The Contemporary World

GLOBALIZATION THEORIES | EMERGENCE OF

GLOBALIZATION
Instr. Morell B. Caña, RPm
Study Guide Question

1. Have you experience globalization?

2. Why is it crucial to emphasize that globalization is uneven?

3. What is the difference among globalization, Globality, and

globalism?
 WHAT IS A
THEORY?
THEORY
 A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something,
especially one based on general principles independent of the
thing to be explained.

 a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.

 an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of

action.
Theory of Globalization
According to Lechner (2015) states the flowing are the theories or perspectives in the emergence
of Globalization;

1. WORLD-SYTEM THEORY – A perspective that globalization is essentially the expansion of capitalist system around the
globe. At the time Marx was writing in the mid-nineteenth century, the world was becoming unified via thickening networks
of communication and economic exchange.

WORLD ECONOMIC HIERARCHY OF THREE TYPES COUNTRIES – Wallerstein

Peripheral: Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.

Core: Describes dominant capitalist countries which exploit the peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.

Semi-peripheral: Countries that share characteristics of both core and periphery countries.

2. WORLD POLITY THEORY – A theoretical perspective that state remains an important component of world society, but

primary attention goes to the global cultural and organization environment in which states are embedded.

3.. WORLD CULTURE THEORY – This perspective agrees that world culture is indeed new and important, but it is less

homogenous than world-polity scholars imply. Globalization is a process of Relativism.

CONCEPTS RELATED TO GLOBALIZATION
HOMOGENEITY
Five “Scapes” of Globalization | Arjun Appadurai
The increasing sameness in the world as cultural
1. ETHNOSCAPE – Flow of people across boundaries inputs, economic factors, and political orientations of
societies expand to create common practices, same
economies, and similar forms of government.
2. TECHNOSCAPE – Global flow of technology
3. IDEOSCAPE – global flow of ideas COMMUNISM
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating
4. FINANCESCAPE – Flow of money across political borders class war and leading to a society in which all
property is publicly owned and each person works
5. MEDIASCAPE – Flow of media across borders and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

CAPITALISM LIBERALISM PRIVATIZATION /

An economic system based on the private
ownership of the means of production
and their operation for profit. Central
characteristics of capitalism include
capital accumulation, competitive
markets, a price system, private property
and the recognition of property rights,
voluntary exchange and wage labor.
Liberalism is a political and moral
philosophy based on liberty, consent of the
governed and equality before the law.
DEREGULIZATION
Privatization can mean different things
including moving something from the public
sector into the private sector. It is also
sometimes used as a synonym for
deregulation when a heavily regulated
private company or industry becomes less
regulated.
 3 MAIN STRUCTURES/DRIVERS OF
GLOBALIZATION
ECONOMIC
POLITICAL SOCIAL
GLOBALIZATION
GLOBALIZATION GLOBALIZATION
Interconnectedness of
economies through trade Amount of political co- Sharing of ideas and
and the exchange of operation that exists between information between and
resources. different countries. through different countries.
 GLOBALIZATION THEORIES
 All theories of globalization have been put hereunder in eight categories
and Each one of them carries several variations.

1. THEORY OF LIBERALISM 5. THEORY OF POST MODERNISM

2. THEORY OF POLITICAL REALISM 6. THEORY OF FEMINISM
3. THEORY OF MARXISM 7. THEORY OF TRANS-FORMATIONALISM
4. THEORY OF CONSTRUCTIVISM 8. THEORY OF ELECTICISM

https://www.politicalsciencenotes.com/articles/8-theories-of-globalization-explained/642
1. THEORY OF LIBERALISM
 Liberalism sees the process of globalization as market-led extension of
modernization. At the most elementary level, it is a result of ‘natural’
human desires for economic welfare and political liberty. As such, trans-
planetary connectivity is derived from human drives to maximize
material well-being and to exercise basic freedoms. These forces
eventually interlink humanity across the planet.

