POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSIGNMENT

RUMI SINGH
B.A. PROGRAMME
19/BAP/193
SEMESTER VI

Question. Define ‘globalization.’

Discuss the main debates on the cultural, economic, and political position of the modern
nation-state in contemporary ‘globalizing’ times.
Cite one case study from any one of the dimensions to substantiate your understanding.
State which perspective is underlined in the case study.

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
Globalization is the word used to describe the growing interdependence of the world’s economies,
cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology,
and flows of investment, people, and information. Countries have built economic partnerships to
facilitate these movements over many centuries. But the term gained popularity after the Cold War
in the early 1990s, as these cooperative arrangements shaped modern everyday life. This guide
uses the term more narrowly to refer to international trade and some of the investment flows
among advanced economies, mostly focusing on the United States.
The wide-ranging effects of globalization are complex and politically charged. As with major
technological advances, globalization benefits society as a whole, while harming certain groups.
Understanding the relative costs and benefits can pave the way for alleviating problems while
sustaining the wider payoffs.
According to Anthony Giddens, Director of the London School of economics - “Globalization can
thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in
such way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.”
David Held, Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics defines
globalization as a process (or set of process) which embodies a transformation in the spatial
organization of social relations and transactions – assessed terms of their extensity, intensity,
velocity, and impact –generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity,
interaction, and the exercise of power.
Manfred B Steger, professor at Illinois University and the university of Hawai ‘i-Manoa defines
“Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social process that create, multiply, stretch, and
intensify worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in
people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant.”
When did globalization begin? Many scholars say it started with Columbus’s voyage to the New
World in 1492. People traveled to nearby and faraway places well before Columbus’s voyage,
however, exchanging their ideas, products, and customs along the way. The Silk Road, an ancient
network of trade routes across China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean used between 50 B.C.E.
and 250 C.E. is perhaps the most well-known early example. As with future globalizing booms,
innovative technologies played a key role in the Silk Road trade. Advances in metallurgy led to
the creation of coins; advances in transportation led to the building of roads connecting the major
empires of the day; and increased agricultural production meant more food could be trafficked
between locales. Along with Chinese silk, Roman glass, and Arabian spices, ideas such as
Buddhist beliefs and the secrets of paper-making also spread via these tendrils of trade.

CAUSES OF GLOBALIZATION
What accounts for globalization? If globalization is about the flows of ideas, capital, commodities,
and people, it is logical to ask if there anything novel about this phenomon.Globalization in terms
of these four flows has taken place through much of human history.
However, those who argue that there is something distinct bout contemporary globalization point
out that it is the scale and speed of these flows that account for the uniqueness of globalization in
the contemporary era. Globalization has a strong historical basis, and it is important to view
contemporary flows against this backdrop. While globalization is not caused by any single factor,
technology remains a critical element. There is no doubt that the invention of the telegraph, the
telephone, and the microchip in more recent times has revolutionized communication between
distinct parts of the world.
The ability of ideas, capital, commodities, and people to move more easily from one part of the
world to another has been made possible largely by technological advances. The pace of these
flows may vary.
For instance, the movement of capital and commodities will most likely be quicker and wider than
the movement of people across different of the world. Globalization, however, does not emerge
merely because of the availability of improved communications. What is important is for people
in different parts of the world to recognize these interconnections with the rest of the world.
Currently we are aware of the fact that events taking place in one part of the world could have an
impact on another part of the world. The bird flu or covid is not confined to any particular nation.
It does not respect national boundaries. Similarly, when major economic events take place, their
impact is felt outside their immediate local, national, or regional environment at the global event.

THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization has profound effect on all our cultures and on the ways, we live our lives. It has
affected what we eat and the way we prepare our food, what we wear and the materials from which
our clothing is made, it has affected the music we hear, the books we read, even the language we
used to communicate with others. Globalization has made certain languages extinct or dying, for
example, Latin. At the same time more people today are bilingual or multi-lingual than ever before.
English, though in variant forms (e.g., British English, American English, Indian English) has
become the lingua franca and the number of English speakers throughout the world is growing
rapidly. The central problem of today's global interactions is the tension between cultural
homogenization and cultural heterogenization. While scholars like Mc Luhan talk about global
integration and global village, which may result from the process of globalization, and resulting
cultural integration across border, there have been apprehensions about cultural marginalization or
cultural exclusion as well. Global flows of good, ideas and people and capital can seen as a threat
to the national culture in many ways.

