GLOBALISATION WHAT IS GLOBALISATION?

MANY SOCIOLOGISTS NOW SEE THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER AS CROSSING TRANSNATIONAL BOUNDARIES. THEREFORE GLOBALISATION IS SEEN TO WEAKEN THE POWER OF NATION STATES TO CONTROL THEIR OWN ECONOMIES. IN ADDITION POLITICS AND POLITICAL ACTION HAVE BECOME MORE GLOBALISED

HOW DO WE EXPERIENCE GLOBALISATION?

GLOBALISATION IS WHERE THE POWER OF NATIONAL BOUNDARIES ARE BECOMING LESS SIGNIFICANT…… ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION HAS SEEN THE GROWTH OF TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES/CORPORATIONS (TNCS) POLITICAL GLOBALISATION REDUCES THE POWER OF NATION STATES CULTURAL GLOBALISATION AND HETEROGENEITY

ACCORDING TO OHMAE’S BOOK ‘THE END OF THE NATION STATE’, 1995, POLITICAL BORDERS WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY INSIGNIFICANT.OHMAE’S IN THE GLOBALISED WORLD MORE AND MORE ECONOMIES ARE INTERLINKED THROUGH THE CONCENTRATION OF INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL CAPITAL. TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES ARE INCREASINGLY KEY PLAYERS OF AN EVER INCREASING INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY. THEODORA LEVITT ARGUES WITH OHME SHE ARGUES THE NEW REALITY IS ABOUT ‘GLOBAL MARKETS’ WHEREBY GLOBAL CORPORATIONS OPERATE AS IF THE ENTIRE WORLD WERE A SINGLE ENTITY. THEODORA LEVITT TRANSCENDING NATIONAL DIFFERENCES GLOBAL CORPORATIONS WORK TO TREAT THE WORLD AS A SINGLE MARKET.

OHMAE POSITION IS THERE’S NOW ONE ECONOMY, GLOBAL IN STRUCTURE COVERING DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING SOCIETIES. THIS INTER-LINKED ECONOMY IS CO-ORDINATED BY GIANT CORPORATIONS WITH GLOBAL BRANDS LIKE APPLE MODERN 24/7 COMMUNICATIONS VIA SYSTEMS SUCH AS INTERNET ALLOW INDIVIDUALS TO PURCHASE GOODS FROM ANYWHERE AND ANYBODY IN THE WORLD. JUST THINK OF EBAY. GOVERNMENTS CAN NO LONGER TAX, CONTROL, OR INFLUENCE SUCH ORGANISATIONS AS THEY CAN MOVE MONEY WHEREVER, WHENEVER THEY WISH CONSUMERS HAVE MORE POWER THAN THE STATE

HOWEVER OTHER SOCIOLOGISTS ARGUES THINGS AREN’T SO BLEAK FOR THE STATE HIRST AND THOMPSON (1996) ARE CRITICAL OF OHMAE’S IDEAS. THEY ARGUE FOR THE NEED TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN TRANSNATIONAL AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS BECAUSE THERE’S A DISTINCTION BETWEEN A GLOBALISED AND INTERNATIONALISED ECONOMY. HIRST AND THOMPSON (1996) MULTINATIONAL BUSINESSES REMAIN REGULATED BY THEIR HOME GOVERNMENT WHILE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS (TNCS) ARE GLOBALLY BASED. HIRST AND THOMPSON’S RESEARCH FOUND THAT MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS (MNCS) DOMINATE IN A MAINLY INTERNATIONAL RATHER THAN GLOBAL ECONOMY.

HIRST AND THOMPSON ADMIT THAT STATES HAVE LOST SOME POWER, BUT THEY STILL CONTROL THEIR SOVEREIGN TERRITORY AND REGULATE THE POPULATION LIVING WITHIN IT THEREFORE STILL RETAIN THEIR POWER. THIS IS EVIDENT FROM MINIMUM WAGE REGULATIONS AND THE POWER OF THE STATE TO PENALISE THOSE FIRMS THAT FLOUT SUCH LAWS SUCH AS THE ARCADIA GROUP WHO RUN MISS SELFRIDGE AND TOPSHOP STORES.THE ARCADIA GROUP WHO RUN MISS SELFRIDGE AND TOPSHOP STORES.