a) Technological advances particularly in the areas of transport,

communications and information processing, and,

(b) Suitable legal and institutional arrangement to enable markets and

liberal democracy to spread on a trans world scale.
1. THEORY OF LIBERALISM
 Such expla­nations come mostly from Business Studies, Economics,
International Political Economy, Law and Politics. Liberalists stress the
necessity of constructing institutional infrastructure to support
globalization. All this has led to :
 technical standardization
 administrative harmonization
 trans­lation arrangement between languages
 laws of contract
 and guarantees of property rights.
2. THEORY OF POLITICAL REALISM
 Advocates of this theory are interested in questions of state power, the
pursuit of national interest, and conflict between states. According to them
states are inherently acquisitive and self-serving, and heading for
inevitable competition of power. Some of the scholars stand for a balance
of power, where any attempt by one state to achieve world dominance is
countered by collective resistance from other states.
 Another group suggests that a dominant state can bring  France
stability to world order. The ‘hegemon’ state (presently  Germany
the US or G7/8) maintains and defines international  Italy
rules and institutions that both advance its own  United Kingdom
interests and at the same time contain conflicts  Japan
between other states. Globalisation has also been  United States
explained as a strategy in the contest for power  Canada
between several major states in contem­porary world  Rusia
politics.
 3. THEORY OF MARXISM
 Marxism is principally concerned with modes of production, social
exploi­tation through unjust distribution, and social emancipation
through the transcendence of capitalism. Marx himself anticipated
the growth of Globality that ‘capital by its nature drives beyond
every spatial barrier to conquer the whole earth for its market’.
Accordingly, to Marxists, globalization happens because trans-
world connectivity enhances opportu­nities of profit-making and
surplus accumulation. • CAPITALISM
• COMMUNISM
 Marxists reject both liberalist and political realist explanations of • SOCIALISM
globalisation. It is the outcome of historically specific impulses of
capitalist development. Its legal and insti­tutional infrastructures
serve the logic of surplus accumulation of a global scale. Liberal
talk of freedom and democracy make up a legitimating ideology for
exploitative global capitalist class relations.
 4. THEORY OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
 Globalization has also arisen because of the way that people
have mentally constructed the social world with particular
symbols, language, images and interpretation. It is the result of
particular forms and dynamics of consciousness. Patterns of
production and governance are second-order structures that
derive from deeper cultural and socio-psychological forces.
Such accounts of globalization have come from the fields of
Anthropology, Humanities, Media of Studies and Sociology.

 Constructivists concentrate on the ways that social actors

‘construct’ their world: both within their own minds and through
inter-subjective communication with others. Conver­sation and
symbolic exchanges lead people to construct ideas of the world,
the rules for social interaction, and ways of being and belonging
in that world. Social geography is a mental experience as well
as a physical fact. They form ‘in’ or ‘out’ as well as ‘us’ and they’
groups.
5. THEORY OF POST-MODERNAISM
 Some other ideational perspectives of globalization
highlight the signifi­cance of structural power in the
construction of identities, norms and knowledge. They
all are grouped under the label of ‘postmodernism’.
They too, as Michel Foucault does strive to understand
society in terms of knowledge power: power structures
shape knowledge. Certain knowledge structures
support certain power hierarchies.

 Postmodernism, like Marxism, helps to go beyond the

relatively superficial accounts of liberalist and political
realist theories and expose social conditions that have
favoured globalisation. Obviously, postmodernism
suffers from its own methodological idealism. All
material forces, though come under impact of ideas,
cannot be reduced to modes of consciousness. For a
valid explanation, interconnection between ideational
and material forces is not enough.
6. THEORY OF FEMINISM
 It puts emphasis on social construction of masculinity and
femininity. All other theories have identified the dynamics behind
the rise of trans-planetary and supra-territorial connectivity in
technology, state, capital, identity and the like.

 Biological sex is held to mould the overall social order and shape
significantly the course of history, presently Globality. Their main
concern lies behind the status of women, particularly their
structural subordination to men. Women have tended to be
marginalized, silenced and violated in global communication.
7. THEORY OF TRANSFORMATIONALISM
 This theory has been expounded by David Held and his colleagues.
Accord­ingly, the term ‘globalization’ reflects increased
interconnectedness in political, economic and cultural matters across the
world creating a “shared social space”. Given this interconnectedness,
globalization may be defined as “a process (or set of processes) which
embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations
and transactions, expressed in trans­continental or interregional flows and
networks of activity, interaction and power.”

