essay about globalization theories

Globalisation Theories: World System, Modernisation, Dependency

Introduction – What is globalisation?

International trade has been around for centuries and while globalisation may feel like a modern concept, changes across borders have happened ever since. Silk and spice trade routes in East Asia, which originated in the first century BCE, brought diverse civilizations and linked various nations’ economies. In the 1500s, the British and Dutch import and export empires followed suit in this regard. The development of technology improving transport and communication has facilitated the growth of globalisation which includes sharing of language, culture, wealth and products. There is a large amount of information that is shared between peoples of different cultures and political, social or geographic backgrounds. Economies today are more interdependent than ever which further enhances the process of globalisation.

Globalisation is a word that is commonly used today, but its meaning is sometimes unclear, even among people who use it. Globalisation can be defined as the compression of the world in an attempt to strengthen the consciousness of the entire globe as one, based on a foundation of interdependency.

More than simply products and services are swapped as international trade evolves to become faster and more prevalent. Cultural traditions and ideas are also passed amongst different groups from group to group, which we know as a process termed diffusion. It’s a descriptive term for when material moves from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. Ideas and practices spread from locations where they would be well-known to regions where they are new and rarely noticed. Exploration, military conquest, missionary work, and tourism were formerly used to facilitate the exchange of ideas, but technology has dramatically accelerated the rate of diffusion. There is debate on whether globalisation should be seen as a never-ending process as some scholars suggest the possibility of future historians calling the period we are in the ‘era of globalisation’. This would indicate that there is a start date to the globalisation period, the end of the Cold War being a popular option for most.

The Three Globalisation Theories; Explained with Examples

World system theory.

World-systems theory emphasises the significance of the entire globe as a whole instead of individual nations. The world is divided into three regions: core nations, periphery countries, and semi-periphery countries. Countries in Western West Europe and the United States of America are examples of core countries. These countries have a powerful central government that is well-funded through taxes. They are economically diverse, industrialised, and largely self-sufficient. They have a sizable middle and working class, and they prioritise the manufacture of finished commodities above raw materials. Periphery countries generally refer to nations in Latin America and Africa that have unstable governments. They often rely on a single economic activity, which is more often than not, raw material extraction. There is a large proportion of impoverished and illiterate individuals, as well as a small elite class that controls the majority of the economy. As a result, there is a significant disparity in the population. Core nations and transnational firms have a significant impact on these countries. This has the potential to impair the peripheral nations’ future economic prospects.

Semi-periphery states such as India and Brazil fill the gap between the Core and the Periphery. They are not always influential in international commerce, but their economies are broad and advanced. These semi-periphery countries might arise from either Periphery countries climbing up to the modernised Core countries or Core countries descending to Periphery status. The World-Systems Theory is a fluid model, but it has been criticised for being overly focused on the economy and the Core nations, overlooking culture and even class conflicts inside individual countries.

The United States (core nation) reaps disproportionate gains from economic and political interactions with Brazil (semi-peripheral nation) and Kenya (peripheral nation). The United States has a large, successful economy that is backed by a stable government whereas Brazil has a wide economy but is not an important international player in global trade activities. Meanwhile, Kenya only has the raw materials to offer to both countries and since they have no other buyers, they have to make do with the minimal prices offered by the USA and Brazil.

Modernisation Theory

According to the Modernization theory, all states follow the same route of transition from a traditional to modern society. It implies that traditional countries, with some assistance, may evolve into contemporary countries in the same manner that the modern nations of today emerged in the first place. Modernisation theorists examine the country’s internal factors affecting its progress (eg: economic policies of the country) as it adapts to new technology, as well as the socio-political changes that arise. One myth that modernisation theorists hold onto is that every population is on the path of modernising and that it is always desirable. This ignores the consequences, such as the weakening of bonds within the wider family, rising urban unemployment, and the fragmentation of the country’s current economic structure, and as a result, many ‘underdeveloped’ nations may see modernity in an adverse manner. Modernisation theory’s core argument is that with economic growth and development, any country can become advanced, industrialised and follow the footsteps of Western democratic countries in their goals. There is a strong focus on internal factors within the modernisation theory so much so that they do not consider external influences as a reason for the failure or success of a certain country’s economic progress. Although this theory focuses a lot on a single country, the understanding of this through the lens of globalisation is that modernisation expects developed countries to aid other countries in reaching their economic goals to bring them closer to a modernised society.

Although there is ample debate on the modernisation theory, there is one commonality between the arguments for and the critique against it. Both sides use Japan as an example. Some regard it as proof that a totally contemporary way of life is possible in a non-Western civilization. Others claim that as a result of modernisation, Japan has grown noticeably more Western.

Dependency Theory

Dependency theory was developed in response to modernization theory, and it employs the concept of Core and Periphery nations from the World-systems theory to examine disparities between countries. Essentially, it is the belief that the poorer periphery or third world nations export raw resources to the rich core or first world countries. This occurs not because they are at a lower stage of development, but because they have been absorbed into the global system as an underdeveloped country. They have their unique structures and traits that are not found in industrialised countries, and they will not become a “core” nation at a rapid pace no matter the amount of external aid received. They are, more often than not, in an undesirable economic situation, which implies they have little potential to progress or develop. The Dependency theorists maintain that underdeveloped nations, if this model continues, will remain poor and dependent on wealthier nations.

Initially, dependency theory was connected mostly with Latin American countries that were embedded in the capitalist system. Resources tend to move from the periphery, or impoverished and undeveloped countries, to the core, or prosperous Western world. This is due to the fact that poorer nations on the periphery tend to offer natural resources and inexpensive labour for items created and sold by corporations in the wealthier, core countries. As time passes there have been various hegemonic cores that have emerged, like the US or previously Britain and before that the Netherlands which then for a period dominated the capitalist system. It’s not necessary that rich countries exploit poorer ones but capitalists exploit workers. For both dependency theorists and world systems theorists, wealth disparity is caused by the global capitalist system as a whole, and the answer for all structuralist thinkers is some kind of communism. Beyond that, import substitute industrialisation or ISI is an example of a suggestion to end dependency between nations. This term translates to something like the ‘Make in India’ movement that is gaining traction today.

The Philippines embodies the same fundamental reality as other Third World countries. This is the reality of dependent and uneven development, which enriches global corporations and their local partners while impoverishing the poorest people. The omnipresent MNCs, or multinational companies, are the best example of this form of growth.

Benefits and Drawbacks of globalisation

These are just a few theories of globalisation. There are numerous interpretations and perspectives surrounding this process and through these, there are always an increasing number of benefits and/or drawbacks that are realised.

Benefits of globalisation:

Increased efficiency in the use of resources
Makes goods and services more accessible
Promotes collaborations which boost the rate of modernisation
Enhances Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) which allows for increased development
Assists in bringing populations above the poverty line
Makes people aware of cultures and traditions from other part of the world
Enables free flow of trade removing all restrictions and barriers
Sharing of scientific and technological advances is made easier

Drawbacks of globalisation:

Outsourcing labour reduces employment in the host country
In countries with large human resources, machinery acquired through globalisation will cause large-scale unemployment
Ill effects on the environment due to increased travel/traffic and overload of factories
Processes of Globalisation might not have the same effect on all countries, resulting in economic inequalities
Labour and Human rights are not kept in focus
Cultural issues can arise when one culture dominates the other
Allows Multinational Corporations (MNCs) too much power and liberty

The growing economic disparity between high-income and low-income nations is a cause for concern. And the amount of people living in abject poverty throughout the world is very concerning. However, it is incorrect to conclude that globalisation is to blame for the gap or that nothing can be done to alleviate the situation. On the contrary, low-income nations have taken longer to integrate into the global economy than others, partly due to their policies and partly due to causes beyond their control. Efforts are to be made to prevent globalisation from unfairly aiding the development and prosperity of advanced nations alone either by reevaluating the guidelines for international trade or by simply forcing core countries to foster development in underdeveloped nations.

Shaun Paul is a student at Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts doing a 4 year honours course. His major is International Relations and minors are Political Science and Sociology. He has been writing articles and reports since the age of 12 and has always found solace in researching, on most topics under the sun, and wishes to showcase this passion in his time at the Sociology Group.

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Globalization

Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, the term “globalization” remains crucial to contemporary political and academic debate. In contemporary popular discourse, globalization often functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free market”) policies in the world economy (“economic liberalization”), the growing dominance of western (or even American) forms of political, economic, and cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”), a global political order built on liberal notions of international law (the “global liberal order”), an ominous network of top-down rule by global elites (“globalism” or “global technocracy”), the proliferation of new information technologies (the “Internet Revolution”), as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished (“global integration”). Globalization is a politically-contested phenomenon about which there are significant disagreements and struggles, with many nationalist and populist movements and leaders worldwide (including Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and former US President Donald Trump) pushing back against what they view as its unappealing features.

Fortunately, recent social theory has formulated a more precise concept of globalization than those typically offered by politicians and pundits. Although sharp differences continue to separate participants in the ongoing debate about the term, most contemporary social theorists endorse the view that globalization refers to fundamental changes in the spatial and temporal contours of social existence, according to which the significance of space or territory undergoes shifts in the face of a no less dramatic acceleration in the temporal structure of crucial forms of human activity. Geographical distance is typically measured in time. As the time necessary to connect distinct geographical locations is reduced, distance or space undergoes compression or “annihilation.” The human experience of space is intimately connected to the temporal structure of those activities by means of which we experience space. Changes in the temporality of human activity inevitably generate altered experiences of space or territory. Theorists of globalization disagree about the precise sources of recent shifts in the spatial and temporal contours of human life. Nonetheless, they generally agree that alterations in humanity’s experiences of space and time are working to undermine the importance of local and even national boundaries in many arenas of human endeavor. Since globalization contains far-reaching implications for virtually every facet of human life, it necessarily suggests the need to rethink key questions of normative political theory.

1. Globalization in the History of Ideas

2. globalization in contemporary social theory, 3. the normative challenges of globalization, other internet resources, related entries.

The term globalization has only become commonplace in the last three decades, and academic commentators who employed the term as late as the 1970s accurately recognized the novelty of doing so (Modelski 1972). At least since the advent of industrial capitalism, however, intellectual discourse has been replete with allusions to phenomena strikingly akin to those that have garnered the attention of recent theorists of globalization. Nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophy, literature, and social commentary include numerous references to an inchoate yet widely shared awareness that experiences of distance and space are inevitably transformed by the emergence of high-speed forms of transportation (for example, rail and air travel) and communication (the telegraph or telephone) that dramatically heighten possibilities for human interaction across existing geographical and political divides (Harvey 1989; Kern 1983). Long before the introduction of the term globalization into recent popular and scholarly debate, the appearance of novel high-speed forms of social activity generated extensive commentary about the compression of space.

Writing in 1839, an English journalist commented on the implications of rail travel by anxiously postulating that as distance was “annihilated, the surface of our country would, as it were, shrivel in size until it became not much bigger than one immense city” (Harvey 1996, 242). A few years later, Heinrich Heine, the émigré German-Jewish poet, captured this same experience when he noted: “space is killed by the railways. I feel as if the mountains and forests of all countries were advancing on Paris. Even now, I can smell the German linden trees; the North Sea’s breakers are rolling against my door” (Schivelbusch 1978, 34). Another young German émigré, the socialist theorist Karl Marx, in 1848 formulated the first theoretical explanation of the sense of territorial compression that so fascinated his contemporaries. In Marx’s account, the imperatives of capitalist production inevitably drove the bourgeoisie to “nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connections everywhere.” The juggernaut of industrial capitalism constituted the most basic source of technologies resulting in the annihilation of space, helping to pave the way for “intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations,” in contrast to a narrow-minded provincialism that had plagued humanity for untold eons (Marx 1848, 476). Despite their ills as instruments of capitalist exploitation, Marx argued, new technologies that increased possibilities for human interaction across borders ultimately represented a progressive force in history. They provided the necessary infrastructure for a cosmopolitan future socialist civilization, while simultaneously functioning in the present as indispensable organizational tools for a working class destined to undertake a revolution no less oblivious to traditional territorial divisions than the system of capitalist exploitation it hoped to dismantle.

European intellectuals have hardly been alone in their fascination with the experience of territorial compression, as evinced by the key role played by the same theme in early twentieth-century American thought. In 1904, the literary figure Henry Adams diagnosed the existence of a “law of acceleration,” fundamental to the workings of social development, in order to make sense of the rapidly changing spatial and temporal contours of human activity. Modern society could only be properly understood if the seemingly irrepressible acceleration of basic technological and social processes was given a central place in social and historical analysis (Adams 1931 [1904]). John Dewey argued in 1927 that recent economic and technological trends implied the emergence of a “new world” no less noteworthy than the opening up of America to European exploration and conquest in 1492. For Dewey, the invention of steam, electricity, and the telephone offered formidable challenges to relatively static and homogeneous forms of local community life that had long represented the main theatre for most human activity. Economic activity increasingly exploded the confines of local communities to a degree that would have stunned our historical predecessors, for example, while the steamship, railroad, automobile, and air travel considerably intensified rates of geographical mobility. Dewey went beyond previous discussions of the changing temporal and spatial contours of human activity, however, by suggesting that the compression of space posed fundamental questions for democracy. Dewey observed that small-scale political communities (for example, the New England township), a crucial site for the exercise of effective democratic participation, seemed ever more peripheral to the great issues of an interconnected world. Increasingly dense networks of social ties across borders rendered local forms of self-government ineffective. Dewey wondered, “How can a public be organized, we may ask, when literally it does not stay in place?” (Dewey 1927, 140). To the extent that democratic citizenship minimally presupposes the possibility of action in concert with others, how might citizenship be sustained in a social world subject to ever more astonishing possibilities for movement and mobility? New high-speed technologies attributed a shifting and unstable character to social life, as demonstrated by increased rates of change and turnover in many arenas of activity (most important perhaps, the economy) directly affected by them, and the relative fluidity and inconstancy of social relations there. If citizenship requires some modicum of constancy and stability in social life, however, did not recent changes in the temporal and spatial conditions of human activity bode poorly for political participation? How might citizens come together and act in concert when contemporary society’s “mania for motion and speed” made it difficult for them even to get acquainted with one another, let alone identify objects of common concern? (Dewey 1927, 140).

