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Are Nations Political and Economic Sovereignty Threatened by the Forces of Globalization? Outline I. Introduction. 1) The nature of political economy. II. Main body 1) Definition of globalization 2) Sovereignty and its key principles 3) Four types of changes globalization causes 4) Globalization in economics 5) Globalization in politics III. Conclusion Bibliography I.
Introduction. 1) The nature of political economy. Due to appearance of global market and corresponding international exchange based on the development of international labor segmentation, modern economic life has been internationalized. This international coloring spotlights the phenomenon of globalization in today political economy. Political economy is the science which studies interrelationships between economic and political processes and institutions. In other words, political economy analyzes and explains how the policies of governments affect the distribution of scarce resources in society as well as how people and economic system influence on laws and policies of government. Since the process of globalization has captured both economic and political spheres, political economy as a science can investigate and observe the wide range of its outcomes in the best way.
In this paper I will analyze political-economic interrelationships through the impact of globalization on nations sovereignty. In doing so, I will define the terms of globalization and sovereignty, then I will describe the changes caused by globalization in political and economic spheres and show what influence they had on sovereignty. Finally, I will make my conclusion on the topic: Are nations political and economic sovereignty threatened by the forces of globalization? and summarize the main argumentation mentioned in the paper to support my point of view. II. Main body 1) Definition of globalization The term of globalization has received many interpretations from political and economic scientists.
Globalization is the ever-increasing integration of national economies into the global economy through trade and investment rules and privatization, aided by technological advances. Irrespective of all the critics of anti-globalists, globalization reduces barriers for trade and investment, and favors democracy establishment. Globalization can be considered in many ways positive due to the following facts: the percentage of people living on less than $ 1 has halved for the period of less than twenty years; life expectancy of people living in developing countries has doubled since the World War II; income inequity has been diminishing around the world etc. In this way, globalization can be thought as a beneficial process. However, deep political-economic analysis may reveal counter arguments. 2) Sovereignty and its key principles The concept of sovereignty itself and its key principles can be found opposite to the term of globalization and its features found out above. The core meaning of sovereignty is supreme authority functioning within its territory.
This notion can be applied to the levels of community, individual, and nation-state. In comparison with the levels of globalization functioning, sovereignty is more domestic. This is the first contradiction. There are key-principles of sovereignty which altogether constitute the framework. These principles are interrelated and if even one of them is not fulfilled, sovereignty is infringed and nation can not be functioning as an organic unit. Political self-determination.
It refers to the idea that national policies should be based only on national interests. On the other hand, this principle opposes any possibility of considering national policy in the frames of best interests of Europe or global community. Economic sovereignty, which is the ability of the organism to control its own economy in response to its own needs. This principle stands for nations controlling its imports and exports, its right to trade with whom it chooses, keeping nations own currency, and regulating its currency in order to protect against any speculation.
All the features enlisted oppose the economic theory of globalization. Boarder control. This principle implies control of both economic and physical borders in order to maintain level of a sustainable population and protect the environment. Unlike sovereignty, globalization presupposes elimination of borders.
Localization, the mere name of this principle is the antonym for globalization. The policies of localization are aimed to expand control of the economy with the help of nation states and communities. Food and water self-sufficiency - it denies any dependency on the outside sources and stands or nations ability to provide food and water itself. The rules of WTO and EU contradict this principle for they increase dependence of its members upon others. Energy independence- this principle is crucial, because A nation which is unable to achieve energy independence may become perilously reliant upon outside sources, or may even need to develop imperialistic policies which threaten other nations. Self-dependence for self-determination.
This principle implies independent and sovereign authority to exercise sovereignty. 3) Four types of changes globalization causes The characteristics of globalization can be given according to the four types of changes it causes. The first changes concerns stretching political, economic and social activities across regions, frontiers and continents. The second change refers to the growing magnitude, or intensification of investment, flows of trade, finance, culture migration, etc. The third change is marked by speeding up of the global processes and interactions, because the development of the systems of communication and transport around the world extends the velocity of the diffusion of goods, ideas, information, people and capital. And finally, the fourth change is linked to the impact of the quickly extensively and intensively growing global interactions on specific local developments. For example, due to global media distant event can be spread elsewhere and as a result some local changes can cause considerable global consequences.