 They imply that the “politics of globalization” have been “transformed”

(using their word from the definition of globalization) along all of these
dimensions because of the emergence of a new system of “political
globalization.” They define “political globalization” as the “shifting reach of
political power, authority and forms of rule” based on new organizational
interests which are “transnational” and “multi-layered.”
8. THEORY OF ECLECTICISM
 Each one of the above six ideal-type of social theories of globalization highlights certain
forces that contribute to its growth. They put emphasis on technology and institution building,
national interest and inter-state compe­tition, capital accumulation and class struggle, identity
and knowledge construction, rationalism and cultural imperialism, and masculinize and
subordination of women. Jan Art Scholte synthesizes them as forces of production,
governance, identity, and knowledge.

 is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of
assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain
complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.

 Earlier nationalism promoted territorialism, capitalism, and statism, now these plural identities
are feeding more and more Globality, hyper-capitalism and polycentrism. These identities
have many international qualities visualized in global diasporas and other group affiliations
based on age, class, gender, race, religious faith and sexual orientations. Many forms of
supra-territorial solidarities are appearing through globalization.
GLOBALIZATION THEORIES
 All theories of globalization have been put hereunder in eight categories
and Each one of them carries several variations.

1. THEORY OF LIBERALISM 5. THEORY OF POST MODERNISM

2. THEORY OF POLITICAL REALISM 6. THEORY OF FEMINISM
3. THEORY OF MARXISM 7. THEORY OF TRANS-FORMATIONALISM
4. THEORY OF CONSTRUCTIVISM 8. THEORY OF ELECTICISM

https://www.politicalsciencenotes.com/articles/8-theories-of-
globalization-explained/642
 HISTORY OF GLOBALIZATION

HARDWIRED CYCLE EPOCH EVENT RECENT CHANGES

HARDWIRED
- According to Nayan Chanda (2007), Globalization
was made possible due to our basic human needs.

- “Globalization is innate”

- “The birth of a human being is the birth of change.

The birth of change is the birth of Globalization.”

- One can trace the beginning of globalization from

our ancestors in Africa who walked out from the
said continent in the late Ice age. Roughly after
50,000 years, their journey led them to all known
the continents today.

- Chanda (2007) mentioned that commerce, religion,

politics, and warfare are the “urges” of people
toward a better Life.
 CYCLE
- Globalization is a rolling process.
- It may appear, disappear and reappear.
- Hence, For some, globalization is along-term cyclical process and thus finding its origin
is really hard. It cannot be determined.
- What is important is the cycle that globalization has gone through.
 FIVE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE REGARDING THE ORIGINS OF GLOBALIZATION

3. EPOCH (GENERAL) The following are the sequential

- A certain period of time that has occurrence of the epochs:
brought significant changes to the 1. Globalization of Religion (4th
world. to 7th centuries) Spread of Religion
- Ritzer (2015) cited Therborn’s (2000) 2. European colonial conquests
six great epochs of globalization or (Late 15th century)
what we call nowadays as “WAVES”
of globalization that has it own origins. 3. Intra-European imperialism
- Todays globalization is not unique if (Mid- 19th to early 19th
this is the case. centuries) Colonization
- The difference of this view from the 4. Heyday of European
second view (cycles) is that it does not Imperialism (Mid- 19th
treat epochs as returning. century to 1918)
5. Post-World War II Period
6. Post-Cold War period) War
Post-War
- Globalization started during the War around the world.
- War and After War (peace) – involvement of the world.
- Because of the war, many countries was engaged with different - Epoch – Globalization – appear and it just
expedition around the globe. disappear.
3. EVENTS (SPECIFIED)
- Compared to epoch, events views the specific
events or changes to explain the origin of
Globalization.
Examples:
1. THE USE OF INTERNET.
- The introduction of internet to the world is one
of the explanation how Globalization started.
because of the internet people can now
communicate, socialize and exchange ideas
around the globe. (First Transatlantic Telephone
cable).
2. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
- Rosenthal (2007) gave premium to voyages of
discovery – Christopher Columbus’s discovery of
America in 1942. However, it was named after
Amerigo Vespucci who succeeded his expedition
after his death.
- Certainly, with this view, more and more
specific events will characterize not just the
origins of globalization but also more of its
history.
4. Broader, More Recent Changes
- Recent changes comprised the fifth view. These
broad changes happened the last half of the
twentieth century.
- Scholars today point to these three notable
changes as the origin of Globalization that we
know today.
1. The emergence of the United Sates as the
global power (post-World War II)
2. The emergence of Multinational Corporations
(MNCs)
3. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of
the Cold War.
- No regions. No regionalization, there is only
one world,
Recent of Changes:
1. The fall of unions
2. The start of Corporations
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