms cellular politics
• NB. These processes are interrelated but may not
  be complementary

7

• We can study these dynamics of political
  globalization in relation to four processes of
  transformation
• transformation of the nation-state
• transformation of the public sphere and political
  communication
• centrality of civil society
• transformation of borders

8
Transformation of the nation-state

• transformation, not decline, of nation-state
• has globalization enhanced power of nation-state?
  e.g. European Union as rescue of nation-state
• transnationalization of the state more diffuse
  and less territorial growth of regulatory,
  multi-level governance
• decoupling of nation and state state
  transnationalized while nation more populist. The
  nation does not exercise sovereignty over the
  state, and the state has lost much of its
  sovereignty.

9
Disconnecting nation and state

• In 2005 the French electorate voted to reject
  the EU constitution. In doing so they defied
  their political leaders (and the expectation of
  other Europeans)
• Read the article What 'Non' means by Kirsty
  Hughes http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/455
  2937.stm
• In what ways do you think the French nation
  might have been shaped by globalization?
• Can you think of other examples of divorce
  between nation and state?

10
Transformation of the public sphere

• The public sphere is a social space where issues
  of the day can be freely debated to determine the
  public interest
• political communication can never be fully
  institutionalized or domesticated by the state
• the public sphere is a key site of political
  contestation
• the public sphere is now also a global public
  sphere debates on nature of risk, security,
  progress, rights, good governance

11
How global is the public sphere?

• Read the article Blogs lauded in 'freedom
  awards
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4099802.stm
  
• Has communication technology created the
  possibility of a truly global public sphere?
• What possible barriers remain to global
  political communication?

12
Centrality of civil society

• Civil society is the political realm between
  private life and the state, where individuals and
  groups can organize autonomously
• there are still two superpowers left on the
  planet the United States and global civil
  society (Mary Robinson)
• is global civil society evidence of globalization
  from below?
• blurring of domestic and international and
  transnationalization of state and governance has
  led to civil societalization of politics
  (nation-states also mobilize actors in civil
  society)
• emerging global consensus on core issues rights
  of individuals, sustainability, social justice,
  cooperation
• cellular politics versus vertibrate politics
  civil society against the nation-state?

13
Danish cartoons and global protest

• Background Twelve cartoons published in the
  Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September
  2005 depicted the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a
  variety of humorous or satirical situations. This
  provoked widespread protest from Muslim groups in
  Europe and beyond.
• Read the article, Cartoons and the
  globalisation of protests by Paul Reynolds
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4740
  020.stm
• Why do you think the cartoons sparked global
  reactions?

14
Transformation of borders

• do we live in a borderless world?
• if domestic/international distinction is blurred
  what are the implications for political borders?
• we need to rethink borders in the context of a
  world of flows and networks and the emergence of
  polycentric forms of governance
• globalization has resulted in a proliferation of
  borders, not a borderless world
• who makes borders in a globalized world?

15
Citizens are doing borderwork

• Read the article 'Vigilantes' set for Mexico
  border patrol by Laura Smith-Spark
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4384855
  .stm
• Traditionally, nation-state borders worked to
  keep some people out and keep other people in.
  How has the US-Mexico border changed in this
  regard?
• According to this story, what are the key
  political issues in relation to borders?
• What does this story tell us about the purpose
  of borders in a globalized world?

16
Concluding comments

• we have looked at some important dimensions of
  political globalization
• one thing we have not considered is
  anti-globalization. Is this not an important
  dimensions of the politics of globalization?
• possibly, but it is difficult to imagine what
  form anti-globalization politics could take
• so-called anti-globalization demonstrations
  (e.g. Genoa 2001) are usually protests over
  poverty and/or the terms of international trade
• in fact, such protests may actually increase our
  consciousness of the world as a single place,
  thereby furthering globalization

17
References

• Appaduarai, A. 2006 Fear of Small Numbers (Duke
  University Press)
• Delanty, G. and Rumford, C. 2006 Political
  globalization in G. Ritzer (ed) Blackwell
  Companion to Globalization. (Blackwell,
  Forthcoming) Read at http//www.chrisrumford.org.
  uk/PR1450.htm
• Held, D. and McGrew, A. 2002 Globalization/Anti-g
  lobalization. (Polity Press) 338.9 HEL
• McGrew, A. 2005 Globalization and global
  politics in J. Baylis and S. Smith (eds) The
  Globalization of World Politics. (Oxford
  University Press) 327 GLO
• Scholte, J. A. 2005 Globalization A Critical
  Introduction (Palgrave) 330.9 SCH