The unabated proliferation of high-speed technologies is probably the main source of the numerous references in intellectual life since 1950 to the annihilation of distance. The Canadian cultural critic Marshall McLuhan made the theme of a technologically based “global village,” generated by social “acceleration at all levels of human organization,” the centerpiece of an anxiety-ridden analysis of new media technologies in the 1960s (McLuhan 1964, 103). Arguing in the 1970s and 1980s that recent shifts in the spatial and temporal contours of social life exacerbated authoritarian political trends, the French social critic Paul Virilio seemed to confirm many of Dewey’s darkest worries about the decay of democracy. According to his analysis, the high-speed imperatives of modern warfare and weapons systems strengthened the executive and debilitated representative legislatures. The compression of territory thereby paved the way for executive-centered emergency government (Virilio 1977). But it was probably the German philosopher Martin Heidegger who most clearly anticipated contemporary debates about globalization. Heidegger not only described the “abolition of distance” as a constitutive feature of our contemporary condition, but he linked recent shifts in spatial experience to no less fundamental alterations in the temporality of human activity: “All distances in time and space are shrinking. Man now reaches overnight, by places, places which formerly took weeks and months of travel” (Heidegger 1950, 165). Heidegger also accurately prophesied that new communication and information technologies would soon spawn novel possibilities for dramatically extending the scope of virtual reality : “Distant sites of the most ancient cultures are shown on film as if they stood this very moment amidst today’s street traffic…The peak of this abolition of every possibility of remoteness is reached by television, which will soon pervade and dominate the whole machinery of communication” (Heidegger 1950, 165). Heidegger’s description of growing possibilities for simultaneity and instantaneousness in human experience ultimately proved no less apprehensive than the views of many of his predecessors. In his analysis, the compression of space increasingly meant that from the perspective of human experience “everything is equally far and equally near.” Instead of opening up new possibilities for rich and multi-faceted interaction with events once distant from the purview of most individuals, the abolition of distance tended to generate a “uniform distanceless” in which fundamentally distinct objects became part of a bland homogeneous experiential mass (Heidegger 1950, 166). The loss of any meaningful distinction between “nearness” and “distance” contributed to a leveling down of human experience, which in turn spawned an indifference that rendered human experience monotonous and one-dimensional.

Since the mid-1980s, social theorists have moved beyond the relatively underdeveloped character of previous reflections on the compression or annihilation of space to offer a rigorous conception of globalization. To be sure, major disagreements remain about the precise nature of the causal forces behind globalization, with David Harvey (1989 1996) building directly on Marx’s pioneering explanation of globalization, while others (Giddens 19990; Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton 1999) question the exclusive focus on economic factors characteristic of the Marxist approach. Nonetheless, a consensus about the basic rudiments of the concept of globalization appears to be emerging.

First, recent analysts associate globalization with deterritorialization , according to which a growing variety of social activities takes place irrespective of the geographical location of participants. As Jan Aart Scholte observes, “global events can – via telecommunication, digital computers, audiovisual media, rocketry and the like – occur almost simultaneously anywhere and everywhere in the world” (Scholte 1996, 45). Globalization refers to increased possibilities for action between and among people in situations where latitudinal and longitudinal location seems immaterial to the social activity at hand. Even though geographical location remains crucial for many undertakings (for example, farming to satisfy the needs of a local market), deterritorialization manifests itself in many social spheres. Business people on different continents now engage in electronic commerce; academics make use of the latest Internet conferencing equipment to organize seminars in which participants are located at disparate geographical locations; the Internet allows people to communicate instantaneously with each other notwithstanding vast geographical distances separating them. Territory in the sense of a traditional sense of a geographically identifiable location no longer constitutes the whole of “social space” in which human activity takes places. In this initial sense of the term, globalization refers to the spread of new forms of non-territorial social activity (Ruggie 1993; Scholte 2000).

Second, theorists conceive of globalization as linked to the growth of social interconnectedness across existing geographical and political boundaries. In this view, deterritorialization is a crucial facet of globalization. Yet an exclusive focus on it would be misleading. Since the vast majority of human activities is still tied to a concrete geographical location, the more decisive facet of globalization concerns the manner in which distant events and forces impact on local and regional endeavors (Tomlinson 1999, 9). For example, this encyclopedia might be seen as an example of a deterritorialized social space since it allows for the exchange of ideas in cyberspace. The only prerequisite for its use is access to the Internet. Although substantial inequalities in Internet access still exist, use of the encyclopedia is in principle unrelated to any specific geographical location. However, the reader may very well be making use of the encyclopedia as a supplement to course work undertaken at a school or university. That institution is not only located at a specific geographical juncture, but its location is probably essential for understanding many of its key attributes: the level of funding may vary according to the state or region where the university is located, or the same academic major might require different courses and readings at a university in China, for example, than in Argentina or Norway. Globalization refers to those processes whereby geographically distant events and decisions impact to a growing degree on “local” university life. For example, the insistence by powerful political leaders in wealthy countries that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or World Bank recommend to Latin and South American countries that they commit themselves to a particular set of economic policies might result in poorly paid teachers and researchers as well as large, understaffed lecture classes in São Paolo or Lima; the latest innovations in information technology from a computer research laboratory in India could quickly change the classroom experience of students in British Columbia or Tokyo. Globalization refers “to processes of change which underpin a transformation in the organization of human affairs by linking together and expanding human activity across regions and continents” (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton 1999, 15). Globalization in this sense is a matter of degree since any given social activity might influence events more or less faraway: even though a growing number of activities seems intermeshed with events in distant continents, certain human activities remain primarily local or regional in scope. Also, the magnitude and impact of the activity might vary: geographically removed events could have a relatively minimal or a far more extensive influence on events at a particular locality. Finally, we might consider the degree to which interconnectedness across frontiers is no longer merely haphazard but instead predictable and regularized (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton 1999).

Third, globalization must also include reference to the speed or velocity of social activity. Deterritorialization and interconnectedness initially seem chiefly spatial in nature. Yet it is easy to see how these spatial shifts are directly tied to the acceleration of crucial forms of social activity. As we observed above in our discussion of the conceptual forerunners to the present-day debate on globalization, the proliferation of high-speed transportation, communication, and information technologies constitutes the most immediate source for the blurring of geographical and territorial boundaries that prescient observers have diagnosed at least since the mid-nineteenth century. The compression of space presupposes rapid-fire forms of technology; shifts in our experiences of territory depend on concomitant changes in the temporality of human action. High-speed technology only represents the tip of the iceberg, however. The linking together and expanding of social activities across borders is predicated on the possibility of relatively fast flows and movements of people, information, capital, and goods. Without these fast flows, it is difficult to see how distant events could possibly posses the influence they now enjoy. High-speed technology plays a pivotal role in the velocity of human affairs. But many other factors contribute to the overall pace and speed of social activity. The organizational structure of the modern capitalist factory offers one example; certain contemporary habits and inclinations, including the “mania for motion and speed” described by Dewey, represent another. Deterritorialization and the expansion of interconnectedness are intimately tied to the acceleration of social life, while social acceleration itself takes many different forms (Eriksen 2001; Rosa 2013). Here as well, we can easily see why globalization is always a matter of degree. The velocity or speed of flows, movements, and interchanges across borders can vary no less than their magnitude, impact, or regularity.

Fourth, even though analysts disagree about the causal forces that generate globalization, most agree that globalization should be conceived as a relatively long-term process . The triad of deterritorialization, interconnectedness, and social acceleration hardly represents a sudden or recent event in contemporary social life. Globalization is a constitutive feature of the modern world, and modern history includes many examples of globalization (Giddens 1990). As we saw above, nineteenth-century thinkers captured at least some of its core features; the compression of territoriality composed an important element of their lived experience. Nonetheless, some contemporary theorists believe that globalization has taken a particularly intense form in recent decades, as innovations in communication, transportation, and information technologies (for example, computerization) have generated stunning new possibilities for simultaneity and instantaneousness (Harvey 1989). In this view, present-day intellectual interest in the problem of globalization can be linked directly to the emergence of new high-speed technologies that tend to minimize the significance of distance and heighten possibilities for deterritorialization and social interconnectedness. Although the intense sense of territorial compression experienced by so many of our contemporaries is surely reminiscent of the experiences of earlier generations, some contemporary writers nonetheless argue that it would be mistaken to obscure the countless ways in which ongoing transformations of the spatial and temporal contours of human experience are especially far-reaching. While our nineteenth-century predecessors understandably marveled at the railroad or the telegraph, a comparatively vast array of social activities is now being transformed by innovations that accelerate social activity and considerably deepen longstanding trends towards deterritorialization and social interconnectedness. To be sure, the impact of deterritorialization, social interconnectedness, and social acceleration are by no means universal or uniform: migrant workers engaging in traditional forms of low-wage agricultural labor in the fields of southern California, for example, probably operate in a different spatial and temporal context than the Internet entrepreneurs of San Francisco or Seattle. Distinct assumptions about space and time often coexist uneasily during a specific historical juncture (Gurvitch 1964). Nonetheless, the impact of recent technological innovations is profound, and even those who do not have a job directly affected by the new technology are shaped by it in innumerable ways as citizens and consumers (Eriksen 2001, 16).

Fifth, globalization should be understood as a multi-pronged process, since deterritorialization, social interconnectedness, and acceleration manifest themselves in many different (economic, political, and cultural) arenas of social activity. Although each facet of globalization is linked to the core components of globalization described above, each consists of a complex and relatively autonomous series of empirical developments, requiring careful examination in order to disclose the causal mechanisms specific to it (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton 1999). Each manifestation of globalization also generates distinct conflicts and dislocations. For example, there is substantial empirical evidence that cross-border flows and exchanges (of goods, people, information, etc.), as well as the emergence of directly transnational forms of production by means of which a single commodity is manufactured simultaneously in distant corners of the globe, are gaining in prominence (Castells 1996). High-speed technologies and organizational approaches are employed by transnationally operating firms, the so-called “global players,” with great effectiveness. The emergence of “around-the-world, around-the-clock” financial markets, where major cross-border financial transactions are made in cyberspace at the blink of an eye, represents a familiar example of the economic face of globalization. Global financial markets also challenge traditional attempts by liberal democratic nation-states to rein in the activities of bankers, spawning understandable anxieties about the growing power and influence of financial markets over democratically elected representative institutions. In political life, globalization takes a distinct form, though the general trends towards deterritorialization, interconnectedness across borders, and the acceleration of social activity are fundamental here as well. Transnational movements, in which activists employ rapid-fire communication technologies to join forces across borders in combating ills that seem correspondingly transnational in scope (for example, the depletion of the ozone layer), offer an example of political globalization (Tarrow 2005). Another would be the tendency towards ambitious supranational forms of social and economic lawmaking and regulation, where individual nation-states cooperate to pursue regulation whose jurisdiction transcends national borders no less than the cross-border economic processes that undermine traditional modes of nation state-based regulation. Political scientists typically describe such supranational organizations (the European Union, for example, or United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA) as important manifestations of political and legal globalization. The proliferation of supranational organizations has been no less conflict-laden than economic globalization, however. Critics insist that local, regional, and national forms of self-government are being supplanted by insufficiently democratic forms of global governance remote from the needs of ordinary citizens (Maus 2006; Streeck 2016). In contrast, defenders describe new forms of supranational legal and political decision as indispensable forerunners to more inclusive and advanced forms of self-government, even as they worry about existing democratic deficits and technocratic traits (Habermas 2015).

The wide-ranging impact of globalization on human existence means that it necessarily touches on many basic philosophical and political-theoretical questions. At a minimum, globalization suggests that academic philosophers in the rich countries of the West should pay closer attention to the neglected voices and intellectual traditions of peoples with whom our fate is intertwined in ever more intimate ways (Dallmayr 1998). In this section, however, we focus exclusively on the immediate challenges posed by globalization to normative political theory.

Western political theory has traditionally presupposed the existence of territorially bound communities, whose borders can be more or less neatly delineated from those of other communities. In this vein, the influential liberal political philosopher John Rawls described bounded communities whose fundamental structure consisted of “self-sufficient schemes of cooperation for all the essential purposes of human life” (Rawls 1993, 301). Although political and legal thinkers historically have exerted substantial energy in formulating defensible normative models of relations between states (Nardin and Mapel 1992), like Rawls they typically have relied on a clear delineation of “domestic” from “foreign” affairs. In addition, they have often argued that the domestic arena represents a normatively privileged site, since fundamental normative ideals and principles (for example, liberty or justice) are more likely to be successfully realized in the domestic arena than in relations among states. According to one influential strand within international relations theory, relations between states are more-or-less lawless. Since the achievement of justice or democracy, for example, presupposes an effective political sovereign, the lacuna of sovereignty at the global level means that justice and democracy are necessarily incomplete and probably unattainable there. In this conventional realist view of international politics, core features of the modern system of sovereign states relegate the pursuit of western political thought’s most noble normative goals primarily to the domestic arena (Mearsheimer 2003.) Significantly, some prominent mid-century proponents of international realism rejected this position’s deep hostility to international law and supranational political organization, in part because they presciently confronted challenges that we now typically associate with intensified globalization (Scheuerman 2011).

