Chapter 11: Globalization and the Future of Comparative Politics

What is Globalization?

Defining Globalization

• Globalization: the process of expanding and intensifying linkages between states, societies, and economies
• Long history of a globalized world
• What makes this era different from previous globalized relations?
  • Entire societies are directly connected.
  • Relations in the past were “thinner” than they are now.

Globalization’s Implications for Comparative Politics

• Breaks down the distinction between international relations and domestic politics
• Two directions:
  • Global forces increasingly impact domestic politics.
  • Domestic issues and events become “internationalized.”

The International Becomes Domestic, and Vice Versa

• Food security and food culture
  • Globalized supply chains increase availability of food and reduce poverty.
  • New food options change tastes and create new business.
• Environmental impacts
  • Coal-fired factories in China produce acid rainfall in U.S. Pacific Northwest.
  • Australia’s 2020 wildfires caused air quality problems in Chile.
• Conflict and refugees
  • Syrian Civil War was triggered by pro-democracy protests in Tunisia.
  • Syrian civil war created a dramatic increase in refugees through the Middle East and Europe.

Institutions and Globalization

Globalization’s Actors and Ideas

• Major actors
  • Multinational corporations (MNCs)
  • Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
  • Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
• Other institutions
  • International regimes
  • The Internet

Multinational Corporations

• Multinational corporations (MNCs): firms that produce, distribute, and market goods or services in more than one country
  • Examples: Google, McDonald’s, Apple, Toyota, Walmart

Nongovernmental Organizations

• Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs): a national or international group, independent of any state, that pursues policy objectives and fosters public participation
• Form of a global civil society
  • Members are individuals, not states.
• Examples
  • Greenpeace, Red Cross/Crescent, Catholic Church, Amnesty International

Intergovernmental Organizations

• Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs): groups created by states to serve certain policy ends
• Political institutions
  • Composed of member states, not private citizens
• Examples
  • United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization of American States (OAS)

Wrapping It Up: Globalization’s Nonstate Actors

In Focus: Nonstate Organizations and Globalization

International Regimes

• International regime: fundamental rules and norms that link states together and shape their relationships
• Focus on specific issue areas
• Regime examples
  • Free trade
  • Nuclear nonproliferation

Is the Internet an Institution of Globalization?

• Originally created by the U.S. government
• Now a global means to exchange goods and information
  • Much of this exchange beyond the control of any one state or regulatory authority.
• However, the Internet has no single location or common voice.
  • May be comparable to international regimes, though it lacks norms on how to address specific issues or meet goals.

Political Globalization

What is Political Globalization?

• Political globalization: trend whereby political institutions, decision-making, and political identity shift to the international level
• Patterns in political globalization
  • International organizations and agreements can create laws that override national governments.
  • NGOs, MNCs, and other global actors operate in areas outside of traditional state government control.

Some Examples of Political Globalization

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty limits the spread of nuclear weapons.
• The EU sets economic regulations that override rules set by member states.
• Climate change agreements request countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Debate: Will Globalization Impact State Autonomy and Capacity?

• Pooling resources through international actors may increase state capacity.
  • Example: World Health Organization and Doctors without Borders may improve state response to health crises.
• IGOs, treaties, and international law may constrain state actions and weaken autonomy/sovereignty.
  • Example: International Monetary Fund and EU (partially) controlled Greece’s budget decisions following the euro crisis.

The Debate: Is There a “Democratic Deficit” in Global Governance?

• Yes:
  • IGOs make critical decisions on many issues but most are not directly elected by voters.
  • Governments may use IGOs to avoid accountability, blaming on unpopular policies on outside pressure.
  • Political globalization empowers violent international actors and movements.
• No:
  • IGOs are accountable to governments; governments are accountable to voters.
  • IGOs and NGOs can act as “watchdogs” and increase the transparency of state action.

Economic Globalization

What is Economic Globalization?

• Economic globalization: Markets, businesses, and services increasingly cross borders and merge into one large (global) market.
• Emerging trends
  • Increased trade in goods and services
  • Economic migration
  • Foreign direct investment (FDI)
  • Offshore outsourcing

The Origins of the Modern Free Trade Regime

• Following WWII, Western allies sought to create a system that would prevent the economic problems that fueled this crisis.
  • 1944: Meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
• The Bretton Woods system: an economic regime that manages international economic relations; this includes the:
  • International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  • World Bank group
  • World Trade Organization (WTO)

The Consequences of Bretton Woods

• The United States used Bretton Woods institutions to promote market integration.
  • Gave rise to Washington Consensus.
• Since 1945:
  • Trade expansion; many national economies deeply integrated in global networks and supply chains.
  • Firms trade services, not just goods.
  • Investors more free to invest globally.
  • Deeper connections between workers, goods, and wealth

The (Potential) Advantages of Economic Globalization

• More and cheaper products
  • Access to world markets means people can sell their services to more consumers.
  • People can purchase from whomever they want.
  • Businesses can produce products more efficiently.
• Reduced global poverty
  • Cheaper products improve spending power for the poor.
  • Investors increasingly invest in places where their assets will produce the largest net gains—poor countries.
  • Offshoring gives more people chances to work at jobs previously reserved for First World citizens.