The last point also preoccupies unsteady boundaries between global affairs and domestic matters. 4) Globalization in economics Economic globalization has contemporary patterns which are associated with centering on the relationships between states and markets. Although, as Held D. McGrew A note in their article Globalization, global economy is not as highly integrated as most of the robust national economies, it is directed towards the growth of the integration within and across regions. Nowadays the patterns of economic globalization have woven webs across the major regions around the world and as result made these regions economically interdependent. In other words, economic fate of world major regions has become intimately connected.
This produces many inconsistencies and discrepancies in different economic spheres, as well as it poses serious danger for economic sovereignty. Reinforced by financial liberalization, the accompanying shift towards markets and private financial institutions as the 'authoritative actors' in the global financial system poses serious questions about the nature of state power and economic sovereignty. Contemporary patterns of economic globalization show some tendencies in their development which may be crucial for economic sovereignty. Firstly, interregional trade levels are greatly unprecedented, while the forms of the trade have changed considerably. Secondly, the power of global financial markets is somewhat exaggerated, irrespective of the fact that the operation of states has proven to be effectively sustaining in the times of crisis. Thus, it was noted that there is much compelling evidence to suggest that contemporary financial globalization is a market, rather than a state, driven phenomenon.
Additionally, financial integration of multinational corporations unites national and local economies and creates out of them the networks of global and regional production. These conditions are highly unfavorable for the functioning of autonomous systems of wealth creation because national borders are no longer serious barriers for economic activity. It causes much more difficulty to sustain the distinction between worldwide economic activity and domestic economic activity. In the center of the new global capitalist order is placed the multinational corporation (MNC). For example, it was estimated that there were more than 60, 000 MNCs worldwide which had 500, 000 foreign subsidiaries in 1999.
These corporations sold $ 9. 5 trillion of services and goods across the globe. In their article Globalization the authors drive to the following conclusion, that contemporary transnational production considerably exceeds the level of global exports and has become the primary means for selling goods and services abroad. Multinational corporations, according to some calculations made, have occupied around 70 per cent of world trade and 20 per cent of world production. In this way it becomes obvious that today global corporate capital, not states, is dominating over the location, organization, and distribution of economic resources and power in global economy. Among other things, the patterns of economic globalization are encouraging a new division of labor and are accompanied by new activities of multinationals themselves. There has been a new reordering of the developing countries into winners and losers, the clear example of which can be found while considering the experience of the East Asian tiger economies.
As a result, some communities and locales which are successfully integrated into the networks of global production are gaining significant rewards whilst the others have to struggle on their margins. It is also important to note that the world has been unified for all kinds of elites - regional national and global - by economic globalization. And, on the other hand, thanks to the segmentation of the global workforce economic globalization has managed to split nations and communities into winners and losers. Another inconsistency threatening sovereignty can be seen in the fact that the regulatory reach of national governments has been challenged by the globalization of economic activity. The globalization of economic activity exceeds the regulatory reach of national governments while, at the same time, existing multilateral institutions of global economic governance have limited authority because states, still jealously guarding their national sovereignty, refuse to cede these institutions substantial power. These conditions allow global markets to escape any regulation of politics.
Mostly, the global economy governance structures function to reproduce and feed the forces of economic globalization, and the same time, their operation streamlines and disciplines the civilization of global market. However, there are cases when economic globalization gives a chance to the side of the losers to retaliate. The mentioned governance structures sometimes operate in such a way that they provide with a considerable autonomy from the strict dictates of the G 7 states and / or global capital. Consequently, it enables the agencies of transnational civil society and weaker states to contest economic globalization by means of some multilateral institutions. It contradicts and poses a serious obstruction for the rule making or collective decisions made by the representatives of global capital and the G 7 states.
As a result, multilateral institutions manage to resist the obtrusion of interests of the dominant states and meditate great power control. For example, they achieve it by means of consensual modes of decision. Together with the already mentioned global institutions, there is also a parallel set of regional bodies, ranging from APEC to the EU. These systems contain social groups of transnational civil society (for instance, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Jubilee 2000 campaign) which aim to contest, promote, and bring to account economic globalization agencies. In this way, it may be noted, that the process of economic globalization has been interconnected with a deep internationalization of political authority associated with the globalization in the area of political activity. 5) Globalization in politics In the contemporary political life there have been two fundamental transformations. The first transformation occurred when nation-states developed as territorially based political communities.