Globalization poses a fundamental challenge to each of these traditional assumptions. It is no longer self-evident that nation-states can be described as “self-sufficient schemes of cooperation for all the essential purposes of human life” in the context of intense deterritorialization and the spread and intensification of social relations across borders. The idea of a bounded community seems suspect given recent shifts in the spatio-temporal contours of human life. Even the most powerful and privileged political units are now subject to increasingly deterritorialized activities (for example, global financial markets or digitalized mass communication) over which they have limited control, and they find themselves nested in webs of social relations whose scope explodes the confines of national borders. Of course, in much of human history social relations have transcended existing political divides. However, globalization implies a profound quantitative increase in and intensification of social relations of this type. While attempts to offer a clear delineation of the “domestic” from the “foreign” probably made sense at an earlier juncture in history, this distinction no longer accords with core developmental trends in many arenas of social activity. As the possibility of a clear division between domestic and foreign affairs dissipates, the traditional tendency to picture the domestic arena as a privileged site for the realization of normative ideals and principles becomes problematic as well. As an empirical matter, the decay of the domestic-foreign frontier seems highly ambivalent, since it might easily pave the way for the decay of the more attractive attributes of domestic political life: as “foreign” affairs collapse inward onto “domestic” political life, the insufficiently lawful contours of the former make disturbing inroads onto the latter (Scheuerman 2004). As a normative matter, however, the disintegration of the domestic-foreign divide probably calls for us to consider, to a greater extent than ever before, how our fundamental normative commitments about political life can be effectively achieved on a global scale. If we take the principles of justice or democracy seriously, for example, it is no longer self-evident that the domestic arena is the exclusive or perhaps even main site for their pursuit, since domestic and foreign affairs are now deeply and irrevocably intermeshed. In a globalizing world, the lack of democracy or justice in the global setting necessarily impacts deeply on the pursuit of justice or democracy at home. Indeed, it may no longer be possible to achieve our normative ideals at home without undertaking to do so transnationally as well.

To claim, for example, that questions of distributive justice have no standing in the making of foreign affairs represents at best empirical naivete about economic globalization. At worst, it constitutes a disingenuous refusal to grapple with the fact that the material existence of those fortunate enough to live in the rich countries is inextricably tied to the material status of the vast majority of humanity residing in poor and underdeveloped regions. Growing material inequality spawned by economic globalization is linked to growing domestic material inequality in the rich democracies (Falk 1999; Pogge 2002). Similarly, in the context of global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer, a dogmatic insistence on the sanctity of national sovereignty risks constituting a cynical fig leaf for irresponsible activities whose impact extends well beyond the borders of those countries most directly responsible. Global warming and ozone-depletion cry out for ambitious forms of transnational cooperation and regulation, and the refusal by the rich democracies to accept this necessity implies a failure to take the process of globalization seriously when doing so conflicts with their immediate material interests. Although it might initially seem to be illustrative of clever Realpolitik on the part of the culpable nations to ward off strict cross-border environmental regulation, their stubbornness is probably short-sighted: global warming and ozone depletion will affect the children of Americans who drive gas-guzzling SUVs or use environmentally unsound air-conditioning as well as the future generations of South Africa or Afghanistan (Cerutti 2007). If we keep in mind that environmental degradation probably impacts negatively on democratic politics (for example, by undermining its legitimacy and stability), the failure to pursue effective transnational environmental regulation potentially undermines democracy at home as well as abroad.

Philosophers and political theorists have eagerly addressed the normative and political implications of our globalizing world. A lively debate about the possibility of achieving justice at the global level pits representatives of cosmopolitanism against myriad communitarians, nationalists, realists, and others who privilege the nation-state and moral, political, and social ties resting on it (Lieven 2020; Tamir 2019). In contrast, cosmopolitans tend to underscore our universal obligations to those who reside faraway and with whom we may share little in the way of language, custom, or culture, oftentimes arguing that claims to “justice at home” can and should be applied elsewhere as well (Beardsworth 2011; Beitz 1999; Caney 2006; Wallace-Brown & Held 2010). In this way, cosmopolitanism builds directly on the universalistic impulses of modern moral and political thought. Cosmopolitanism’s critics dispute the view that our obligations to foreigners possess the same status as those to members of particular local and national communities of which we remain very much a part. They by no means deny the need to redress global inequality, for example, but they often express skepticism in the face of cosmopolitanism’s tendency to defend significant legal and political reforms as necessary to address the inequities of a planet where millions of people a year die of starvation or curable diseases (Miller 2007; 2013; Nagel 2005). Nor do cosmopolitanism’s critics necessarily deny that the process of globalization is real, though some of them suggest that its impact has been grossly exaggerated (Kymlicka 1999; Nussbaum et al . 1996; Streeck 2016). Nonetheless, they doubt that humanity has achieved a rich or sufficiently articulated sense of a common fate such that far-reaching attempts to achieve greater global justice (for example, substantial redistribution from the rich to poor) could prove successful. Cosmopolitans not only counter with a flurry of universalist and egalitarian moral arguments, but they also accuse their opponents of obscuring the threat posed by globalization to the particular forms of national community whose ethical primacy communitarians, nationalists, and others endorse. From the cosmopolitan perspective, the tendency to favor moral and political obligations to fellow members of the nation-state represents a misguided and increasingly reactionary nostalgia for a rapidly decaying constellation of political practices and institutions.

A similar divide characterizes the ongoing debate about the prospects of democratic institutions at the global level. In a cosmopolitan mode, Daniele Archibugi (2008) and the late David Held (1995) have argued that globalization requires the extension of liberal democratic institutions (including the rule of law and elected representative institutions) to the transnational level. Nation state-based liberal democracy is poorly equipped to deal with deleterious side effects of present-day globalization such as ozone depletion or burgeoning material inequality. In addition, a growing array of genuinely transnational forms of activity calls out for correspondingly transnational modes of liberal democratic decision-making. According to this model, “local” or “national” matters should remain under the auspices of existing liberal democratic institutions. But in those areas where deterritorialization and social interconnectedness across national borders are especially striking, new transnational institutions (for example, cross-border referenda), along with a dramatic strengthening and further democratization of existing forms of supranational authority (in particular, the United Nations), are necessary if we are to assure that popular sovereignty remains an effective principle. In the same spirit, cosmopolitans debate whether a loose system of global “governance” suffices, or instead cosmopolitan ideals require something along the lines of a global “government” or state (Cabrera 2011; Scheuerman 2014). Jürgen Habermas, a prominent cosmopolitan-minded theorist, has tried to formulate a defense of the European Union that conceives of it as a key stepping stone towards supranational democracy. If the EU is to help succeed in salvaging the principle of popular sovereignty in a world where the decay of nation state-based democracy makes democracy vulnerable, the EU will need to strengthen its elected representative organs and better guarantee the civil, political, and social and economic rights of all Europeans (Habermas 2001, 58–113; 2009). Representing a novel form of postnational constitutionalism, it potentially offers some broader lessons for those hoping to save democratic constitutionalism under novel global conditions. Despite dire threats to the EU posed by nationalist and populist movements, Habermas and other cosmopolitan-minded intellectuals believe that it can be effectively reformed and preserved (Habermas 2012).

In opposition to Archibugi, Held, Habermas, and other cosmopolitans, skeptics underscore the purportedly utopian character of such proposals, arguing that democratic politics presupposes deep feelings of trust, commitment, and belonging that remain uncommon at the postnational and global levels. Largely non-voluntary commonalities of belief, history, and custom compose necessary preconditions of any viable democracy, and since these commonalities are missing beyond the sphere of the nation-state, global or cosmopolitan democracy is doomed to fail (Archibugi, Held, and Koehler 1998; Lieven 2020). Critics inspired by realist international theory argue that cosmopolitanism obscures the fundamentally pluralistic, dynamic, and conflictual nature of political life on our divided planet. Notwithstanding its pacific self-understanding, cosmopolitan democracy inadvertently opens the door to new and even more horrible forms of political violence. Cosmpolitanism’s universalistic normative discourse not only ignores the harsh and unavoidably agonistic character of political life, but it also tends to serve as a convenient ideological cloak for terrible wars waged by political blocs no less self-interested than the traditional nation state (Zolo 1997, 24).

Ongoing political developments suggest that such debates are of more than narrow scholarly interest. Until recently, some of globalization’s key prongs seemed destined to transform human affairs in seemingly permanent ways: economic globalization, as well as the growth of a panoply of international and global political and legal institutions, continued to transpire at a rapid rate. Such institutional developments, it should be noted, were interpreted by some cosmopolitan theorists as broadly corroborating their overall normative aspirations. With the resurgence of nationalist and populist political movements, many of which diffusely (and sometimes misleadingly) target elements of globalization, globalization’s future prospects seem increasingly uncertain. For example, with powerful political leaders regularly making disdainful remarks about the UN and EU, it seems unclear whether one of globalization’s most striking features, i.e., enhanced political and legal decision-making “beyond the nation state,” will continue unabated. Tragically perhaps, the failure to manage economic globalization so as to minimize avoidable inequalities and injustices has opened the door to a nationalist and populist backlash, with many people now ready to embrace politicians and movements promising to push back against “free trade,” relatively porous borders (for migrants and refugees), and other manifestations of globalization (Stiglitz 2018). Even if it seems unlikely that nationalists or populists can succeed in fully halting, let alone reversing, structural trends towards deterritorialization, intensified interconnectedness, and social acceleration, they may manage to reshape them in ways that cosmopolitans are likely to find alarming. Whether or not nationalists and populists can successfully respond to many fundamental global challenges (e.g., climate change or nuclear proliferation), however, remains far less likely.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Globalization

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Globalization by David Atkinson LAST REVIEWED: 18 November 2020 LAST MODIFIED: 02 March 2011 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0009

Globalization is one of the most vibrant, contested, and debated issues in modern international relations. The process is subject to a wide-ranging number of definitions, but most scholars and observers agree that it represents a global process of increasing economic, cultural, and political interdependence and integration, with deep historical roots. It is a process fostered by liberalized international trade and innovations in information technology and communication, which has been promoted and managed to a greater or lesser degree by international institutions, multinational corporations, national governments (especially the United States), international nongovernmental organizations, and even individuals with access to the Internet. The field is particularly subject to the vagaries of events, and as such it is a dynamic literature that is constantly in flux. Nevertheless, the basic outlines of the field are clear. Economic interdependence remains the most obvious and significant manifestation of globalization. Nevertheless, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the myriad additional symptoms of this process; in particular, challenges to the state’s primacy, migration, global security concerns, culture, crime, the environment, and technology. It remains a controversial process that has engendered both withering critiques and staunch defenses, while other scholars debate whether the process is irresistible, irrevocable, reversible, or even whether it represents the global reality at all.

Scholars of globalization are well served by a number of excellent general introductory texts. These overviews provide an indispensable entry point for new students, yet they are rigorous enough to provide new insights, approaches, and methodologies for graduate students and experienced scholars. Osterhammel and Petersson 2005 is a brief historical primer that emphasizes globalization’s deep historical antecedents. It is an indispensable guide for those seeking to explore the context of globalization’s most recent iteration. Ritzer 2010 offers an excellent orientation for those seeking a textbook-style introduction to the theory, debates, critiques, and scope of modern globalization. Similarly, Steger 2009 provides a concise but effective introduction to the myriad issues inherent in the subject. Scholte 2005 also provides an accessible overview of the major debates and themes, while stressing the overarching concept of superterritoriality. For those ready to delve into the often eclectic issues and implications raised by globalization in the modern age, Lechner and Boli 2007 presents a diverse assortment of essays and articles that run the gamut of opinion and methodology. Held and McGrew 1999 is an older but nevertheless excellent introduction to the major themes and debates facing globalization scholars. Once oriented in the theory and issues, new researchers will find Friedman 2000 and Greider 1998 excellent introductions to the often vigorous debates regarding the inevitability, impact, and sustainability of political, economic, and cultural globalization.

Friedman, Thomas L. The Lexus and the Olive Tree . Rev. ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

Popular journalistic account. Sees the process of globalization as inexorable and irrevocable; posits tension between consumer desires and traditional attachment to community. Insightful anecdotes illuminate the argument, but are increasingly outdated. Often betrays bias toward US-led free-market solutions, and its contrived jargon may grate. Lively introduction, best read in conjunction with Greider 1998 .

Greider, William. One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Engaging polemical journalistic treatise against unfettered economic neoliberalism in particular and unregulated global capitalism in general. Sees globalization as a recipe for exploitation and severe economic inequity. Advocates global labor reforms, corrective tariffs, and capital reform. Unashamedly biased toward the left; best read in conjunction with Friedman 2000 .

Held, David, and Anthony McGrew. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics, and Culture . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

Somewhat dated, but nonetheless an extremely well organized, thorough, and largely objective introduction to globalization and its many facets. Includes well-researched and historically grounded sections on historical precedents, violence, trade, finance, corporations, migration, culture, and environmentalism. Highly recommended to beginning undergraduates and graduate students, who should nevertheless bear in mind its age.

Lechner, Frank J., and John Boli, eds. The Globalization Reader . 3d ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.

Exceptionally rich collection of essays on various aspects of globalization. Impressive roster of contributors, ranging from esteemed academics to distinguished practitioners, along with statements from international nongovernmental organizations. Offers something for every researcher, from novice undergraduates to experienced scholars. Highly recommended, albeit eclectic, introductory text.

Osterhammel, Jürgen, and Niels P. Petersson. Globalization: A Short History . Translated by Dona Geyer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Translated from the German original (2003). Short, accessible primer on globalization’s deep historical roots. Brief introductory chapter on theory and concepts, but major focus on historical trends including imperialism, industrialization, emergence of global economy, and modern challenges to globalization. Especially suited to undergraduates and beginning graduate students.

Ritzer, George. Globalization: A Basic Text . Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Thorough, extensive, and coherent introductory textbook. Particularly appropriate for undergraduates and new researchers. Effectively outlines contemporary theories, debates, criticisms, and issues. Includes chapters on historical antecedents, economics, culture, technology, the environment, migration, crime, and inequality.

Scholte, Jan Aart. Globalization: A Critical Introduction . 2d ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Highly praised theoretical introduction to globalization. Clearly presented and well-organized overview of major debates and concepts. Adopts superterritoriality as its organizing theme. Excellent bibliography provides readers of all levels with directions for future research. Suitable for use in the classroom, while experienced researchers will also benefit.

