Political globalization - Victoria

Summary

First the author defined the term of globalization that is “refers to the multidimensional, accelerated and interconnected organization of space and time across national borders.” It has a political aspect that represents by tensions between three processes which interact in the global politics:

-        - Global geopolitics

-        - Global normative culture

-        - Polycentric networks

For the global geopolitics, the author explains that the democracy is becoming a form of universal government which allows the proliferation of several and different kind of ideology and then “the democratic nation-state in many parts of the world has given rise to very kinds of political cultures.” So we can deal with the “globalization of democratic politics” especially with the rise of the United State as a global power which spread their own global geopolitics but US won’t be able to establish global supremacy.

Then, the global normative culture as an independent of geopolitics where human rights and environment concerns are their main expressions and which is diffused in global political communication. This kind of communication is the basis of this process since that overpass the borders.

Finally for the last process which is polycentric network that he explains as “forms of nonterritorial politics which emanate from a multiplicity of sites and which cannot be reduced to a single centre”. It associated as well with networks and flows, new sources of mobility and communication and denotes new relationship between the individual, states and society.

Moreover, the author deals with the notion of global civil society that is corresponded to new spaces beyond the state and the inter-governmental domain and which are independent of global capitalism. This concept has a distinctive point : “it doesn’t have one space but many.”

Thus, these three dimensions don’t exist separately and are interrelated and spring from the globalization. And the political globalization generates a complex web of conflicts, dislocation, fluid political forms.

Interesting point :

Before read this article, I didn’t think that globalization has a political aspect, as I know has more an economic and cultural aspect than political, but curiously the fact that the spread of democracy contributed as well the globalization didn’t surprise me. In my opinion, this part is the most interesting part.