The second one was called to replace the first one and has led to a break in the exclusive link between geography and political power. This process took place due to the following developments. First of all, the institutionalization was made in all the levels of global and regional governance system. According to the data provided by the statistics, the amount of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) ranged to 37 when the twentieth century began. At the end of the twentieth century intergovernmental organizations grew to 300 and were acknowledged as those who were delivering important global and regional collective goods.
Due to the institutionalization, the process of coordination among governments, transnational and intergovernmental agencies - both public and private - was fastened and ultimately this process was designed to realize common purposes or collective goods through making or implementing global or transnational rules, and managing trans-border problems, e. g. the WTO. The mentioned process of institutionalization is considered to have potential for both positive and negative changes. It has raised a question of inequalities of power, which exposes shortcomings and imperfection of the entire inter-state system. On the other hand, it has built the infrastructure of a global polity and created new arenas which can serve as means of further promotion, contest and regulation of globalization.
In addition institutionalization has prompted new forms of politics on regional, multilateral, and transnational levels. One more remarkable processes associated with internationalization took place. It was a trans nationalization of political activity. According to the statistics, 371 official INGOs were registered in 1909 (among them there were International Chamber of Commerce, International Trades Unions, Rainforest Foundation) and by 2000 their number increased to 25, 000. These included all kinds of social movement, different advocacy networks - including women movement and nazis on the net - and groups of citizens which aim at organizing, mobilizing, and exercising people-power worldwide.
The meaning of such growing political activity is estimated by scientists in the following way: This explosion of 'citizen diplomacy' creates the basis of communities of interest or association which span national borders, with the purpose of advancing mutual goals or bringing governments and the formal institutions of global governance to account for their activities. But, still, it is debatable whether such political activity can build the infrastructure of a transnational civil society. Not less important is to mention one more change which belongs to the sphere of international law. In the twentieth century there has been initiated the basis of the framework of cosmopolitan law. This law is designed to comprise many issues including crimes against humanity, governing war, human rights, and environmental issues. On the other hand, such cosmopolitan law will restrain political sovereignty by delimiting power of individual states.
In other words, states can no longer treat their citizens in the way they think appropriate. However, in practice, most of the states accept general duties and restraints in their procedures, but still violate the mentioned standards. All these described changes show that citizens and their governments are more embedded in expansive networks and deferent layers of global and regional governance, they have become subject to new types of authority below, above and alongside the state. In this way political globalization challenges the view of political life where states are acting as containers declared by Westphalian document. It means that national sovereignty is infringed due to the following factors: national governments are no longer sole rulers of their own and the fate of their citizens; political community and political space are not coterminous with their national territory. III.
Conclusion Thus, while my investigation I have found out that the mere concepts of sovereignty globalization oppose each other. This opposition remains while considering the key principles of sovereignty, the four characteristics of globalization, and while defining the terms themselves. Also, analysis of modern economics and politics has shown the following tendencies: financial globalization is a market, rather than a state national and local economies are united into the networks of global and regional production. global corporate capital, not states, dominates in global economy regulatory reach of national governments is limited by economic globalization globalization split nations and communities according to the segmentation of the global workforce in politics institutionalization and trans nationalization are progressing cosmopolitan law delimits power of individual states Thus, the analysis of the contemporary economic and political processes proves that globalization is dominating and rapidly progressing. Since globalization opposes sovereignty and its principles, I come to the conclusion that nations political and economic sovereignty is threatened by the forces of globalization. Bibliography: Baylis, J.
and S. Smith, eds. , The Globalization of World Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997 Blank, Stephen, "How Globalization and Freer Trade are Creating a New Architecture of North America, " Hofstra Labor Law Journal, 10 Spring 1993, 609 - Chase-Dunn, Chris, Global Formation: Structures of the World Economy. Cambridge, Mass. : Blackwell, 1989 Held D.
McGrew A. Globalization. Entry for Oxford Companion to Politics. Polity, 2005, < web > (23 October 2005) Held D. McGrew A, Goldblatt D.
Perraton J. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture, Polity, ch. 1. 1999. McConnachie A. THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SOVEREIGNTY.
Sovereignty. 2003 < web > (23 October 2005) M. J. Bowman and D. J. Harris (eds). Multilateral Treaties: Index and Current States, Butterworths, 1984.
Senior, Nassau W. Political Economy, London: Richard Griffin and Company, 1854. Third edition. Smith A. The Welfare of Nations. Even Cannan. 1994 Sovereignty.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Dan Philpott.
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