Steger, Manfred B. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction . Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Recently updated text from a popular series of introductory readers. Wide ranging and instructive despite its brevity. Thematic chapters on historical antecedents, economics, politics, culture, ecology, and ideology. Evident bias toward “compassionate forms of globalization,” which may irritate readers seeking a wholly dispassionate account. Nevertheless, an illuminating brief introductory text.

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Effects of Globalization

Definition of globalization, drivers of globalization.

Globalization is defined as interaction among different countries in order to develop global economy. It entails political, technological, cultural and political exchanges which are facilitated by infrastructure, transport and communication. Some of the traditional international theories of globalization include Ricardian theory of international trade, Heckscher-Ohlin model and Adam Smith’s model (Scholte, 2005).

For globalization to take place, it must be driven by certain factors. The first factor that drives globalization is competitiveness in the market, which focuses on aspects such as global competitors, interdependence among countries and high two-way trade. The second factor that drives globalization is the government.

The government drives globalization through regulation of marketing activities, provision of technical standards that are compatible and elimination of restrictions imposed on trade and investment procedures. The third factor that drives globalization is cost.

Cost in globalization deals with efficiency in sourcing activities, world economies and emerging technological trends. The fourth factor that drives globalization is market, which covers ordinary needs of customers, channels of world markets and marketing techniques that can be transferred to different regions.

Globalization is associated with both positive and negative effects. Its first positive effect is that it makes it possible for different countries to exchange their products. The second positive effect of globalization is that it promotes international trade and growth of wealth as a result of economic integration and free trade among countries.

However, globalization is also associated with negative effects. Its first negative effect is that it causes unemployment. Since companies compete with their rivals in the market, sometimes they are forced to sack some of their employees in order to reduce salary costs and instead maximize profits. This is common in developing countries, where large numbers of unemployed people live in urban areas.

The second negative effect of globalization is that it promotes terrorism and criminal activities because people, food and materials are allowed to move freely from one country to the other. Individuals with evil intentions take advantage of this freedom and carry out terrorism activities and other crimes (Negative Effects of Globalization, 2013).

Negative Effects of Globalization. (2013). Web.

Scholte, J. (2005). Globalization: A Critical Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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29 Globalization Theories

Rajnikant Pandey

Introduction

1. Globalization: Definition

2. Theories Of Globalization

2.1 Economic Globalization

2.3 Political Globalization

2.3 Cultural Globalization

3. Anthropology and Globalization Theory Summary

LEARNING OUTCOME

understand the theoretical perspective on globalization
use globalization as theoretical construct shaping the human socio-cultural life
differentiate between globalization as idea and practice
assess the impact of globalization theories on ethnographic research
investigate the role of anthropologist in understanding globalization as process
investigate the role of anthropologist in understanding globalization as idea
define globalization for anthropological purpose
challenge the notion of local global divide

Globalization is a buzzword today. There is extraordinary interest and concern over the globalization in academics. David Harvey claims that the word globalization was ‘entirely unknown before the mid-1970s’ and then it ‘spread like wildfire’. Globalization has attracted the attention of the mass media and general public as well and everyone is trying to grasp and define the phenomena in their own possible ways. Given the complexity of the topic, it is no wonder that there are plenty of controversies on what “globalization” means, and on the theoretical and methodological approaches for studying it.

Globalization as a socio-cultural phenomenon has been investigated by several disciplines and has attracted attention of anthropologist as well. Anthropologists have inquired the impact of globalization on the subject of their inquiry and its relation to traditional anthropological topics. And at the same time anthropologists have formulated theories of globalization which can inform the ethnographic practices and understanding of the socio-cultural life of humanity across the world.

The globalization as a process has influenced the lived reality of world today and subsequently changed the ideas about living in such a global world. These changes in ideas have taken shape in the form of theories of globalization which is highly interdisciplinary in nature. This chapter focuses on the formulation and discussion of anthropological definitions, modes of theorizing, and research methodologies in the field of globalization as well the emerging synthesis in the form of globalizing theories which has potential to influence ethnographic research in the world today.

1. GLOBALIZATION: DEFINITION

During 1990s the term gained utmost prominence and there were hardly any social science talk and texts without mention of globalization. Anthropologists were also influenced by this dramatic upsurge of globalization as idea and practices in academic world. The anthropologist started to engage with globalization in two ways:

a) Understanding globalization as process and its impact on socio-cultural life

b) Understanding globalization as an idea and its theoretical propositions

The books and journals started to appear in mainstream anthropology to capture the nuances of globalization. Mike Featherstone edited a significant book titled Global Culture (1990) to set the agenda for Globalization studies in anthropology. The most prominent works which followed were Ulf Hannerz’s Cultural Complexity (1992), Jonathan Friedman’s Global Identity and Cultural Processes (1994) and Arjun Appadurai’s Modernity at Large (1996).

George Ritzer who is authority on theories of globalization define “globalization as a transplanetary process or set of processes involving increasing liquidity and the growing multidirectional flows of people, objects, places and information as well as the structures they encounter and create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows ”.

Ted C. Lewellen in his book The Anthropology of Globalization (2002) define “contemporary globalization as the increasing flow of trade, finance, culture, ideas, and people brought about by the sophisticated technology of communications and travel and by the worldwide spread of neoliberal capitalism, and it is the local and regional adaptations to and resistances against these flows”.

Both the definitions are similar and prioritize the flows and connections of different kind and at the same time barriers and resistance which exist at global scale to counter these flows. The later aspect has been emphasized by anthropologist to understand globalization as a process leading towards disconnection, dispossessions, exclusions, and marginalization for many in the world.

Globalization old or new

The most contested issues in theorizing globalization is whether it is old or new process. The people who think that globalization is new emphasize the pace and nature of global connection which exists today is unprecedented and has never been seen in the human past. The supporters of old globalization have provided evidences of global network of trade commerce, pilgrimage and migration in at least 5000 year human history. Some even suggest that first human being walking out of Africa was first step towards globalization. The historical evidences suggest that human being have maintained strong network of places and people in the past as well and which have only intensified in the present time. Many suggest that globalization can be thought of as the outcome of imperialism, colonization, development and subsequent westernization and Americanization of world set in motion in recent past.

2. THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION

The globalization studies have emphasized the importance of role of free market and transnational capitalism in global changes. However there are clear depictions of legal, political, social and cultural aspect of human life being influenced by global economic flows. There is prominence of theories which give significance to techno-economic understanding of globalization and other aspect of globalization as extension of economic sphere. For the purpose of our understanding we are following George Ritzer (2011) who has discussed the theories of globalization in following headings to understand it separately. But there is always overlap between one and other processes of globalization and they cannot be separated as neatly as it seems in the following discussions.

The global markets of money, labour, capital, goods and services are basic features of globalization theories.

Most of the economic theories of globalization are neo-liberal and neo-Marxian in its approach.

Neo-liberalism: Neo –liberal theories which emerged in 1930s to put forth the ides of free operation of market, opposition to state interventions and individual liberty shaped the processes of economic globalization and thinking about it. Milton Friedman and set of Chicago economists are major economists who gave neo-liberalism an ideological face. William Easterly and others favors the free market and market fundamentalism as basic virtue of economic success. There is strong faith in global expansion of capitalist system and its inherent virtue to trickle down to all participants. Deregulation, privatization and free trade are basic necessity. Spending on welfare by state should be curbed and limited government intervention is required for global outreach of capital.

Neo-Marxian: Leslie Sklair takes a new Marxian approach to the understanding of globalization. He proposes that there are two kinds of globalization 1) capitalist globalization and 2) socialist globalization. The spread of transnational capitalism is an important factor behind capitalist globalization. In capitalist globalization transnational capitalist class made up of four set of capitalists. The socialist globalization is coming forward as resistance to these different set of capitalists.

Another very important theoretical approach was developed by neo-Marxists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s in their work Empire (2000) and Multitude (2004). They use the metaphor of empire to present a postmodern Marxian understanding of globalized economy.

The thinkers from different field like Giddens a sociologist, Harvey a geographer, etc emphasize the compression of time and space as important factor of economic globalization. Rapid communication and transportation have compressed the space and structured it into a single global time. Manual Castelles proposed the idea of network society which characterizes the present day global economic order. The multicentered networks of capital information and power rule the world through the help of highly mobile managerial elites who are the dominant actors in the flows.

2.2 Political Globalization

Political scientist and sociologist have given attention to the global play of power by new agencies in the present economic world. The discipline called international relation has emerged as specialist set of knowledge to study these developments. The scholars are discussing the decreasing significance of nation state and national identity. Denationalization is dominant theme in theories of globalization across the discipline.

David Held a British sociologist theorizes the global challenges to nation state and national sovereignty as mainstay of globalization. He believes that political decision making international legal frameworks for rights and duties and cultural contact are responsible for weakening of nation state. The role of United States and Civil society organization in promoting universal declarations on several political agenda is posing threat to role of nation state in these matters. However several nation states have maintained sovereignty in relations to human mobility and finance.

Ulrich Beck differentiates between “globalism” and “globality” to discuss the globalization. The globalism model prioritizes the economic flow and reduces everything else as subsidiary of it. Instead he advocate for globality which give equal importance to ecology, culture, civil society and politics in theorizing globalization. Beck believes globality is are making nation state illlusiory and is important in founding of global democracy.

The cultural globalization discusses the issues of flows of culture and how it impacts the human life in the world today. Jan Nederveen Pieterse (2004) has identified three major paradigms in theorizing the cultural aspects of globalization, specifically on the centrally important issue of whether cultures around the globe are eternally different, converging, or creating new “hybrid” forms out of the unique combination of global and local cultures. It has developed and discussed by George Ritzer as major way of looking at cultural globalization and its potential implications for economic and political globalization as well. The three type of cultural globalization are

Cultural Differentialism
Cultural Convergence
Cultural Hybridization

Cultural Differeentialism: This mode of thinking emphasizes the stubborn nature of culture and its retaining capacity to diffrences. This also tends to focus upon the core of the culture which remains unaffaected by the processes of globalization though surface structure may change because of global connecettedness. The most famous example of this theory is Clash of Civilization thesis proposed by Samual P Huttington. He uses the world civilization to describe the coherent cultural identities which exist in the world and identifies eight such cultures in the world today. He proposes a historical argument to predict the clash of these different civilizations in future.

Huntington is concerned about the decline of the West, especially of the United States. He sees the United States, indeed all societies, as threatened by their increasing multicivilizational or multicultural character. For him, the demise of the United States effectively means the demise of Western civilization. Without a powerful, unicivilizational United States, the West is minuscule. For the West to survive and prosper, the United States must do two things. First, it must reaffirm its identity as a Western (rather than a multicivilizational) nation. Second, it must reaffirm and reassert its role as the leader of Western civilization around the globe. The reassertion and acceptance of Western civilization (which would also involve a renunciation of universalism), indeed all civilizations, is the surest way to prevent warfare between civilizations.

Cultural Convergence: Cultural convergence focuses upon the systematic homogenization and similarity of cultures across the globe. There is increasing sameness in the cultures in the world today because of the local cultures assimilation in dominant cultures. This similarities in culture is leading towards prominent changes in local cultures, however local realities are surviving in one way or other ways.

Cultural imperialism is an idea which reflects upon the influences of dominant cultures on local cultures being imposed consciously or unconsciously. This may result in complete transformation of local culture or in most of the case partial changes in one or other dimension of culture. The cultural hegemony of north countries on south is clearly visible today and many local cultures are threatened or being destroyed because of cultural imperialism. This view celebrates the formulation of new global culture replacing all local cultural deficiencies.

The related idea of Detrritorialization emphasizes the decreasing significance of place or geography in cultural experiences. The events and innovations in other parts of world have impact today in local everyday lives. The role of media and communication technology is significant in cultural imperialism as well as deterritorialization.

World Culture idea of cultural convergence highlights the structural isomorphism throughout the world. There is surprising amount of uniformity which exists today because of spread of similar models of politics, education, business, family etc. Advocates of this idea pursue the aim of bringing a homogenized world culture which will be enabling and empowering for people all across the world. The world culture approach looks at the positive side of singular global culture and suggests the models to bring changes for achieving this goal. Standard, guidelines and protocols are being devised to guide the establishment of one World Culture.

McDonaldization as a global homozenizing idea was proposed by Sociologist George Ritzer. He clearly outlines the principles which govern the McDonald fast food restaurant’s successful functioning. These principles are efficiency, calculability, predictability, control, and ironically the irrationality of rationality. He believes that these principles of McDonald have taken over not only on the ways which fast food industry is organized but also the various sector of life like education, NGOs, Church etc. across the world have started functioning.

Globalization of Nothing is another important contribution of Ritzer in the theories of globalization which emphasize upon the affinity between Globalization and Nothing. From nothing he means empty forms which are devoid of distinctive contents against something which is full forms rich in contents. He proposes that there is increase of these empty forms because they are easy to reproduce and transported. The world wide spread of these similar empty forms like shopping complexes, tourist sites etc. is leaving world without any diversity and content. This he calls globalization of nothing. He believe that the imperialistic tendencies of powerful nations, corporations and international organization and their desire motivated by economic growth and profit to impose themselves throughout the world is responsible for the increasing nothingness. He calls this growth motivated globalization as grobalization.

Cultural hybridization: It is about production of new and unique hybrids because of the mixing of cultures. In this sense globalization is creative process leading to new cultural realities. Roland Robertson has coined a term ‘Glocalization’ to refer to the process of interpretation of global and local resulting into new outcomes in different geographical locations. Hybridization itself is a term which refers to making of cultural hybrids with mixed traits. Creolization refers to the mixing of language and culture into unique acceptable forms.

