Maia Mekvabishvili 06-01-2011

Changes that has been made :

– Changed everything to Chicago Style Author-date format.

– Made my own point of view more clear.
– Changed some words and sentences to improve the language , spell-check.
– Removed one paragraph on the first page
Globalization diminishes or enhaces the role of state in today's world

''Some people think that globalization began suddenly.

Not at all, she acted in the whole history of humanity
as the development of techniques and means of communication. "
Hans - Dietrich Genscher

Globalization is one of the most popular topic of the XXI century. We talk about it
discussing economical development , cultural progress or political events. The idea of the welfare
state was a key element of nation-states during the past half-century and probably the main
element of its legitimacy in the industrialized countries. Globalization is everywhere : in houses,
at the market , in the streets , it is more and more close to us everyday .Globalization may be
defined as the integration of economic, social and cultural relations across borders. It is the
opposite of isolation of various parts of the world, but not only that. I would say that it's kind of
integration process of all inhabitants of earth , each person becomes a'' member'' of Global
society . All this Transformes into a huge network in which everything is connected and
depended on each other. In modern country barriers in relations between its residents and people
from other countries are more week , and between countries itself . Everything is becoming more
standardized, transnational.: goods, information, education systems, food, people, music,
literature. There are some expressions connected with globalization which are badly associated :
deterritoryzation, westernization, mcdonaldization and etc.
The word ‘Globalization’ itself has taken over from ‘internationalization’, as the preferred
term of social scientists since the late 1980s. First it was used to describe cultural and religious
processes by British sociologist Ronald Robertson. ''Globalization as a concept refers both to
the" decline "of the world and the increasing level of comprehension of the world as a whole.
Both of these factors enhance the global interdependence and understanding of the world as a
unity in the twentieth century.'' In the beginning the word ''globalization was used only for its
economical meaning but after 90 it started to be defined as nowadays. Jeremy Bentham invented
word ''international '' but in XX century it wasn't enough to describe the process which
progressed to grow.
According to my thesis globalization is diminishing the role of poor states and maybe
local governance itself, but on the other hand it increases the role of huge countries and
corporations making them more important . To see this difference we can compare the national
state in process of globalization, the situation in ''globalizing ''less developed countries and more
developed ones .
 Integration or subordination?

With globalization we witness other process of disintegration for example– so- called
''Balkanization''. Even European countries have disintigration problems like Belgium,Spain., but
economical stability makes it work not like in Kosovo , South Osetia , Abkhazia and etc. Next to
the normal, controlled globalization grows globalization of terror, globalization of poverty, the
globalization of fear and lost hope, rebel, not against the assumptions of the process, but against
its effects.This is one of the provements that globalization is weakening less powerful states.
Maybe only rich and powerful countries get the best part of globalization, the profits from
economical development , no-visa areas , making transnational organizations, like institutions for
regulating economic and military affairs, such as the EU, the WTO, NATO, and
the UN which decide about politics of the whole world?
'' national governments are becoming less relevant, losing their powers not only to
influence macroeconomic outcomes and to implement social programmes, but also to determine
strategies for managing the industrial economy."
We can't say that the small villages in Africa arn't globalized, but this fact didn't bring
anything good to that region. We can't say that globalization is good for that poor regions and
they start to become more open to world trades. Maybe there is some progress, but on the other
hand much more could be done . Maybe rich countries need poor countries to balance the world
politics and they want them to be dependent?
After second world war these two contra tendencies started to occur. Western Europe,
helped by the rest of powerful countries ( marshal plan for example) raised on feet after war,
because it was needed for trade and world economics , but not small poor countries. Globalization
process makes all these social differences sharper. ''there is no longer an iron curtain between East
and West. This is the line between stability and instability, integration and disintegration,
prosperity and poverty. " The difference isn't only among countries, it occurs between citizens of
same countries and the difference is drastic.''New tendencies of ''global elite'' and ''global middle
class'' appear. The Global teenagers listen to the same music , use the same gadgets, follow the
same fashion and they become consumers of gigantic brands advertised in Global Media . The
drastic difference between income is in India where the population even in one city is totally
different with its economical level . It can be strange that this polarization is present in USA as
well, as the latest statistics show that the income differences between rich and poor are growing
up and aren't going to decrease. The best results in average income belong to Scandinavian ,
where the difference is minimal.
Naomi Klein in her famous ''NO-Logo'' clearly describes how with process of
globalization rich gain more wealth and poor people become more poor . She talks about young
children who in XXI century work in Factory -cities in Asia or Africa for miserable salaries to
product famous Brand products like Nike , Adidas that will be used by the same age teens in
richer countries... The factories are mostly located in peripheries to provide cheap workers and
sometimes they even have no contact with life outside that little cities. So ,I guess that children
would rather prefer to be globalized and use that products than work in that factory , but they
have ''no choice ''.

