W10. Political Globalization / Park gwanyoung

  The authors of the article, Gerard Delanty and Chris Rumford, said that the concept of globalization as used in the article refers to the multi-dimensional, accelerated and interconnected organization of space and time across national borders. They said processes of political globalization open up new emancipatory possibilities, while for others globalization leads to a loss of autonomy and the fragmentation of the social world. the approach to political globalization adopted in this article highlights the multi-faced nature of globalization, which is best seen as a relational dynamic rather than a new kind of reality. The author mentioned three dimensions of political globalization. 

  First, the reading talked about global geopolitics. It said that there can be little doubt that one of the most pervasive forms of political globalization is the worldwide spread of democracy based on the parliamentary nation-state. Democratic government exists in some form in most parts of the world and where it does not, there is a considerable demand for it by democratic movements. This is a territorially based kid of globalization and largely confined to the political form of the nation-state. It takes traditional forms as well as constituting a new kind of global geopolitics. On this reading, the nation-state is an important vehicle for political autonomy, via the sovereignty of peoplehood, and democracy is an important badge of membership in a world community of nation-states. At the same time, criticisms of democracy provide a nucleus around which many forms of contentious politics coalesce.

  The second dimension of political globalization refers to the rise of a global normative culture. This is independent of geopolitics and is largely legal but diffused in global political communication. One of the main expressions of this is human rights, which lies at the center of a global cosmopolitanism, but it also includes environmental concerns, which are now global. Political communication is now also global in scope, no longer confined to national borders. Global normative culture has acted as a vector for global norms of personhood positing a world of individuals sustained by human rights law.

  The last dimension refers to polycentric networks, which forms of nonterritorial politics which emanate from a multiplicity of sites and which cannot be reduced to a single center. These processes of political globalization are associated with networks and flows, new sources of mobility and communication, and denote new relationships between the individual, state and society. Polycentric networks create new opportunities for autonomy and the recognition of a range of new actors and new modes of governance, but, at the same time, can create new instabilities and dangers.

  The most interesting point for me, personally, is the role of a mass media in spreading a political idea. I knew mass media often do this kind of roles such as spreading propaganda or publicities. However, every time I learn new cases, it comes fresh to me. I think I could find more case studies which portray the power of mass media.