Globalization may be described as a process, which creates networks of interdependence at worldwide distances.137 This means that irrespective of geographical distances, events occurring all over the world are affecting the lives and decisions of people everywhere despite their national locations. In short, ‘Globalization is the emergence of a complex web of interconnectedness that means that our lives are increasingly shaped by events that occur, and decisions that are made, at a great distance from us.’138 It is generally agreed that globalization refers to the increasing transnational dimensions of economic, socio-cultural and political life influenced by technological change, global spread of production and communication technologies. Globalization as a multifaceted process resulting in interconnectedness, leads to relationships of interdependence amongst nation-states in the form of economic integration, cultural diffusion and political actions. However, most of these processes are beyond the full control of the nation-state and neither the interconnectedness nor interdependence ensures equality of relationship or decision making by all nation-states. Operation of the MNCs/TNCs and penetration of the capitalist mode of production; regulation of trade, commerce, international finance and investment and international market by IMF–World Bank–WTO; Information Technology and Internet; means of electronic mass communication, etc., present processes at the global level that transcend and ignore state boundaries.
Traditionally, nation-states have been exercising exclusive authority over specified territorial domain in terms of regulation of economic, trade and commercial activities. They have also been keeping vigilance over cultural, social and other activities of the citizens. As such, sovereignty and territorial integrity both in physical terms like defence through standing army, and in emotional terms like cultural symbols, life styles and entertainment, has been largely monitored by the nation-state. However, presently, nation-state is faced with a host of trends within globalization that challenge it. We can analyse these trends in the forms of economic, political and cultural globalization.
Most significant amongst the dimensions of globalization has been the economic dimension. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, barring the colonial countries, nation-states provided effective context for development of market economy in terms of unified national market for the expansion of domestic industry, internally and externally, protection against external competition and support for overseas markets. Thus, it was focused on ‘national economy. But the emergence of the world market and world economy now presents a qualitative change in contemporary times. Two significant factors that have given rise to this situation can be identified as MNCs/TNCs and world monetary/financial/trade organizations like IMF/WTO and the World Bank. Single national markets protected by the nation-state have proved to be insufficient for the capitalist economy both from the angle of production and consumption. Access to external resources both material and human, international finance and markets has made MNCs/TNCs operate without reference to a particular national economy. These TNCs/MNCs present advanced capitalism in its global phase. Their huge budgets as large as many nation-states, skilled personnel as big as bureaucracy of many nation-states, massive investments, widespread markets and advanced technologies are integral to capitalist modernization in contemporary phase.139 The presence and evolution of world organizations like the IMF, World Bank and the WTO to regulate and facilitate international finance, currency, trade and commerce add supportive dimension to this operation. In such a situation, the nation-state may provide human resources, material infrastructure and other supporting services for the operation of the MNCs/TNCs in their respective boundaries, most of the decisions related to economic activities of these entities would be beyond the control of the nation-state.
A combination of various economic factors has led to the interdependence of countries and their economies. This economic interdependence manifests at various levels. In the field of trade and commerce, we find dependence of nation-states on international markets. For example, oil producing nations who are combined in the form of OPEC (MNCs also operate in the field of oil production) where decision by the latter to produce or not to produce oil leads to increase and decrease in the prices of various products based on crude oil in other countries (cascading effect), quantum of subsidy by Indian government to its farmers decides the level of competition of Indian agro-products in European and American markets, cheap Chinese products affects the small-scale industries in India and less expensive textiles exported from India to USA leads to reduction in employees in US textile firms.
In the field of financial transactions and financial markets, interdependence could also be discerned. For example, terrorists’ attacks at World Trade Centre in USA and Metro Rail in UK leads to crash of sensex and share markets all over the world. Similarly, decision of the US investors to withdraw their investment from South East Asia in 1990s led to crisis of market and production there. Mobility of finance capital and foreign direct investments along with electronic trading and transactions have created a network of financial markets for stocks, commodities, currencies, debts and investments all over the world.
Manufacturing is also increasingly organized on global basis. For example, many of the MNCs/TNCs manufacture different items of a product in different countries to realize cost effectiveness and economy of scale before assembling as a product. They also set up turnkey assembly plants in developing countries having cheap labour and resources. For example, Nike set up its manufacturing first in South Korea then in Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.
Not only manufacturing, but also technical support services have got a global spread. This has been largely due to information technology and communication revolution. For example, USA’s recent decision not to restrict outsourcing of various services to outside firms and agencies leads to growth in the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) in India and ban on the same leads to feeling of cut in employment in India. It has been observed that computer operators in the US pass on system defects to computer engineers in India for trouble shooting in the evening (US time) while leaving office and because of time difference, are able to get them rectified the following morning. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is yet another example of integration where US software companies outsource product development to India. Huge work relating to customer help line, online solutions, medical transcription and even tax filing are assigned to IT service organizations in India by other countries, particularly the USA.