The (Potential) Disadvantages of Economic Globalization

• Increasing inequality
  • Offshore outsourcing: a process by which a firm moves some of its work to a secondary business outside the home country that can do the work more efficiently or cheaply.
  • The “race to the bottom” drives down wages and decreases regulations.
  • Harms labor rights and environment
• Increased economic uncertainty and risk
  • Increased trade risks dependence, which can expose businesses to greater shocks.
  • The free movement of capital can trigger busts and booms.
• Undermined state capacity and democratic accountability
  • Businesses are able to avoid taxation, oversight, and public accountability.

Societal Globalization

What is Societal Globalization?

• Societal globalization: Individual and collective identities are increasingly shaped by international influences.
• Peer groups and civil society membership increasingly cross borders.
  • Human migration at highest level this century
• Fueled by technological innovations
  • Internet and cell phones

How Will Social Globalization Shape Institutions and Identities?

• Optimists: rising global multiculturalism and globalized democracy
  • Multiple and diverse values bind populations together.
  • NGOs and global civil society create new forms of public participation.
• Pessimists: political alienation, backlash, and the “globalization of nothing”
  • Overwhelming choices
  • Promotion of crass consumerism

Taking Stock of Globalization

Is Globalization New?

• Long history of a globalized world
• Previous periods of interconnection
  • Silk road: trade between ancient empires
  • Medieval Europe highly interconnected
  • Rising integration under imperialism
  • Late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries see the rise of NGOs and IGOs.

Is Globalization Exaggerated?

• Overall, the evidence is mixed.
• Political globalization
  • Increasing involvement of nonstate actors
  • State sovereignty remains a central focus of international politics.
• Economic globalization
  • Trade and international investment is increasing.
  • “Home bias”: Most economics is still domestic.
• Societal globalization (from World Values Survey)
  • Younger people are increasingly seeing themselves as world citizens.
  • But distrust of other nationalities remains high.

Globalization and the Future of Iran

• 2019 Index of Globalization from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ranks Iran 131 of 197 countries.
• Iran’s authoritarian and theocratic regime built on values critical of globalization.
  • Western imperialism led regime to limit contact with the outside world with censorship and restrictions on foreign investment.
• Internet, smartphones, and satellite television allow Iranians to consume international information, despite the regime’s censorship.
  • 2019 Green Wave demonstrations relied on videos, cell phones, and Twitter to mobilize the public and attract international attention.
  • However, the regime used violence to suppress this opposition, and the protests made little impact.

Is Globalization Inevitable?

• History says no.
• Factors that may weaken globalization
  • Economic crises
  • National policies limiting immigration
  • Declining support for capitalism and free trade

Signs of Globalization in Decline

• Rise of antiglobalization groups and attitudes
• The United States is stepping back from encouraging trade liberalism.
  • Abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): an agreement that sought to liberalize trade across a number of Asian and Latin American countries
  • Tensions surround the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): a free trade agreement liberalizing the economies of Canada, Mexico, and the United States

In Sum: The Future of Freedom and Equality

• Globalization intensifies linkages between states and people.
• Globalization has given rise to new actors and institutions who are increasingly playing a role in politics.
• Political globalization has important consequences for state sovereignty, capacity, and global democracy.
• Economic globalization has promoted both rising prosperity and rising inequality.
• Societal globalization may, in the future, promote greater identity linkages or greater divides.
• Scholars debate whether globalization is new or exaggerated, though most would stress that it is not inevitable. Recent years have seen a reverse in globalization trends.

Key Terms

1. Bretton Woods System - an economic regime that manages international economic relations; includes IMF, World Bank, and WTO
2. Economic globalization - increased trade between countries, ties between markets, producers, and labor
3. Foreign direct investment - the purchase of assets in a country by a foreign firm
4. Globalization - the process of expanding and intensifying linkages between states, societies, and economies
5. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) - groups like the UN and EU; created by states to focus on certain policies
6. International regime - the fundamental rules and norms of politics - a set of institutions that empower and constrain states and governments; the link states and shape their relationships with each other, usually with relation to some specific issue
7. Multinational corporations (MNCs) - firms that produce market goods in more than one country
8. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) - national and international groups, apart from any state, that focus on specific policy goals
9. Offshore outsourcing - a process by which a firm moves some of its work to a secondary business outside of the home country that can do the work more efficiently or cheaply
   10. Political globalization - formation of international organizations like intergovernmental organizations, ties between different countries
   11. Social globalization - globalization can connect people through common interests

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