National state and its transformation

Globalization, is it good or bad for our conutries? Are we loosing our national identity
with transnational information , common products , mass culture and migration ? Is globalization
diminishing or enhancing the role of the state in today's world? Can modern country resist all the
changes and not loose its identity and culture or are we gonna leave in a ''global village'' ?
 There are currently 600 societies speaking the same language,5000 ethnic groups and 195
independent countries or States around the world. And all of the 195 are called as countries,
because they have same features as territory, government,inhabitants and etc. but some of those
features aren’t as strong as they were used to be in the past century . So we witnesses
transformation of state.
With globalization in the end of XXI century half of ethnic languages may disappear
forever. And cultures and traditions will have the same future as languages.
What is nation itself ?- it is historically constituted form of human community that characterizes
via common language, territory, economy, culture and psychological characteristics. Nowadays
nation is more political , social and economical unit than ethnic. From this point of view the
nation is a corporation of ethnics conscious of their historical community and common interests
of their country.
These are the factors that make national identity and we can clearly see that it becomes
really weak :
1. common Territory for citizens – but nowadays the borders doesn't really matter . Nobody
can really check when an European citizen goes to another EU country. So we face
deterritorization .
2. Common communication language – Of course in most of the countries the main language
is local one,but there is no doubt that English has become the world language and in most of the
counties one can communicate in English. On the other hand with globalization process there are
more and more bilingual people so communication is becoming more global too.
3. The culture of nation: Nobody doubts that its becoming globalized . We listen to MTV
music ( although its more glocalized , because its adopted to every country but the main shows
and ideas are just used in local MTV s) the media, contemporary art , fashion .. everything is
starting to mix with worldwide tendencies
4. the governance of country - of course it remains as the priority of local authorities,but there
is no doubt that the ''opinion of world '' is very important. In European Union common law is
superior to the local one ,so the government can't really do anything with it . The standards and
norms should be kept , there is no way out . Economy also includes the formalizing of a growing
range of “rights” of global firms and global markets. The human rights or international law are
examples that every county has to suit their law or normative systems to the international
standards. “Within this fundamentally changed global environment, social and political entities
such as the state can only adjust to the overwhelming external pressures of global competition.
In the context of globalisation, states increasingly re-adjust their respective institutional
capabilities, regulatory frameworks, and political instruments to support (trans-)national
companies within the process of intensified world market competition,and concomitantly, they
are anxious to improve the domestic investment climate in order to lure in foreign capital".
Step by step the goverment is replaced by governance and the state becomes dependent on
corporations, public actors , mass media .So the county is under the preasure of not only
transnational organizations and international policy, but also by business and public.
5. National identity - Its the main chain that keeps country as one organism , but its becoming
weak too. For example people from Catalonia , who identify themselves as Catalonians but
hardly say that they are Spanish . For a lot of people its hard to identify themselves with one
nation, because of migration and mixed families . On the other hand : the passport of European
Union is the proof of being a citizen of EU, but how strong is the European Identity ? Maybe not
really much if we think about the failure of 2005 constitution for Europe. Of course it had its
advocates, but majority reacted negatively. Europeans didn't want to have one minister for
foreign affairs or common constitution. That proves that even in most globalized regions the
national identity is still quite strong and it will take time while providing the common anthem for
Europe.
6. National economy – Nowadays national economy totally depends on countries economical
strategies. If the economy is closed the national factor plays main role, but in open one there is
no doubt that its quite globalized, but for economy it provides a lot of profits. Social and
economical globalization includes trade, social and monetary politics. In corporation with other
countries it is easier to control outgoing and incoming products , enforce payment of taxes or also
monitor the movement of population. Second, there is an important transformation in financial
markets. Financial flows have increased; including portfolio-type transactions.
National capital becomes integrated with international financial capital. Financial
globalisation has made it easier for corporate alliances. A national currency can circulate as
easily outside as country inside.. High-speed communications and the information revolution
have accelerated financial globalization.
Globalization is complicated process which brings its own advantages and disadvantages.
Although I think that its weakening the states power it might be good for other things.
We may be globalists or antyglobalist, but it changes nothing , the process will be progressing.
With globalisation countries politics changed a lot ,if before they were concantrated mostly on
their internal affair now they pay the same attantion to external , and international one.
Globalization made the international relations more intense .As for me all this is a proof
that globalization diminish the role of national state, but not the role of powerful countries. It
makes week countries more dependent and rich countries stronger. The international leaders
gather quite often to discuss common problems and future plans .nevertheless with all this the
connection between territory or country and its governance is weakening. New transnational and
international organizations are stronger than some countries and the part of countries sovereignty
is in their hands. The best examples are : EU , NAFTA in north America, MERCOSUR in south
America , league of Arab countries, in south and east Asia ASEAN and etc. So the decisions for
the worldwide tasks are made by small groups of people. Some people think that this problem
might be solved this problem with social participation. But nowadays only a small part of
society is really into politics. So as ancient Greeks concept the participation of citizens is the only
way out of the situation . If we want to be successful nations in new globalized world each of us
should do something to make it work better and solve worldwide problems together.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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f