Ideologies of globalization

Manfred B. Steger
 Manfred B. Steger
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F
%2Fsociology.manoa.hawaii.edu%2Fmanfred-b-steger
%2F&psig=AOvVaw3c5yvaPJXwct4qtB17J7eI&ust=1602466935910000&source=im
ages&cd=vfe&ved=2ahUKEwiBpI3VtKvsAhU8Q_UHHZx7AQ4Qr4kDegUIARCXAQ
Professor of Global and Transnational
Sociology at the University of Hawai’i at
Mānoa and Global Professorial Fellow at the
Institute of Culture & Society at Western
Sydney University.
PhD, 1995, Political Science, Rutgers
University, USA
MA, 1991, Political Science, University of
Hawai’i-Mānoa, USA
BA, 1990, Religion and Political Science,
University of Hawai’i-Mānoa, USA
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics
/people/researchers/manfred_b_steger
Introduction
 Ideology: integrated assertions, theories and aims that
constitute a sociopolitical program; a systematic body of
concepts
 Freeden Problem: differentiation/fragmentation of
ideologies, difficulty of capturing the changing
morphologies of political belief systems
 Solutions: (1) question the implicit holism in the notion of
an ideological lines of inquiry; (2) query the dominant
conventions of classifying and categorizing ideologies
 (1) Globalism as a possible holistic contender
 (2) Imaginative “thought-exercises”
Introduction
 Political
belief system have shifting morphologies
(meanings/definitions)
 Steger contradicted Freden and claimed that it is
too early to pronounce that globalism as an
ideology
 Instead, globalism do not have an enough set of
political ideas and beliefs that qualify a new
ideology but IT IS a dominant political belief
system
 Globalization: process, condition or
ideology
 Globalization denotes not an ideology but a range of processes nesting under one
way rather unwieldy ephithet.
 Appadurai: ethnoscapes, technoscapes, mediascapes, finanscapes and ideoscapes
 Globality (Steger): a future social condition characterized by thick economic,
political and cultural interconnections and global flows that make currently
existing political borders and economic barriers relevant.
 Social manifestations of globality: individualism and competition; communal and
cooperative social arrangements
 Globalization (Steger): set of complex sometimes contradictory, social processes
that are changing our current social conditions based on the modern system of
independent nation-states
 Globalization: constant movement towards the postmodern socio-political order of
nation states (social and geographical space) vs. modern socio-political order
 Globalism: political belief system
 Six Core Claims of Globalism
 Steger offers three useful criteria in determining the status
of a particular political belief system.
1. Degree of uniqueness and morphological sophistication
2. Context-bound responsiveness to a broad range of issues
3. Ability to produce effective conceptual decontestation chains

 Ideological claims: systems with specific meanings that

benefit particular social groups
 Claim One:
Globalization is about the liberalization and global integration of markets

 Liberalization: fewer government interventions, regulations and

restrictions which will allow freer movement of money, goods and
services within the market
 This claim offers an authoritative definition of globalization designed for
broad public consumption.
 “Globalization is the triumph of markets over governments.”
 When using this claim, globalization is driven by free-market capitalism:
the more you make market forces rule and the more you open your
economy to free trade and competition, the more efficient your economy
will be.
 Globalization is primarily economic.
 Claim Two:
Globalization is inevitable and irreversible

 “Historical inevitability”
 Ulrich Beck: neoliberal globalism thus resembles its archenemy; rebirth
of Marxism as a management ideology
 9-11 incident
 Globalization as some sort of natural force, like the weather or gravity
makes it easier for globalists to convince people that they have to adapt.
 Claim Three:
Nobody is in charge of globalization

 Self-regulating market: certain forces will result to the market adjusting

itself.
 Globalists are not in charge of imposing their political agenda.
 However, some would claim that the survival of globalization rests not on
the markets but on the political leadership of the United States.
 Claim Four:
Globalization benefits everyone (….in the long run)
 This claim is a bold example of combining elements from seemingly
incompatible ideologies under the master concept of “globalization”.
 Benefits from free trade and markets
 Claim Five:
Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the world
 Freeden: “Thatcherism”, decontest democracy through its proximity to
market and the making of economic choices
 Globalists tend to treat freedom, free markets, free trade and
democracy as synonymous terms.
 Francis Fukuyama: there is a clear correlation between a country’s
economic development and successful democracy
 Fukuyama and Clinton agree that the globalization process strengthens
the existing affinity between democracy and the free market.
 Polyarchy represents an elitist and regimented model of “low intensity”
or “formal” market democracy. (Vs. Popular democracy)
 Polyarchy: limit democratic participation in voting and elected officers
be free from popular pressures.
 Claim Six:
Globalization requires a global war on terror
 This claim attests to globalism’s political responsiveness and conceptual
flexibility.
 Combination of the economic globalization idea with openly militaristic
and nationalistic ideas associated with the US-led global War on Terror.
 Claim 6 is contingent and less important than the other five because
when the global terror is no longer a issue, globalism will still continue.
 Warnings from scholars that globalization is actually “Americanization”
or “McDonaldization”: this means that globalization is highly influenced
by the americans, thus, their initiative versus terror also becomes the
center of globalization.
 Conclusion
 Steger used the foundations from Freedens’ criteria of political belief
systems to establish a distinction between globality, globalization and
globalism.
 The six core claims provide a clearer vision of globalization and what
could be expected from it.
 Thus, the goal IS NOT just to define the concept but also to realize that
the multitude of processes that involves are already in place. They may
not be clearly evident in our daily lives but the next lessons will focus
upon its manifestations in areas such as the economy, culture, politics,
etc.