A .Increased Pace of Cultural Penetration

Cultural change or cultural dynamics has always been a product of interaction with other cultures.
Though individual cultures are capable of endogamous developments, cultural boundaries are
quite often porous leading to the inter penetration of cultures. Cultural dynamism is the outcome
of a process of mixing: borrowing and adapting cultural attributes and often the attributes that are
borrowed and adopted come from culture that are alien, distant and foreign.
Historically cultural dynamism has been greatest where trade and exchange in general have been
voluminous and frequent. National and regional cultures are invariably a product of assimilation
of various elements from other cultures, of a synthesis of elements that is a product of cultural
interpenetration.
Seaports and river ports have historically been centers of cultures and civilization. Today in the
hi-tech communication era, in which ICTs made communication easier, faster, and cheaper than
in the past, more and more cultural interpenetration is taking place. Cultural interpenetration
through the exchange of commodities is today so pervasive that it is difficult if not impossible to
distinguish between original and imported cultural attributes.

B. The Globalization of Culture

Trade agreements have removed all obstacles and resistance to corporate invasion and control of
human society. With liberalization of telecommunication, corporate culture is set to rule the world.
Today the whole world is wired and plugged into the same tv programmes, movies, news, music,
lifestyle, and entertainment. Satellites cables, phone, VCDs, DVDs and retail giants and other
marvels and wonders of entertainment technology are creating the mass marketing of culture and
expansion of consumer culture. This may lead to a homogenized global culture. With the
advancement of science and technology and the improvement of markets, the earth has turned into
a global village. It has also resulted in the emergence of global mass culture due to the increase in
consumerism. It may make increasing similarities in life styles around the world evading local
cultural heritage.

THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization by removing geographical, political, and cultural borders, and by pass dame of time
and place has changed attitudes, behavior and action of individuals, nations, states, and even socio-
political structure of societies. In politics scope, globalization has created several evolutions which
some of them are as follows;

1- Globalization and Democracy

The phenomenon of globalization as a new paradigm, in influence of economic evolutions, has
excellent changed human societies from half century past. In late decades, the scientific and
academic societies, especially political science, and some other matters like political systems,
states, and democracy, has conceptual redefined by globalization. Some main questions about the
democracy and globalization are: which form of democracy did influence by globalization? Did
ideology of democracy, or political culture of democracy influenced by globalization? Or
democracy is as a governance pattern?
Based on different goals and definitions of democracy, there are many various models of
democracy. According to mass direct or indirect participation, it disports to direct and indirect or
participative democracy. And according to isonomy and equality of economy, there are liberal and
social democracy and social democracy disport to industrial and corporate democracy. And
according to different geographical scopes, and many religions and races groups, the indirect
democracy disports to current democracy and multiracial and associative democracy.
Political globalization is most visible in the rise of supraterritorial institutions and associations
held together by common norms and interests states only, and the decision- making authority lies
with representative from national governments. The proliferation of these transworld bodies has
shown that nation- states find it increasingly difficult to manage sprawling networks of social
interdependence.
Finally, the emerging structure of global governance is also shaped by “global civil society, a
realm populated by thousands of voluntary, non-governmental associations of worldwide reach.
According to David Held, one of the chief proponents of this view, the cosmopolitan democracy
of the future would contain the following political features:

1. A global parliament connected to regions, states, and localities;

2. A new charter of rights and duties locked into different domains of political, social, and
economic power;

3. the formal separation of political and economic interests;

4. An interconnected global legal system with mechanisms of enforcement from the local to the
global .
A number of less optimistic commentators have challenged the idea that political globalization is
moving in the direction of cosmopolitan democracy. Most criticisms boil down to the charge that
such a vision indulges in an abstract idealism that fails to engage current political developments
on the level of public policy. The worldwide intensification of cultural, political, and economic
interaction makes the possibility of resistance and opposition just as real as the benign vision of
mutual accommodation and tolerance of differences.

THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF GLOBALIZATION

Economic globalization involves a wide variety of processes, opportunities, and problems related
to the spread of economic activities among countries around the world. There have been many
periods in which it occurred, most recently including the latter nineteenth century to WWI, the
quarter century after WWII, and the late 1960s/early 1970s to the present.
The latest period has involved several major trends, as capitalism has spread throughout more of
the world. First, there has been an increased reliance on markets (versus government involvement
in the economy) by most nations (including industrialized countries, developing countries, and
formerly socialist countries like China with over one-fifth of the world's population). Second,
many developing countries have shifted to the more open export-oriented approach based on
production for external trade from an import substitution development strategy (production of
essential goods for the internal market). Third, multinational corporations (MNCs) in
manufacturing, service, and finance sectors have moved into new tiers of countries and have
established burgeoning networks of subcontractors in many areas. Fourth, since the late 1970s,
economic globalization has also involved structural adjustment policies (SAPs), mandated by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a condition for granting countries loans. SAPs require
governments to take many steps that further promote globalization. They also require austerity
measures that fall heavily on the poor, particularly women. Fifth, there have been shifts in the
power of key institutions internationally. On the one hand, the influence of many national
governments has been eroded by the rising importance of institutions like the MNCs, the IMF, and
World Bank (WB), and trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). On the
other hand, there has been an increase in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) advocating for
the rights of groups of citizens.
The three international economic institution most frequently mentioned in the context of economic
globalization are the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. These three institutions enjoy the
privileged position of making and enforcing the rules of a global economy that is sustained by
significant power differentials between the global North and South. Not all countries benefited
from economic globalization. Stern (2001), reviews that although globalization has helped lessen
poverty in a large variety of developing international locations, some 2 billion humans are staying
in the nations which might be left in the back of. It is because there has been weak governance and
politics in non-integrating countries, price lists, and different limitations that poor nations and poor
people face in assessing rich us of a market, and declining development assistant. Today, the huge
multi-country-wide organizations wield large electricity. Of the hundred biggest economies these
days, 51 are companies and the handiest 49 are states.

A Case study on “Globalization and the Apple

Globalization and Technology Change
Apple has benefitted significantly from globalization and from technology change. For example,
the company started primarily as an American company, but globalization has allowed Apple to
become a multinational operation. The company only derives around one-third of sales form the
Americas according to the annual report, a figure that includes Canada and all of Latin America in
addition to the United States. The company therefore can be said to sell globally. Sales in Asia-
Pacific were growing especially fast, and the company has numerous flagship stores in the region.
Globalization has also had a significant impact on Apple's supply chain. The company earns high
profits because it is able to produce its products at a low price and then sell them at a high price
(Chakraborty, 2012). In addition, the company has noted that it assembles its products in China
because all of the components are made there this in addition to the low cost of assembly labor.
Apple facilitates this by working with logistics suppliers like FedEx who can quickly move
finished goods around the world via a number of hubs. All of Apple's products, for example,
arrived in the United States in Oakland, California and from there make their way to the customer.

CONCLUSION
To sum up, “globalization can be seen as a positive, negative, or even marginal process. And
regardless of whether it works for good or ill, globalizations exact meaning will continue to be the
subject of debate among those who oppose, support or simply observe it. Globalization is a perfect
tool to fight poverty, to bring the world closer together. And to create a new global society.
However, it needs to be monitored and controlled, therefore international organizations such as the
UN country treaties. Such as NATO and the Commonwealth of Nations have been created.
Bauman argues that globalization negatively affects human conditions. However, as works are
very theoretical, schematic and pessimistic. And do not present a tangible solution to the problem
stated. Globalization can be very beneficial to developing countries as well as developed ones.
Smaller players such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya and Dominican Republic. Would
have never been able to develop without global sourcing. Developed countries benefits from it by
acquiring skills and minds. Thanks to the free movement of people and capitals, and become more
specialized. Some countries have enormously benefited from it. Without foreign investments,
advances in technology, processes and infrastructures brought in by the western economies and
demand for cheap labor. China would not be the largest economy in the world. Overall
globalization is part of everyone's everyday life. It has become part of something bigger. When it
is infused in every single individual, the global Society of the modern ages cannot be torn apart,
nor by the black bloc, nor by terrorists. Populations around the world would have never been closer
together, and live for a common goal: building a better future for everyone.