Secondly, cultural interaction has also been an important parallel process along with economic integration, which transcends national boundaries. It has been argued that global economic spread of capitalism requires concomitant culture of mass consumerism of which mass advertising, material inducement and packaging are considered integral. These are requirements of economic changes and are presented as if they are nation-neutral. This means that ideas, symbols, images presented in consumer culture are universal and bypass nation-states. Increasingly, local mores, symbols and cultural practices are invoked to support capitalist-financial interests. Typical examples could be taken from the advertisements by the HSBC regarding finance and banking where local mores and cultural practices of the people for salutation, gesturing etc., are invoked to validate the claimed-knowledge of requirement of finance as well. Similarly, in one of the advertisements of Visa Credit Card, a sister’s emotions and well-wishing motive for her brother is replaced with the credit card profligacy of Richard Gere, the Hollywood actor.
However, these overwhelming changes though closely associated with economic changes, are mainly a consequence of the new systems of electronic mass communications and information technologies. Expansion of information technology, mass media, telecommunication, internet, 24-hour TV channels etc., have prompted observers like Marshall McLuhan to declare that ‘globe is no more than a village’.140 Global mass media, through advertisements, 24 hours news reporting and features, offer access to a variety of social and physical settings and socio-cultural and political events of the remote areas of the world from one corner to the other. The coverage of fall of Nicole Ceausescu in Romania and Students protest at Tiananmen Square in China in 1989, live coverage of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001, capture of Saddam Hussain, spectre of famine and refugees in Sub-Sahara and other African countries, all enhance the immediacy of happenings from one part of the world to the other. Not only this, it leads to some kind of emotional reactions from people who become part of this visual community. Needless to mention, at times these have led to mass protests and support rallies from people living in other parts of the world thereby ‘globalizing protest and resistance’ as well.
As noted above, the process of cultural globalization has been identified with the requirement of global capitalism. Writers like Leslie Sklair see close link between cultural and economic globalization to the extent that even the former sustaining the ‘culture-ideology of consumerism.141 Consumerism has its objective to foster needs beyond perceived requirements of the people. For example, in the Visa Credit Card advertisement featuring Richard Gere in Rajasthan (Indian State) locale, well-wishing need for five pigeons have been inflated to many. Similarly, in advertisements relating to cosmetics, need to appear fair has been inflated and over-emphasized. Thus, on the one hand, cultural globalization promises flow of information and sharing of plight of the people all over the world, on the other, it seeks to sustain global capitalism. Nevertheless, in either case, cultural globalization transcends national boundaries and questions the traditional concept of internal and external sovereignty.
It is often mentioned that contemporary times have seen the spread and mass acceptance of American jeans, Hollywood movies and Macdonald’s burgers. These three symbols of American popular culture have earned the name of symbols of ‘cultural imperialism’ and ‘Trojan horse of cultural imperialism’, which threaten national cultural symbols and identities of nations. Generally, Hollywood is termed as Trojan horse bringing with it Disneyland, fast-food chains, free advertising for American goods like clothes, rock music, etc. Food habits are more and more showing what has been termed as ‘McDonaldization’ ‘whereby global commodities and commercial and marketing practices associated with the fast food industry have come to dominate more and more economic sectors.’142 This raises a question, whether contemporary global culture can avoid ‘cultural imperialism’ and become cosmopolitan. The dominance of the English language, American and European lifestyle, post renaissance art and architecture, modernist-urban behavioural and attitudinal expectations, all point to dominance of Anglo-American culture and lifestyles any way. Similarly, it is difficult to avoid identification of what is called ‘global culture’ with what owes its growth ‘to the power and prestige of one or the other of the great metropolitan power centres and cultures of contemporary worlds’.143 Presently, this has taken the form of Pax Europeana and Pax Americana.
Thirdly, globalization can be seen in political dimension as well. Political globalizing trends could be seen in growing importance of international and intergovernmental organizations and in various global political actions in areas perceived increasingly global in scope. For example, global environmental movements, human rights movements, women rights, rights of indigenous and ethnic minorities, anti-nuclear movements, movements against terrorism, etc. A host of public bodies and NGOs have taken up these causes with their global networks and consortiums. In fact, many of them have reacted against the adverse impact of capitalist and economic globalization at the cost of other factors. This aspect of globalization leads to expectation that global civil society may emerge. We also find a host of other Supranational and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) in the field of political, defence and strategic cooperation like UN bodies, IMF, WTO, expanding NATO, EU etc. which acquire the status of supra-national or international regimes and are highly political in nature. Added to this is emphasis on ‘democratization’, ‘political modernization’ and ‘good governance’ as universal political ideals. It has been observed that these bodies and organizations when ‘conform to the principle of intergovernmentalism, [they] provide a mechanism that enable states, … to take concerted action without sacrificing national sovereignty.’144 Thus, interaction between states is based on sovereign independence, e.g. UNO, treaties and agreements, etc. However, mostly principle of supra-nationalism is followed and supra-national bodies invariably impose their will on the nation-state. Supra-nationalism has been described as ‘the existence of an authority that is “higher” than that of the nation-state and capable of imposing its will on it.’145
As a result of these factors and pressures, many observers have written epitaph of the nation-state. One of the famous commentators and globalist, Kenichi Ohmae has declared: ‘The Nation-State … as an unnatural, even dysfunctional unit for organizing human activity and managing economic endeavour in borderless world’ and has predicted emergence of ‘region-state’ based on economic factor of market for goods and services and not political fiat.146 We see the preeminence of economic factors over political considerations in globalizing world. It may be possible that the doctrine of regional economic cooperation is a pointer to Ohmae’s prediction of Region State and a prime example could be the European Union.
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