Arjun Appadurai in his Modernity at large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalizations proposed the idea of global flow and disjuncture within it. His contribution is central to the anthropological understanding of globalization. He elaborates his understanding of global flows against five scapes of globalization.

ethnsocape is the scape of identity with people and community in any geographical area. This scape is in flow because of people are highly mobile and their community identity is not fixed in place. They may recognize cognitively with the place of origin but living realty as tourist, migrants, refugee, expatriates etc. detach them from any fixed territory. Those who cannot move live with imagination and fantasies of movement.

technoscapes represents the flows through information and transportation technology at global scale. The technoscapes have changed the

finanacescapes are the rapid flows of huge sum of money across the world at unimaginable speed. The stock exchange and digital transfer of money have changed the way economies are connected and exchange are made.

Mediascapes involves the images and information created by media and the way it is electronically communicated within no time. The power of media to influence the mode of thinking and imagining is also very important in living in a global world.

Ideoscapes are political ideas and propaganda which are propagated by state and it spreads and engulf the thinking about political possibilities. The counter ideas to stae also are part and parcel of ideoscape having equal effect in channelizing anti state sentiment.

These multiple scapes are disjunctive and they are flowing in different direction and at different speed. The way we experience these flows are fragmented and it leads to the creation of hybrid forms in cultures.

3. Anthropology and Globalization Theory

The anthropologist used the idea of globalization and its theories to understand the changing landscape of locations in which they conduct fieldwork. The anthropologists who were traditionally focusing on bounded local communities unaffected by outside influences were challenged by globalization thinkers to look for the outside influences including their own on the ethnographic practices. The theoretical tools were designed and borrowed to inform the new realities of local in a global world.

The globalization itself has provided opportunities for anthropologist to have easy and frequent access to the field. Availability of writings of native anthropologists can build a tradition of multi vocal understanding of the field. At the same time some anthropologists have taken this opportunity to celebrate the local and challenge the global onslaught on culture and tradition of remote people. The barriers across region have not necessarily been erased and some anthropologists have carved new ethnographic regions, for instance, South Asia to represent the people living in a landmass.

However the globalization approach in anthropology is not altogether new. The early thinkers of Political Economy and World System approach were emphasizing the impact of dominant core on recessive periphery. Ande Gunder Frank and Historian Immanuel Wallerstein set the agenda for understanding the underdeveloped economy crumbling under the developed west. Eric Wolf and Peter Worsley followed the trend in anthropology and criticized the Global capitalism and its impact on local people. These theories are looking at unidirectional flow whereas globalization is about the multidirectional influence, at least in principle.

Jonathan Friedman has coined his neologism Global Systemic approach to address the global in anthropology. He distinguishes his approach from globalization theories in anthropology. In his approach the global and local or at same plane and there is no higher global place floating above the local. Though local is always part of global but it does not mean that local is produced by global. The global is arena of interaction among the localities and global systemic is the study of logics of such interactions and the processes that emerge from such interactions. For him the globalization theory is empiricist and looks at apparent surface phenomena of flow, movement, media and networks instead of the underlying structure which makes this phenomenon apparent. Global systemic approach calls for a transdisciplinary study of these underlying structures of social reproduction and history of human species.

The Globalization theory in anthropology is represented by the work of Ulf Hannerez, Arjun Appadurai and Cultural Sociologist Roland Robertson. Ulf Hannerez, A Swedish anthropologist is prominent name in theorizing about globalization in anthropology. He considered Globalization as Global aspect of modernity rather than all-encompassing Global Village approach. He proposes to redefine culture signifying flow, process and partial integration instead of bounded integrated static whole. He emphasizes the understanding of intermixing of cultures and making of new forms and called it ‘cultural creolization’. According to his view global processes has impact on local life and culture. Generally the local resist and come out with innovative creative forms of hybrids in this process. Arjun Appadurai who has been discussed above is another name to shape the ideas of global culture and its local entanglements.

French Anthropologist Marc Auge wrote a seminal work Non-Places to question the future of anthropological notion of place, culture and community in the time of flux and global changes. He argued that stability of place can no longer be taken for granted in this disembedded world. The Actor Network Theory a specialty in Science and Technology Studies propounded by French Anthropologist Bruno Latour is also an approach fit for doing fieldwork in globalized world of science and technology. His theory talks about the processes of translation and networking in various shifting contexts of material and nonmaterial realities.

The major theoretical argument in anthropology developed as a critic of globalization. It critiqued the one way process of globalization and its role in perpetuating the global inequality. The critics have termed it as new imperialism and a catchy metaphor to mask the threat it poses for losers of globalization from the winners. The globalization theory is nothing more than diffusionism where Euro American West is new Egypt.

Whatever the critique may be the anthropologists are encountering hybrid cultures and life forms in their field which are mix of local national and global. The identity of anthropologist has also been shaped by these realities of mixing and making of new forms. The globalization theory provides important insight to look at these new realities of human life and culture.

The module is focused upon the theoretical framework to understand the Globalization and how globalization itself provides the approaches to understand the changing dimension of society and culture in present time. The globalization theory has been discussed in terms of three major dimensions economic, political and cultural. In anthropology globalization theories have been utilized to decontextualize the local and free it from the boundedness in time and space. The cultural globalization and its theoretical nuances are important for apprehending the global-local binaries which informs the human realities today.

References:

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland and Finn Sivert Nielsen, 2014, A History of Anthropology, Pluto Press.
Barnard, Alan 2000, History and Theory in Anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nederveen Pieterse, J. 2004. Globalization and Culture: Global Melange. Rowman and Littlefield.
Stiglitz, J. 2002, Globalization and its Discontents, Allen Lane.
M. Featherstone (ed.) 1990, Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, Sage.
Arjun Appadurai. 1996 Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, University of Minnesota Press.
George Ritzer 2011, Globalization: The Essentials, John Wiley & Sons.
Ted C. Lewellen , 2010, The Anthropology of Globalization, Rawat Publication.
Robbins, R. 2008. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, Prentice Hall.
M. Kearney 1995, The Local and the Global: The Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism, Annual Review of Anthropology Vol. 24: 547-565.
Jonathan Friedman 2007 Global Systems, Globalization, and Anthropological Theory in Ino Rossi edited Frontiers of Globalization: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches Springer.

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Theories of Globalization

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Globalization Essays

Introduction

Globalization is simply defined as an integration process where business organizations start to carry out their organizations on an international scale. In the globalization process, the organizations begin to market and purchase internationally. Usually, the international trade receives the support of the government through various enabling policies such as incentives, reduced duties on imports and exports and opening up markets for both international and local firms. Over the past few decades, the globalization process has been promoted by corporations (vAn PAAsschEn, 2015). The result is the ability of businesses to create more job opportunities, improved quality of goods and services and improved technology leading to innovations and inventions.

Nearly 40 years ago, the international trade was scaling at slightly less than 30 percent of the world’s GDP. Currently, the global trade contributes approximately 60 percent of the global GDP. Internet technology which has greatly improved communications on the global basis is one of the greatest contributing factors to the increased globalization of trade. Globalization also has some disadvantages to the involved countries. The problems encountered due to globalization include environmental problems such as emission of unwanted gases, financial instability in various countries and cyber insecurity that has resulted from the increased reliance on technology for many business functions. This article will discuss various theories of globalization which include world-system theory, world-culture theory, and world society theory.

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World System Theory

The World Theory System of globalization involves division of labor among the international countries involved. The labor is divided into semi-periphery regions, periphery regions, and core regions. The core regions have their primary concern on the production practices which require a lot of capital and involve higher levels of skills. The rest of the globe are involved in the extraction of the raw materials and the production practices which require less capital, low levels of skills and are labor intensive (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2017).

The World System Theory, also known as world-system analysis, was developed by Immanuel Wallerstein. The theory development began in the 1970s when Immanuel was trying to explain the accidental rise of capitalist world-economy. In the initial stages, the theory had its roots in sociology; however, it has developed into a multi-disciplinary field. The primary aim that Immanuel had in mind was to replace the modernization theory which he criticized greatly because of the following reasons: first, the modernization theory had its focus more on the nation-state as the only analysis unit. Secondly, the theory disregarded the transnational structures and so its development was more of local and national. Finally, the modernization theory had the assumption that there was just a single path towards the evolutionary development. Before its full development, there are some three theories that influence the stages of the world-systems theory. The Annales School, the Marxist tradition, and the dependence theory all contributed towards achieving the international interdependence in trade, thus, globalization (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2017).

In the word system theory, countries from different parts of the globe are divided by their strength in the production line. It is certain that different countries have different abilities to produce goods and services depending on the availability of raw materials, financial ability, levels of skills among the labor, and the technological advancement. The theory, therefore, provides for an interdependence scheme that makes all the countries involved feel important and beneficial to the global trade.

Currently, the nature of the market demands that constant research is done in different industries to aid in inventions and innovations. Some countries which belong to the semi-periphery and periphery division are rich in natural resources but lack the financial capabilities to research on them and extract the resources. The core countries, therefore, come to assist in providing the required skilled labor and funds that help to extract and utilize the resources. The business organizations from the periphery and semi-periphery division will then import the finished products ready for consumption (Bondebjerg, 2014).

In today’s business world, competition is a key player in the trade. Various organizations, therefore, explore different strategies to remain relevant in the market. The strategies revolve around research abilities, marketing strategies, quality of goods and services, and the cost of production. These factors have led to the international exploration by the organizations from the core countries, as they look for raw materials, a pool of labor and market for their goods and services.

World Culture Theory

Concerning this theory, globalization can be defined as the process of compressing the world and intensifying the globe’s consciousness. The theory relies on the continued efforts to make the world a single place with one cultural aspect of the trade. In the late 1880s, there began an international integration process where the international communications, transport system, and international conflicts, started to take an internationally intensified approach across the borders of the international community. Four main pillars of globalization were identified during this period. The pillars include the individual-self, nation-state, world system and the humanity.

The world culture theory is thus, defined as the type of globalization which focusses on the global countries and individuals become conscious of the world as a single place with a common economic goal. The theory promotes a concrete global interdependence in various production units. The theory abolishes the autonomy of the individual actors and economic practices to a more unified system. This theory, is, therefore, based on the cultural belief of the fact that the different countries of the globe need to live as a single economic unit with a shared economic interest. The recent advancement in information and communication technologies is a remarkable improvement towards the achievement of the dream (Bondebjerg, 2014).

The idea of globalization brought about by the world culture began in the 1870s. During the period, the ideas about the nationalism, individual and the humanity started to form, leading to the coalescence of the world functions. The initial phase was then followed by a long phase of development which lasted up to the late 19th century. During this phase, the mere ideas took a more concrete developmental twist. For example, the states which were initially self-centered began to take part in the international relations (Gebert, Mattsson & Öberg, 2015).

With the culture of togetherness, trade receives a lot of boost from both the government policies and research abilities. The countries with the right resources but limited skilled-labor or funds can easily partner with another nation to be able to research on and extract the resources. Also, the international business organizations can freely set up production units, market and sell in different countries with much ease. The current business organizations tend to find more markets, labor, and raw materials from different countries to be able to produce high-quality goods and services at low production costs. The culture of oneness has enabled this process by the governments of various nations accepting to trade across the borders.

The world culture theory of globalization has far-reaching benefits due to its approach to the international trade. The feeling of togetherness and oneness under the umbrella of humanity has enabled all the involved countries to feel equally valued in trade, and so there is the willingness to merge all the resources towards the trade. Innovations and technological improvement have therefore, resulted from the global research conducted. Embracing the theory has created international jobs, thus, contributing to reduced global poverty levels (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2017).

World Society Theory

The theory is also known as the World Polity Theory, first put forward by Medieval Christendom. This theory focuses on creating a transnational interaction where institutions are set up with the similar set of rules or models. This system creates value by conferring institutional authorities in a collective manner. There is no single actor in this system who defines the valuable policies for the globe. Instead, the various states have the responsibility of acting within the international policies as described by the culture of the world society. There are the universally applicable models which the member states use to come up with the collective goals, and the methods that are used to achieve the goals. Some considerable similarity among the differently situated states is created by the enactment of the global models (Rask, 2014).

The innovation of the world polity theory was much intense in the late 19th century. Many global organizations began the process of forming transnational rules that the individual states were bound to follow. The idea began after 1945 when the global oneness improved through the efforts of various international organizations. After the Second World War, the world saw the need of global models that various nations would use to foster development, progress, and justice. This practice was further intensified by the Cold War.

When one or two organizations come together, they do so with a purpose, and in an outlined structure. The world society theory outlines a coming together of the international organizations, through various policies and rules. The policies are created after thorough market research and intensive analysis. They are therefore, beneficial for most of the member states in matters relating to trade. The today’s organizations do benefit much from the international models because they provide updated methods, goals and objectives. The organizations are thus, able to save the funds that they would have used in research.

The theory of international model has benefited the various involved organizations in reducing costs that would have been used in research and outsourcing of information from various foreign markets. The policies that the international community comes with are based on updated information and can be applied in both the small and large-scale businesses (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2017). Also, the theory gives the individual states the freedom of coming up with their own goals based on the model and the methods by which the goals are supposed to be achieved.

References

Baylis, J., Smith, S., & Owens, P. (Eds.). (2017). The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations . Oxford University Press.

Bondebjerg, I. (2014). Engaging with reality: Documentary and globalization . Intellect Ltd.

Gebert Persson, S., Mattsson, L. G., & Öberg, C. (2015). Has research on the internationalization of firms from an IMP perspective resulted in a theory of internationalization? IMP Journal , 9 (2), 208-226.

Rask, M. (2014). Internationalization through business model innovation: In search of relevant design dimensions and elements. Journal of International Entrepreneurship , 12 (2), 146-161.

vAn PAAsschEn, F. (2015). Globalization from a business leader's point of view. Brown J. World Aff. , 22 , 175.

The key knowledge areas in project management
Howard Hughes as an Entrepreneur

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English Studies

This website is dedicated to English Literature, Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, English Language and its teaching and learning.

Globalization Theory, Theorists and Arguments

Globalization theory examines interconnectedness and cross-cultural exchanges in literature to anlayze texts for globalizational phenomenon.