HOWEVER FOR ULRICH BECK, HE SAYS IT’S MORE THAN ECONOMICS WHICH IS CAUSING GLOBALISATION HE ARGUES WE’RE ENTERING A GLOBAL RISK SOCIETY BY THIS HE MEANS GLOBAL RISKS ARE TRANSCENDING NATIONAL AND SOVEREIGN BOUNDARIES WHAT BECK MEANT WAS NATION-STATES NO LONGER HAVE THE POWER TO DEAL WITH GLOBAL ISSUES ON THEIR OWN AS THEY ARE TOO SMALL AIDS, GLOBAL WARMING, TERRORISM ARE ALL ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE DEALT WITH AS COLLECTIVE RATHER THAN INDIVIDUAL NATIONS

YET FOR GIDDENS, NATION-STATES HAVE BECOME TOO BIG TO DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBALISATION FOR GIDDENS GLOBALISATION MEANS PEOPLE ARE DRAWN TO CREATE NEW IDENTITIES AS A CONSEQUENCE OF BEING IMMERSED IN LARGER STATES LIKE THE EU SO PEOPLE FOCUS ON ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN ORDER TO CREATE A NEW IDENTITY

WHAT GIDDENS IDENTIFIES IS A TENSION BETWEEN NEW IDENTITIES AND OLD IDENTITIES; CENTRALISATION AND DE-CENTRALISATION; INTEGRATION AND FRAGMENTATION, HOMOGENISATION AND DIFFERENTIATION WHAT GIDDENS IS REFERRING TO IS THE WAY GLOBALISED STRUCTURES LIKE THE EU FORCES PEOPLE TO ADOPT NEW IDENTITIES – AN EU CITIZEN RATHER THAN BEING ENGLISH – WHICH GIVES THEM A SENSE OF LOSING POWER THIS FORCES PEOPLE TO REACT IN OPPOSITION TO WHAT THEY PERCEIVE AS LOSING THEIR IDENTITY AND SO SEEK TO RETAIN THEIR POWER THROUGH DEVOLVED GOVERNMENT SUCH AS WELSH ASSEMBLY AND SCOTTISH DEVOLUTION

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR NATION STATES?

FOR GIDDENS THE ANSWER IS YES. THOUGH THE STATE’S POWERS HAVE BEEN REDUCED THEY’VE NOT BE ELIMINATED INDEED STATE’S REMAIN THE MOST POWERFUL POLITICAL ENTITY IN POLITICS TODAY WHEN YOU THINK OF IT THE NUMBER OF STATES IN THE WORLD HAVE GROWN WHILE MANY POWER BLOCKS LIKE THE FORMER SOVIET UNION HAS GONE OR ARE UNDER PRESSURE TO LOOSEN – LIKE THE EU IN SPITE OF THE GROWTH OF STATES, GIDDEN’S CALLS FOR A FORM OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE TO DEAL WITH GLOBAL ISSUES LIKE EBOLA; GLOBAL WARMING; REGULATION OF FINANCIAL MARKETS

HELD’S POSITION IS THERE’S AN INCREASING NEED FOR A NEW SYSTEM OF GLOBAL DEMOCRACY AS MANY NATIONS STATES ARE AT THE MERCY OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS TNCS UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY BY TAKING POWER AWAY FROM THE NATION STATE HELD ARGUES ORGANISATIONS SUCH AS THE UN OFFER A MODEL FOR THE FUTURE BUT THE UN’S POWERS ARE OFTEN THWARTED BY NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY THIS LEADS HELD TO ARGUE FOR THE FORMATION OF TRANSNATIONAL POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS TO CREATE A WORLD PARLIAMENT

IN CONTRAST THE PICTURE FOR NATION STATES FOR SKLAIR IS LESS ROSEY HE SEES THE FUTURE OF NATION STATES AS BEING INCREASINGLING OVERSHADOWED BY TNCS AND THEIR TRANSNATIONAL CAPITAL STRUCTURES AS TNCS HAVE NO LOYALTY OTHER THAN TO SHAREHOLDERS AND THEIR OWNERS THE NATION STATE REMAINS VULNERABLE TO THE POWER OF GLOBAL CAPITAL FOR SKLAIR THIS IS EVIDENT IN THE INCREASING GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR NATIONS; THE GROWTH IN DEFORESTATION; OVERFISHING; GLOBAL WARMING ALONG WITH A RAFT OF OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES