W10. Political Globalization/ Kim Min-seong

1. Summary

The word 'political globalization' was first came from the decline of the nation-state under the impact of global forces. Political globalization can be understood as a tension between three interactive processes: global geopolitics, global normative culture and polycentric network.

 

Global geopolitics is related with the worldwide spread of democracy. Globalization did not undermine the democratic nation-state but gave it worldwide acceptability. The democratic nation-state, especially The United States, has globally affected. Thus, the first dimension of political globalization is the geopolitics of global power.

 

A second dimension of political globalization refers to the rise of a global normative culture. Human rights and environmental concerns are expressions of global normative culture. Political communication which is no longer confined to national borders has become the basis of a global normative culture. Today, a global normative culture has come into existence beyond the state system and exists in a relation of tension with states.

 

Because a global normative culture is less related to states, the term 'polycentric networks, forms of non-territorial politics which emanate from a multiplicity of sites, comes out. Polycentric networks are associated with emerging forms of global governance, that is, global civil society such as INGOs, various grass-roots organizations, social movements and etc. It does not have one space but many; it is polycentric and not separate from geopolitics.

 

The three dynamics of political globalization can be seen around four examples of social transformation: the transformation for nationality and citizenship, the public sphere and political communication, civil society and space and borders.

 

As globalization is spreaded out, states continue to be powerful actors but exist in a more globally connected world that they do not fully control. The state has become more diffuse; it is less easily defined in terms of territory or of political community. States are more flexible in responding to globalization than nations. As a result, there is the decoupling process of nationality and citizenship. The political community of the nation does not exercise sovereignty over the state and the state has lost much of its sovereignty.

 

Communication is central to politics. Nation-state have been based on centralized systems of communication. However, the public today, 'new public', is based on professional political communication and mass persuasion. Furthermore, communication is an open site called 'public sphere': it is not merely a spatial location but a process of discursive contestation. Globalization changes view of public sphere from national to global public sphere which is not meant a specific public but the global context in which communication is filtered with global normative culture. Political globalization is most visible in terms of changes in political communication and in the wider transformation of the public sphere.

 

As we can see the sentence 'there are still two superpowers left on the planet: the United States and global civil society.', the importance of civil society has been increased. Along with globalization, 'civil societalization' has globally permeated international relations. The growth of global civil society is the result of increasing opportunities for interaction between domestic and international politics. Global civil society works to undermine the importance of territorial tate or encourages individuals to think in terms of global normative culture.

 

The image of a 'borderless world' has long been associated with thinking about globalization. Under globalization, however, the quantitative relation between borders and territory has been inverted. The idea of a 'borderless world', once seen as symbolic of globalization, is now revealed as a chimera. Borders do net necessarily map directly on to territory and states and they are becoming 'dispersed' throughout society.

 

2. What is interesting?

 Before I read this article, I had thought that 'political globalization' is a subsection of globalization. There is nothing special in meaning of 'political'. But in this article, although political globalization is inevitably affected by globalization, there are more details about political globalization for analysis. 

 The most interesting sentence in this article is expression of Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for society. Mary Robinson claimed that 'there are still two superpowers left on the planet: the United States and global civil society'. This sentence emphasized important role of civil society that keeps checking and balancing with the states. In this point of view, I have a question that I want to discuss.

3. Discussion Point

 The wider spread of globalization, the more importance of global civil society grows. In the article, the role of civil society is balancing with checking the states, especially the United States. What if a global civil society have very power? What kind of organization is responsible for checking the global civil society? Another global civil societies have the responsibility? Or states, especially the United States and China, Which are very powerful, have the responsibility? What if states and the global civil society have common objectives and make an alliance? Will there be third superpower to check the two superpowers and then, which organization will be?

 For example, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) has been seen as ally of powerful nations such as Japan rather than weak nations like Korea. In this situation, is there anything what weak nations can do?