Introduction

Table of Contents

Globalization theory examines the interconnectedness and cross-cultural exchanges in literature, analyzing how literary texts from diverse regions and societies reflect and respond to globalization. It also investigates how globalization impacts themes, narratives, characters , and literary techniques. Globalization theory also aims at explaining how writers engage with the complexities of globalized identities, hybridity, and diasporic experiences. By exploring the transnational flow of ideas, languages, and cultures in literature, this theory demonstrates an understanding of the role literature plays in shaping and challenging the transforming global landscape.

Etymology and Meanings of Globalization Theory

Paul Jay is perhaps the first theorist who has outlined globalization literary theory in his book, Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies , published in 2010. He coined the term global theory. He states it is a framework that delves into how global processes impact literary output and how this output responds to global processes, shifting the focus from traditional, national-centered perspectives to a more interconnected world.

Globalization Theory As a Literary Theory

Definition : Globalization theory as a literary theory refers to an interdisciplinary approach that examines how literature reflects and engages with the processes of globalization. It explores the representation and influence of global interconnectedness , cultural exchange, and transnational themes within literary works.
Focus on Interconnectedness : Globalization theory emphasizes the interconnected nature of contemporary literature, considering how authors and texts respond to global events, flows of people, ideas, and cultural exchange. It shows the critique to look at how globalization shapes literary narratives and characters.
Transnational Themes : Globalization theory often focuses on themes that transcend national boundaries, such as migration, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, hybridity, and the erosion of cultural barriers. It looks at how these themes literary works portray.
Impact on Form and Genre : This theory also explores how the influence of globalization extends beyond content to affect the form and genre of literary texts. It investigates how global perspectives shape narratives and how writers experiment with new forms to represent global complexities.
Postcolonial Perspective : Globalization literary theory often intersects with postcolonial studies , examining how globalization perpetuates or challenges the legacies of colonialism and imperialism in literary representations.
Cultural Identity and Hybridity : Globalization literary theory delves into how globalization influences cultural identities and highlights the concept of hybridity, where cultural traditions intersect and merge, shaping the voices and perspectives of literary works.
Global Literary Canon : Globalization theory also addresses the formation of a global literary canon, considering which texts from different cultures and regions gain prominence and how they contribute to a shared global literary heritage.
Critiques and Challenges : Like any theory, Globalization theory in literature faces critiques, including concerns about cultural homogenization, Western dominance, and the commodification of diverse narratives in the global literary market.
Evolution and Future Directions : As a dynamic field, Globalization theory in literature continues to evolve, adapting to new global realities, technological advancements, and ongoing transformations in the literary landscape.
Interdisciplinary Nature : Globalization theory often collaborates with other disciplines such as cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and political science to gain a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between literature and globalization.
Literature as a Mirror of Globalization : Globalization theory also views literature as a mirror of our interconnected world, reflecting the complexities, challenges, and possibilities that arise from the process of globalization.

Theorists, Works and Arguments about Globalization Literary Theory

Significance of globalization theory in english studies.

It holds significant importance in English Studies as it facilitates a deeper understanding of how literature and language are shaped and influenced by the interconnectedness of cultures and societies worldwide. Through the lens of globalization, scholars can analyze how literary texts traverse geographic and cultural boundaries, exploring themes of migration, diaspora, and hybridity.

It offers insights into the evolving nature of English as a global language, examining its usage and impact in diverse contexts. Moreover, it enables a critical examination of postcolonial and transcultural literature, revealing the complexities of power dynamics, identity negotiation, and cultural exchange. Overall, the incorporation of globalization theory enriches English Studies by fostering a broader perspective on literary and linguistic phenomena in an increasingly interconnected and diverse world.

No Hope ? An Essay on Globalization Theories and the Legal Institution Building Processes in Postcommunist Europe

Référence bibliographique

Skapska Grazyna. No Hope ? An Essay on Globalization Theories and the Legal Institution Building Processes in Postcommunist Europe. In: Droit et société , n°35, 1997. Globalisation des échanges et espaces juridiques. pp. 47-60.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/dreso.1997.1397

www.persee.fr/doc/dreso_0769-3362_1997_num_35_1_1397

RIS (ProCite, Endnote, ...)

Résumé (fre)

Pas d'espoir ? Un essai sur les théories de la globalisation et les processus de construction des institutions juridiques dans l'Europe postcommuniste.

L'auteur montre que, pour les démocraties en voie de développement, un certain espoir lié à des opportunités certaines est inhérent au processus de globalisation du droit. Elle indique aussi les obstacles qui se dressent sur la route.

Résumé (eng)

The author shows how some hope linked to real opportunities for newly developing democracies is inherent in the globalization of law processes. She also indicates the obstacles that arise along this road.

Texte intégral

An Essay on Globalization Théories and the Légal Institution Building Processes in Postcommunist Europe

Droit et Société 35-1997 (p. 47-60)

Grazyna Skapska *

Professeur à l'Institut de sociologie (Deputy Director de cet institut) de la Jagiellonian Uni- versiry, Cracovie, Pologne. Spécialisée en sociologie du droit et théorie sociale. S'intéresse particulièrement à la transformation des rapports entre droit et société après 1989. Parmi ses publications récentes :

— « The Legacy of Anti-Lega- lism », dans M. Krygier (éd.), Marxism and Communism. Post- humous Réfections on Politics, Society and Law, Amsterdam/ Atlanta, Rodopi, 1993 ;

— A Fourth Way ? Privatization, Property and the Emergence of New Market Economies (eds, en collab. avec G.S. Alexander), New York/London, Routledge, 1994 ;

— « From Rights to Myths. Transformation in Post-Com- munist Europe », dans A. Sajo (éd.), Rights after Communism, Amsterdam, Kluwer, 1996 :

— « The Paradigm Lost ? The Constirutional Process in Poland and the Hope of a "Grass Roots Constitutionalism" », dans A. Czarnota and M. Krygier (eds), Rule ofLaw after Communism, Darmouth, 1997 (à paraître) ;

— Re-Constitution of Society. Constitution-Making Processes in Central Europe in Light of Social Theory (à paraître).

* Institute of Sociology, The Jagiellonian University, ul. Grodzka 52, 31-144 Krakow, Poland.

1. Anthony Giddens, The Conséquences of Modernity, Cambridge (UK), Polity Press, 1990, p. 63.

The concept of globalization plays nowadays an enormous rôle in explanation of modem phenomena and processes.

« Modernity is inherently globalising, writes Anthony Giddens, this is évident in some of the most basic characteristics of modem institutions, including particularly their disembeddedness and re- flexivity 1. »

Globalization means therefore globalization of the modernity, or currently late modernity effects in form of the growing flexibil- ity, and even fluidity as well as abstractness and discontinuity of

No Hope ? An Essay on

Globalization Théories

and the Légal Institution

Building Processes

in Postcommunist Europe

institutions, and in form of equalization, and anonimization of social phenomena and relations 2. Late modernity is further charac- terized by surveillance exercised by the anonymous and abstract, controlling institutions over the real social phenomena3.

Obviously then, processes of globalization take ever greater attention within the socio-legal discourse 4. Then it is clear : world- wide social relations are intensifying, especially those which take place on the market : not only market of goods, but also of ideas.

Together with globalization of exchange, the necessity of har- monization of intensive and complex relations émerges, that is followed by efforts to create common, supra- or transnational^ valid law.

Globalization assumes a dynamics, a movement.

According to the first argument presented hère, dynamics of globalization has not only endogenous sources, but results from its confrontation with a counter movement : particularization, fragmentation, with the quest for identity observable in the ever more visible importance of localism, together with protectionistic économie policies and émergence of new frontiers. Hence, in the light of the proposition based on such an argument, it is not uniquely the globalization itself , but the dynamics of the processes of globalization-localism which pose the challenge to social praxis and the real issue for sociological and socio-legal investigation.

Those counter, globalization-localization tendencies charac- teristic of modem world are of spécial interest of countries which newly won their sovereignty and independence, but which aspire to be members of supra-national organizations : the European postcommunist countries aspiring to be members of the European Community. With regard to thèse countries, the rather pessimistic opinions concerning either obstacles to intégration or the « neo- colonial » effects of globalization are viewed. On the part of global analysis of the international économie System development, the costs of intégration and the market compétition are stressed as the main barriers to intégration of postcommunist countries within the Union 5. On the part of sociological globalization theory, predomi- nantly in its neo-marxist version, the neo-colonial effects of the world-capitalist System on those countries economy and culture are of concern6.

Moreover, in the very similar vain, the « neo-colonial » effects of supra-national intégration, especially with regard to political sovereignty and cultural identity are also of strong concern of the représentatives of particularistic, culture, identity and local tradition oriented approach. Within it, the issue of state sovereignty is raised, and also issues of particularistic, rooted in the local culture and traditions legitimacy, validity of law and its authority.

The question about any hope, that is about any possibility of intégration of those countries into the broader, supranational

framework, and simultaneously the question of any possibility of Droit et Société 35-1997

positive outcomes of that intégration are then on the agenda of politicians and scientists. Thèse questions would be answered with great caution by the représentatives of économie approach, and negatively as well by the représentatives of the neo-marxist théories (unless the capitalist world System changes to a socialist one) as by the représentatives of particularistic, culture and tradition oriented approach.

According to the second argument of this essay however, social processes are contingent. Also globalization processes do not hâve prescribed and determined « neo-colonial » outcomes, hence they are always confronted with social, political and économie environment in which they occur. Predominantly, their outcomes are influenced by local cultures, local traditions and by social actors : especially those who take part in decision-making processes. In the light of such an argument, the globalization the- ory itself, especially, but not uniquely, in its neo-marxist version, concernée! with the core-periphery differentiation and the devel- opment of the capitalist world System, is characterized by serious theoretical shorteomings. Let me enumerate them.

The first of those shorteomings consists in simplification of conceptual framework, in the deterministic concept of develop- ment and the « essentialist » concepts of capitalism : the former as a process resulting from the opération of some systemic forces, the latter as having definite form and content. The second short- coming of globalization théories consists in the fact that they take no account of human factor in the process of social change, they do not account of societies composed of people, but speak rather about « systemic forces » and « movements ». The third consists in their unilinear concept of development and globalization, as determined by the endogenous, systemic factors and not as resulting from the dynamics globalization-localization processes. The fourth consists in their simplified and functionalist concept of institutions, especially of law.

In the light of the argument stressing contingency of social processes however, and the criticism of neo-marxist versions of globalization théories, the form and contents of the response of posteommunist societies to the challenges but also to the potential opportunities opened by inter-nationalization of relations at least to some degree correlate with traditions, local légal cultures, social mentalities, idéologies, and intelligent reactions of their political élites to neo-colonial challenges and civilizational potentials of globalization of law.

According to the third argument, in the globalization processes not only menaces and threats, but also potentials are inhérent. With regard to the globalization of law the possible threats are well described by sociological theory : it is maintained that with the

intensification of exchange, and the growing complexity of the global market, social relations are to the ever greater extent regu- lated and controlled by anonymous, abstract and « disembedded » légal institutions 7.

On the other hand however, globalization processes are not confined to the exchange of commodities. Globalization has a potential of exchange of ideas, particularly ideas concerning social and civic rights, of enlargement of public discourse about those rights, and of création of the supra-national or trans-national mechanisms of rights création and application.

Those potentials of the processes of globalization, once actu- alized, open the new possibilités for the justification and légitimation of abstract and disembedded supra-national or trans-national légal institutions.

The aim of this essay is then to show some theoretically possible hope, some opportunities for the newly developing démocraties, inhérent in the globalization of law processes, but also to indicate impediments on this road. The essay itself has a form of a gênerai hypothesis, and the formulated suggestions concern exploration of possibilités inhérent in the concept of globalization.

To import some concrète context to the abstract concept of globalization, let us consider arguments in a debate currently tak- ing place in Poland : one of those countries which actually strive to enter the strong supra-national économie, political and military organizations, and which try to become partners in the world exchange. The opponents in this debate are colloquially called « Europeans » and « Patriots ». Arguments of those two collective actors will be presented in a simplified, ideal-typical way 8.

The « Europeans » argue for a quick alignment with the Euro- pean Union, and with the NATO. Apart from the « Europeans »' understanding of the Polish vested political and économie inter- ests, the content of their arguments is rather broad. From the broad spectrum of argumentation, the main issues of the debate could be distilled : the « Europeans » underline the need of acceler- ated modernization, they emphasize the technological gap, as well as a gap of knowledge and practical skills characteristic of the postcommunist societies confronted with the developed West. The economist fraction among the « Europeans », the libéral fraction, argues for the quick transformation of the légal System in order to make it instrumental to the implementation of the developed économie institutions and to the alignment with the developed capi- talist corporations. The intellectual fraction stresses the universal, and unattenable civil and human rights. The « Europeans » emphasize further the need of modernization of social outlooks and cul- tural patterns : they advocate for an open society, the open and free economy, free movement of people and ideas, and in such a

context they oppose the local, national or religious barriers to the formation of an open society institutions. They believe in a possi- bility of rational social arrangements, based on the universally valid rational arguments. As they argue, in the process of création their institutions the East Central Europeans are however not dépendent on themselves, since, firstly, rights and liberties are universal, secondly, there exist model institutions in the developed countries. The point of view similar to that of the « Europeans » in Poland is very well summarized by a sociologist engaged in the process of reform in Hungary. According to her : « Considering liberties, they are already so well developed in existing libéral democ- racies, that the emerging libéral democracies hâve but to take them up 9. »

In their argumentation one can detect then the ideas of Enlightment : redress to universal rules of rationality, universalistic concepts of freedom, propositions to create law according to the universally binding rational rules. The « Europeans » seem to rep- resent then the not more up to date rationalistic-universalistic outlook of the « Old, Dead White Men », such as French Encyclo- paedists, the creators of the Napoléon Code, the Fathers of the xvnth and xk* century liberalism.

The « Patriots » vehemently oppose ideas of taking up from the more developed countries their institutional arrangements based on the model of universalistic liberties and implementing them in Poland, so much as they oppose the idea of modernization through accommodation to the supra-national European structures and standards. That goes together with their opposition to the merging of Polish economy with foreign, or multinational, capital. More often than not, they express critical views toward liberalism, which in Poland, as well as for instance in Hungary, currently has strong péjorative undertone, and toward capitalist economy, as subordi- nated to the universal standards of efficiency, conflicting with national interests and national culture10. The culture itself is de- scribed as Christian-national, and as such it is opposed to the « cosmopolitic » civic culture. Therefore, they oppose the idea of modernization of social outlooks and existing cultural patterns : their « americanization ». For them, the question of salient importance is the one concerning Polish state sovereignty and national identity. Consequently they oppose « unconditioned » unification with the European institutions, and express strong criticism toward the European conceptualization of universal human rights and liberties. Instead, the « Patriots » emphasize local légal traditions.

In the Polish légal context the spécial case of interconnections between local culture and law is presented by arguments related to law and religion, and by postulâtes to subordinate law, for instance law related to the freedom of expression, or to the freedom of individual decision-making, to Christian values n. Within the di-

Droit et Société 35-1997

mension of private law the « Patriots » advocate limits to the free- dom of enterprise establishment, limits to possibilities of buying real property, first and foremost land, by foreign investors. In accord with that, the law shall guarantee not the opening, but the def ence against strong économie and cultural compétition, it shall put limits on foreign investment, it shall protect national economy together with national tradition, and the integrity of real property in national land. They emphasize further the danger of losing of économie sovereignty through subordination to the rules of transnational and supra-national capital, among others because of losing of political control over processes of privatization.

Therefore, the « Patriots » appeal to collective self-under- standing of nation as a historically formed unity, they appeal to history as a médium for collective self-assurance, which is an obvi- ous response to the insecurity created by the situation of transformation, and they postulate reflexive refraction in the mode of public appropriation of traditions performed in the first person plural.

Those undoubtly double-edged arguments of the « Europeans » and the « Patriots » hâve been confronted in Poland in a nutshell, and they quite unexpectedly turned to hâve very immédiate and Personal, économie conséquences. Unresolved conflict between ideas stressing the priority of individual rights together with économie opening, even at the costs of handicaps instrumental for sell-out of state-owned enterprises to foreign investors, and ideas advocating historically based communitarianisms, together with limits to foreign investment imposed by law, and protection of national land, resulted in the hunger strike of workers of the Steel Company « Warszawa », now Steel Company Lucchini. One of the reasons for the strike, independently of the voiced rhetoric of the « selling out of national property to foreign capital » and the « vested interests of the Polish officiais who conduded that deal », there hâve been the protracted court proceedings on the Lucchini's légal title to the land, on which the Steel Company was built. One of the outeomes of this strike was the accélération of court ptro- ceedings granting the ownership title to Lucchini. That in turn made possible the fulfilment of workers' rights to participate in the privatization of the Company : Lucchini could hâve to begin modernization of the Company and to disperse cheap shares among workers 12.

Defining globalization as stretching out of time-space relations between local and distant social forms, Anthony Giddens writes : « The conceptual framework of time-space distantiation directs our attention to the complex relations between local involvements {circumstances of co-presence) and interactions across distance (the connections of présence and absence) u. »

Analyses of globalization processes, investigations of the diminishing physical and psychological distances, observations of formation of inter- and trans-national institutions, of multinational corporations, cannot then omit the simultaneous investigations of counter-tendencies visible in the particularization and fragmentation. Thèse counter-tendencies are important for the form and the contents of our « co-presence ». Pondering upon the globalization, one has then not to oversee the growing importance of rather differentiated phenomena : regionalism in politics, together with the re-birth of nationalisms, the protectionism in the world-trade, the growing importance of local traditions which shall import the legitimacy and authority to the ever more complex social institutions. In that respect, one has to stress the growing rôle of ethnos in formation of political-legal structures, the growing importance of emerging local law, law issued by the local politi- cal institutions, and the growing importance of local, customary law and practices. Considering the globalization-localism processes, the latter then shall not be forgotten, then according to the results of the investigation on the development of international private law, « customary law flourishes and promûtes order in many facets of modem society » 14.

However, the customary law or the emerging new Law Mer- chant pose only one neglected aspect of globalization-localization processes observed from the perspective of postcommunist Europe. It seems that they do not pose a remedium against the growing complexity and disembeddness of régulations of supra- and transnational exchange. For the author of this paper much more important is the search for the new légitimation and the new validation criteria, combined with the strong criticism of liberalism and its apparent neutrality, observable in that région. It is the quest for religious and national justification of the respective légal orders, the tendency to subordinate the law to some higher order of extra-legal rules and principles, the stress put on the specificity of légal orders of particular societies, and the définition of func- tions of law as protecting ways of life and cultural identities of the societies under transformation.

For political and légal practice, and for the political and légal actors, assumption of globalization-localization dynamics leads to the important practical question how to find a balance between the unavoidable globalizing aspects of the growing involvement in the économie and cultural exchange on the one hand, and the quest for specificity and self-determination, the sources of social identity and validity of institutions, on the other, and how to form political and légal institutions accordingly.

Thèses concerning thèse counter, globalization-localization processes are contradictory. Then, according to the adhérents of the globalization thesis, in the modem world one can observe

globalization of the modem légal culture and convergence of the légal Systems 15. In the light of empirical research however différences among légal cultures are stressed, next to difficulties which appear exactly in the domain of légal harmonization and intégration, not only on the global, but also on the régional level : the level of the European Community 16.

Both of those thèses contain undoubtedly a grain of truth, but especially the second one mirrors the real social processes. In the light of arguments formulated in this paper, dynamics of globaliza- tion-localism processes, predominantly observable in the domain of the opération of the légal System — understood hère as the socially active légal System, composed of applied légal norms —, resuit from the interplay between factors derivative from the rational, transparent and universal rules of validity of cognition and accountability of social praxis, and factors which décide on the identity, and the specificity of social actions, relations and structures. Therefore, thinking about globalization within the domain of law, one has in mind the claim to universal validity and accountability of norms and décisions based on the universally valid rational considérations. Localization processes would refer to such phenomena and structures whose validity is rooted in the local cultures and traditions : predominantly those which manifest them- selves in form of the already existing légal institutions, connected with them légal local traditions, and the prevailing social représentations of the just social order and legitimate authority agreed upon in social communication. Localization processes reflect then plurality of ways of life and plurality of cultures.

Thanks to both types of factors, those promoting universalism and those reflecting the quest for identity and pluralism, our future is not totally determined, and social processes as well as their outcomes are contingent. If one then read that « by the end of the nineteenth century, the capitalist world economy had expanded to cover the entire planet, absorbing, it seems, ail other existing historical Systems. [...] This created an entirely new structural situation, since now there were no coexisting historical Systems external to the one surviving System called the capitalist economy » 17, one can only repeat once more, that even capitalism is contingent, and that « contingency may provoke more anxiety in its failure to specify an outcome, but it surely embodies more hope in the power granted to people over their own futures. We are not pawns in a great chess game played by inexorable natural (and social) laws, but effective rooks, knights, bishops and kings and queens on a revolving board of altérable history with no set outcome » 18.

For the societies undergoing transformation, the question which type of capitalist economy and which type of institutional

arrangements will be chosen : the Reaganite/Thatcherite capitalism of the US and Britain, the Mm capitalism of Japan, the central bank capitalism of Germany or some local version of populist capitalism is probably more relevant than the question considering capitalism at ail, hence commitment to capitalism still leaves the actual results of transformation open 19.

And again, observing the development of the « construction of capitalism » in the three countries which are the most advanced in this process in the postcommunist Europe, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, one can state great différences between the légal frameworks of économie transformation, as well as the emerging structures of property rights, instrumental for the future wealth and power divisions. There appear then three greatly différent versions of a « constructing of capitalism » processes : citizen- ship based, work-place based and économie compétence based, independently of the commitment to a « capitalism » and similar initial internai and external conditions characteristic of ail those three countries 20.

The problem of contingency takes the attention directly to the society and to the people — actors of social processes, their com- mitments, ideals, idéologies, and also to the institutional structures, on which societies rest. The arguments stressing human fac- tor and social institutional arrangements is in this paper juxtaposed with théories underlying « social movements » as instrumental for social transformation 21.

In particular, concerning situation of countries undergoing profound transformational processes — and the transformation of the Central and Eastern Europe poses hère only one of the possible instances —, it is not uniquely the globalization of capitalism issue, but the forms of the économie and, following it, the légal transformation, the rôle played by local traditions and culture, social mentalities and the constellation of interests of the powerful local élites which are at stakes in transformational or reformist efforts. Consequently, studies of globalizing tendencies and processes, in order to hâve some explanatory value, hâve to take into account, together with traditions cristallized in social institutions, the cul- tural héritage, and not the least the moral virtues of social and political élites, and in the case of the globalization of law, virtues of lawyers, whose décisions are instrumental for the chosen « paths » and forms of political and économie development.

Those difficult to investigate factors together with the quest for local identity, the rôle played by religion in the quest for the new grounds of the légitimation of law, the already existing institutions which are rooted in the local culture, especially in the local légal culture, the particular traditions and ressentiments, préjudices and myths, which permeate social discurses, the civil courage and honesty of lawyers apart from their éducation and compe-

tences, as well as the particular, régional power constellations play the enormous rôle in formation of those countries future. Is the human factor not taken into account, then it becomes to be much too easy to take off any responsibUity from themselves by the political élites, to justify corruption, clientism and nepotism, and to accuse the invisible forces of globalization, of ail négative conséquences of social reforms and failed efforts.

One cannot easily separate the universal and the historical context of globalization processes. Societies are historical phe- nomena, and the historicaUy formed societies, together with their traditional institutions and values, pose the meaningful environ- ments of légal globalization. On the other hand, personalities and value structures of performers of légal professions, especially those of « légal honoratiores » — Justices of Suprême Courts, of Constitutional Tribunals, The Ombudspersons, could hâve difficult to overestimate impact on the conception of fundamental rights, and consequently, on the direction of social change 22.

Therefore, one can easily accept the very gênerai thesis, that « everything what is systemic is historic, every System posses time- space dimension » 23, but one would corne to the conclusions very différent from the neo-marxists. Hence there appear two separate although actually related problems, concerning historicity of social processes. Both of them regard normative arrangements, which underly social structures and which pose the framework of social actions.

First of those problems addresses the basis of légitimation and of justification of modem légal Systems.

The second one addresses the problem of rationality of légal institutions.

Pondering upon contingency of globalization of law from the perspective of the possible « hopes » of postcommunist societies, and considering the historical-social and the human contexts of them, the issues of liberalism and human and civil rights seem to be of great relevance, as factors legitimazing globalization of law.

Both of them simultaneously pose components of globalization processes, and also factors instrumental for the contingency, the openness of it 24.

Liberalism argues for the freedom of choice, even if that free- dom is limited, and in this respect it represents a purely human construction, which exists in normative orders and social ideals as long as people believe in it and construct their institutions

accordingly. Théories which stress contingency of development and which advocate libéral éducation oppose then the systemic concepts of society and social processes, and put a great value on law and the arrangements which promote the conscious and rational social action 25, as opposed to the spontaneous outbursts undertaken by « movements » whose massive action may destroy the « system » 26. Modem liberalism rests then on the assertion of plural reflexivity and the guarantees of pluralism in institutional arrangements, combined with the belief in the epistemological pos- sibility of their rational création.

From the point of view of societies undergoing transformation, issues of liberalism and rationality of création of institutions pose however a serious problem. On the one hand, we observe efforts to implement of the very spécifie « lame » and poor version of liberalism, limited to few thèses concerning opérations of free market, without any considération of the moral libéral theory. That version of liberalism is particularly characteristic of narrowly understood, imposed « from above » modernizational efforts, i.e. efforts aimed uniquely at the modemization of economy and its adaptation to the international market. Concept of liberalism offered by the pro- ponents of such a poor version of it mirrors exactly the poor version of liberalism which functions as the basis of its neo-marxist criticism. It is a curious concept of neo-classical économie liberalism based on only few ideas of Adam Smith, which consider the international market opérations. Absent hère is the least considération of the Smith's theory of moral sentiments, there is no account of the great British, Scottish or French thinkers, no Hume, no John Locke, no de Tocqueville, no Montesquieu, no Rousseau, not to mention the more modem représentatives of this doctrine. Such concept of liberalism eventually réitérâtes to the investigations of the opérations of the « system », i.e. the opération of the international market, international financial institutions, and the international division of labour 27. With respect to the globalization of law issue, such a poor version of liberalism opens a way for con- ceptualization of law as a set of purely and narrowly instrumental prescriptions regulating ternis of trade, tariffs, quotas, resulting from the austerity programs and monetary policies.

It is needless to say that implementation of such a « lame » version of liberalism and consequently the narrow instrumentaliza- tion of law, together with formation of légal prescriptions whose only rationale is to conform in advance to the existing supranational rules, first and foremost to the European directives and régulations, confirms the most critical opinions regarding globalization issue, propagated in the posteommunist societies. The implementation « from above » of purely instrumental régulations, which additionally are directed against national interests, only deepens such a criticism.

The légal development of the postcommunist societies is chal- lenged however not only by the « System », but predominantly by revival of nationalist sympathies and traditions, together with xénophobie ressentiments, which once institutionalized would made the more open and more libéral development impossible. Obviously, the second may be linked, and in fact are linked, with the first, with the growing fear of the not understandable and im- posed régulations, and with the efforts to respond to insecurity brought about by those régulations in the reassessment of local, historical traditions.

In order to investigate the interconnections between the « lame liberalism » implemented in form of the purely instrumental law and the rebirth of nationalisms, xenophobia, and fundamentalism, one has to reconsider the salient components of ail libéral doctrines. Those predominantly consist in the concept of individual, unattenable human and civic rights and liberties, but must pres- ently be supplemented by the rights to identity and self realization, reflecting already mentioned growing plurah'sm and decentered public consciousness.

The already quoted adhèrent of the thesis on globalization of modem légal culture refers to the « passionate belief in fundamen- tal rights » and observes that « modem law bristles with rights and entitlements » 28.

Other authors state : « Although Western in its origins, the language of rights is now a virtually global phenomenon 29. »

Closer look at the development occurring in postcommunist Europe contributes further to those statements. Furthermore, one can assert links between the existence of the culture of individual rights and its civilizational impact on the development of postcommunist countries, and reversely, the affinities between differ- entiated collectivisms and degeneration of the initial goal : création of the more open, libéral society. First and foremost, the quest for universal rights and liberties enabled the common activity of peo- ple across nationalities, ethnicities, class divisions, professions. The most striking example is given hère by the Polish « Solidarnosc ». Concerning the project of the future, one has to stress further the popular appeal of the concept of civic society in its classical form, with the stress put on universal rights, predominantly freedom of expression, and of association. Those ideas were accompanied by the « New Evolutionism », an ideology based on strong repulsion of power and révolution as a means of transformation. Instead, the ideology of New Evolutionism appealed to the universal « truth » or to the « rights for the life in the truth » 30. Both of them proved to be very successful, but the New Evolutionism, apart from its universalistic appeal, had proved instrumental for the peaceful transformation based on agreements, and especially for the reconstruction of the public negotiations and,

civic discourse concerning the meaning of rights as vehicles of transformation, also of the légal order. The universal human and civil rights and liberties were also central to the « round table agreements » — foundations of the communist System transformation31. Finally, together with the transformation of the political and légal System, and the formation of the Rechtsstaat, there appeared necessity to conform to the international covenants, which, as for instance the freedom of expression or the right of association, hâve been signed by the communist authorities, but never implemented within the internai légal order.

The démocratie coup d'État however brought about the necessity of decision-making in the extrême diffïcult conditions of multi- levelled transformation, of the resolution of conflicts of interests. It also revealed that in the pluralistic modem world, characterized by its lack of prevailing morality 32, the language of rights as well as the discourse concerning rights and their argumentative basis is open-ended, that there exist many possible interprétations of fun- damental freedoms, of the property rights, of the equality of treatment rights. That contributed to the initial insecurity, and ini- tiated the quest for identity and self-realization of the posteom- munist societies as communities having common historical roots.

The universal human and civic rights and liberties which may provide légitimation grounds for the emerging posteommunist légal Systems, and link it with supra-national institutional arrangements, do not hâve moreover long-lasting traditions in East- Central Europe.

Authors analyzing processes of posteommunist légal transformation refer to the cultural institutionalized inheritance which, as it is claimed, consists in the dominance of the collective over the individual rights and liberties.

On the basis of an historical analysis of the fundamental légal documents, it is then concluded « that the tradition of individual freedom became latent in the Polish culture. [...] Freedom was understood primarily as national freedom, as right to an independ- ent state » 33.

As it is further claimed, the idea of individual civil rights and liberties has been even resisted. The sources of this résistance were « Poland's history, its geopolitical situation, and the structure of Polish society » 34.

Similar observations relate to the implementation of the individual freedoms and liberties in Hungary, as one can conclude from the sceptical évaluations of the possibilities of the develop- ment of liberalism, presented by Hungarian intellectuals 35.

Consequently, one observes the growing résistance of those politicians and also lawyers who claim to represent traditions, to the subordination of the respective state légal Systems to interna-

tional standards regarding individual rights and freedoms, for instance the freedom of expression, or the freedom of choice 36. As it then seems, revival of collectivistic traditions, the « unhappy marriage of historicism and nationalism », to quote Jurgen Habermas 37, may hinder civilizational potentials inhérent in the globalization of law processes, predominantly in the f orm of globalization of rights culture, as perceived from the perspective of postcommunist Europe. Those traditions, together with the growing criti- cism of liberalism, combined in the most unfortunate way with the modemization efforts and implementation of légal régulations devoid of any historical, cultural, and moral content, whose only légitimation is given by their functional effectivity, and whose rationality is purely instrumental, pose the Scylla and Charibda of the postcommunist transformation. The potentials of globalization processes in this respected may consist exactly in that, what pose also their « weakness » : in the reassessment of the open-endness of rights, the plurality of their interprétations, their possibilities in reflecting of local cultures and traditions, combined however with the supra-nationally valid procédures designed to résolve conflicts and to control infringement of rights, which hâve been accepted as valid.

In this short essay some of the pitfalls and potentials of the globalization of law processes hâve been outlined. Both of them are inhérent in the ever présent tensions between globalization and localism, in the new quest for reassessment of historical identity, in the contingency of social development and the libéral ideology with which globalization processes are linked, and the open-endness of the rights discourse.

Regarding potentials, one has in mind the culture of rights, as justification and légitimation of the emerging supra- and transnational légal order. As far as pitfalls and dangers aj*e concerne!* has to stress the ever more présent narrow instrumentalism' gjj one hand, and the ever more visible particularism, natiQnalismj traditionalism on the other. Therefore the prospects of hppe disputable, and to the great extent they dépend, apart from international political factors, which hâve not been discussed her.ej from the actual goals, interests, value structures and commitments of the societies in question and their political élites 38.

2. Ibid., p. 70 ; S.P. Huntington, « The Change to Change ; Modernization, Development and Politics », Comparative Potitics, vol. 3, n* 3, april 1971, p. 283-322 (cf. p. 284).

3. Anthony Giddens, op. cit., p. 71.

4. Lawrence M. Frœdman, « Is There a Modem Légal Culture », Ratio Juris, vol. 7, n' 2, 1994,

p. 117-131 ; Volkmar Gessner, « Global Légal Interaction and Légal Cultures », Ratio Juris, vol. 7, n' 2, 1994, p. 132-145.

5. Jakob Juchner, Osteuropa im Umbruch, Zurich, Seismo Verlag, 1994, p. 65.

6. Immanuel Wallerstein, Geopolitics and Geoculture, Cambridge (UK), Cambridge University Press, 1991 (cf. Introduction).

7. Anthony Gdddens, op. cit.

8. The « Europeans »' standpoint is représentée ! in programs of such political parties in Poland as the former Démocratie Union and the former Démocratie- libéral Congress, currently the Party of Freedom, but also is characteristic of the

« progressive » part of the former communists, currently turned part of the social- democrats. The arguments the « Patriots » are characteristic of such parties as the Confédération of Independent Poland, conservative parties, parties which hâve in their name adjective « Christian », but also by the very influencial peasant party (United Peasant Party).

9. Agnes Hem.fr, « Wissen wir, was geschehen ist ? » Interview with Agnes Heller and Ferenc Feher, dans Jozsef Bayer et Rainer Deppe (eds), DerSchock derFreiheit. Ungarn auf dem Weg in die Demokratie, Frankfurt/Mein, Suhrkamp, 1993, at 50.

10. Ivan Szelenyi, « Mitteleuropa auf dem Weg in die kapitalistische Wirtschaftsordnung », dans Jozsef Bayer et Rainer Deppe (eds), DerSchock derFreiheit. Ungarn auf dem Weg in die Demokratie, op. cit., p. 42.

11. Grazyna Skapska, « The Legacy of Anti-Legalism », dans M. Krygier (éd.), Marxism and Communism. Posthumous Recflections on Politics, Society and Law, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi, 1993, p. 200.

12. According to the Polish privatization law, the privatization procédure of particular enterprise takes a form of the contract which, roughly speaking, defines the conditions of sell out of an enterprise, among others obligations of the buyer towards the company employées (first and foremost the amount of at bénéficiai prizes or the dispersion of free shares among them) shares and towards the company itself (for instance its modernization).

13. Anthony Giddens, op. cit., p. 64.

14. Bruce L. Benson, The Enterprise ofLaw, San Francisco, Pacific Institute for Public Policy, 1990, p. 230.

15. Lawrence M. Frœdman, 1994, op. cit., p. 119.

16. Volkmar Gessner, op. cit., p. 134-142.

17. Immanuel Wallerstein, Unthinking Social Science, Cambridge (UK), Polity Press, 1991, p. 232.

18. Stephen Jay Gould, « Life in a Punctuation », Natural History, october 1992, p. 21.

19. Gregory Alexander et Grazyna Skapska,

« Introduction » to A Fourth Way ? Privatization, Property and the Emergence ofNew Market Economies, London/New York, Routledge, 1994, p. XIII.

20. Grazyna Skapska, « The Legacy of Anti-Legalism », dans M. Krygier (éd.), Marxism and Communism. Posthumous Reflexions on Politics, Society and Law, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi, 1994 ; Grazyna Skapska, What Capitalism ? Comparative Anatysis of the Institution- Building Processes in Poland, The Czech Republic and Hungary, unpublished report for the Central European University, 1994.

21. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modem World System, New York, Académie Press, 1974 ; Id., The Capitalist World Economy, Cambridge (UK), Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. 1-36 ; Id, Geopolitics and Geoculture, op. cit., (cf. Introduction).

22. That thesis is corroborated by the enormous importance for the direction of the development of légal culture and the foundation of the Rechtsstaat in Poland of the two succeeding ombudspersons : prof. Ewa Letowska and prof. Ta- deusz Zielinski, and the iudges of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.

23. Immanuel Wallerstein, Un- thinking Social Science, op. cit., p. 229. In accord with such a standpoint, the author of this statement, Immanuel Wallerstein, refers to the history of particular countries, predominantly to Poland. His thesis concerning the location of Poland in the xvrcen- tury in the European-world as a semi-periphery of the core System but still within the dominating single social division of labour determining the good chances of development of capitalism in Poland has then some relevance for the présent debate (cf. Immanuel Wallerstein, 1974, op. cit., chap. 6, et 1991, op. cit., p. 230). However, eyaluated py a prominent Polish historian, it is « so far removed from empirical évidence about the économie reality of eastern Europe that it is not really difficult to critieize it ». This conception

« présents a description of économie changes in this area accord- ing to [its author] own conceptual framework, which in effect is to force reality to fit a theoretical model » (Jerzy Topolskl « Sixteen Century Poland and the Turning Point in European Economie Development », dans J.K. Fedorowicz, M. Bogucka et H. Samsonowicz (eds), A Republic of Nobles, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 79). From the socio-legal point of view it is worth to mention that in the following centuries Poland, one can say quite winningly, by création of spécifie institutions which made impossible the efficient rule over the country, and which in fact made impossible any political décision makfng processes, found itself, euphemistically speaking, outside the « European- world economy » and in fact lost its political independence and sov- ereignty (Norman Davœs, God's Playground, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981, vol. 1).

24. It is therefore perhaps a question of style to equal the American Wilsonian « liberalism » with the Soviet Leninist « liberalism » (Immanuel Wallerstein, 1991, op. cit., p. 9). One has not to be astonished, since liberalism is defined as « a particular strategy of the dominant classes utilizable only in core zones of the world economy and reflecting among other things a lopsidated intrastate class structure in which the working classes are a much lower percentage of the total population than in peripheral zones » (Immanuel Wallerstein, Geopolitics and Geoculture, op. cit., p. 10).

25. Ralf Dahrendorf, Réfactions on the Révolution in Europe, London, Chatto and Windus, 1990.

26. It is therefore perhaps the question of taste not to analyse in a profound way the up till now the most successful and the most influencial of the « anti- systemic », but first and foremost anti-liberal, movements : the Fascist movements throughout the world and the Nazist movement in Germany. But it is first and foremost the problem of scientifical honesty and empirical évidence.

27. Ralf Dahrendorf, op. cit., p. 15-30.

28. Lawrence M. Frœdman, 1994, op. cit., p. 124.

29. Michael J. Lacey et Knud Kaakonssen (eds), A Culture of Rights, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 2.

30. Adam Michnk, Letters from Prison and other Essays, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987.

31. Wiktor Osiatynski,

« Constitutionalism and Rights in the History of Poland », dans L. Henkin (éd.), Constitutionalism and Rights, New York/London, Routledge, 1990, p. 297.

32. Jûrgen Habermas, « Human Rights and Popular Sovereignty : The libéral and Republican Versions, Ratio Juris, vol. 7, n° 1, march 1994, p. 1-13.

33. Wiktor Osiatynski, op. cit., p. 285.

34. Ibid, p. 296.

35. George Schûpflin, « Der unterentwickelte Konservatismus in Ungarn », dans Jozsef Bayer et Rainer Deppe (eds), DerSchock der Freiheit. Ungarn aufdem Weg in die Demokratie, Frankfurt am Mein, Suhrkamp, 1993, p. 83 ; Interview with Janos Kis, dans

J. Bayer et R. Deppe (eds), op. cit., p. 89.

36. The first, freedom of expression, is already limited in Poland in régulations concerning mass média law, based on the gênerai principle of Christian values. The second is linked with the ever more disputed abortion issue.

37. Jûrgen Habermas, op. cit., p. 5.

38. This paper has been written during my stay at the Max Planck Institut for European Légal History, Frankfurt am Mein, Germany. I would like to express my gratitude to the Director of the Institute, Prof. Dr Dieter Simon, for the excellent working conditions, and to the Atexandervon Humboldt Foundation, for a grant ; both of them made possible to Write that essay.

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The Place of Globalization Theory in Education System

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Globalization Theory

Works cited.

Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. John Wiley & Sons.
Kearney, M. (1995). The local and the global: The anthropology of globalization and transnationalism. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24(1), 547-565.
Lechner, F. J., & Boli, J. (Eds.). (2012). The globalization reader. John Wiley & Sons.
Ohmae, K. (1995). The end of the nation state: The rise of regional economies. Simon and Schuster.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: social theory and global culture. Sage.
Steger, M. B. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
Sutcliffe, B. (2017). Education, globalization and the nation-state. Palgrave Macmillan.
Tomlinson, J. (1999). Globalization and culture. University of Chicago Press.
Wallerstein, I. (1974). The modern world-system I: Capitalist agriculture and the origins of the European world-economy in the sixteenth century. Academic Press.
Waters, M. (1995). Globalization. Routledge.

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