7.3 Globalisation, power and politics

Question 1

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

Are there more liberal democracies now than in the past or less?

Answer 1

More, and far fewer dictatorships.

Question 2

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

What is the most common political system in the world?

Answer 2

Liberal democracy.

Question 3

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

What do many political systems aim to be nowadays? Why?

Answer 3

‘Free and fair’ with the opposition allowed to organise freely, but elections are almost always now observed and there are procedures to try to reduce bribery/vote rigging etc.

Having free and fair elections is now often a condition of receiving aid.

Question 4

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

What kinds of ideas have now spread globally?

Answer 4

Ideas about human rights and equality.

Question 5

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

What is there now a growing framework of to protect human rights and prosecute offenders?

Answer 5

International agreements, for example the International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute individuals for genocide, war crime or crimes against humanity.

Question 6

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

What has globalisation enabled?

What has this exposed people to?

Answer 6

More cross-cultural contact, which has exposed people to ideas about democracy, human rights and encouraged democratic movements.

Question 7

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

What has put pressure on governments to move to democracy and show respect for human rights?

Answer 7

International organisations.

Question 8

The spread of liberal democracy and human rights

Examples of countries with non-democratic systems.

What does this suggest?

Answer 8

China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

This suggests globalisation does not lead to democracy/human rights.

Question 9

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

Social movements are now able to operate in several countries because…?

Answer 9

Globalisation means national boundaries no longer restrict political activity.

Question 10

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What kind of movements has globalisation made possible?

Answer 10

Global social movements.

Question 11

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

New social movements (NSMs)

Answer 11

Unlike older social movements, these are loosely organised, usually without leaders and often use direct action tactics such as demonstrations and occupations.

Question 12

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

Examples of NSMs

Answer 12

• Environmental movements
• Feminist movements
• Peace and anti-nuclear movements
• Gay and lesbian movements
• Animal rights movements
• Cancelling debt movements
• Anti-globalisation movements
• Occupy movements

Question 13

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What are some of the organisations included in the environmental movement?

Answer 13

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

Question 14

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What are global social movements in part a response to?

Answer 14

New global risks.

Question 15

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What aspect of globalisation has made it possible for people sharing interests to join together for regional/global movements?

Answer 15

The growth of the internet and global electronic communication.

Info can be shared very quickly and actions coordinated, this enables global social movements to put pressure on governments/international bodies.

Question 16

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What are global social movements often used to express?

Answer 16

Anger about the effects of globalisation.

Greta thunberg etc.

Question 17

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What would anti-globalisation protesters point out?

Answer 17

• The failure of structural adjustment programmes to reduce poverty.
• How China has largely ignored neo-liberalism and despite their economy being under considerable state control, has had rapid growth.

Question 18

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What do protesters often claim about global economic systems, controlled by TNCs?

Answer 18

That they keep people in less developed countries in poverty.

Question 19

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

Why has the anti-globalisation movement been criticised?

Answer 19

For a lack of effective organisation, which has at times allowed violent protesters to take over, as well as for failing to win support from many people in less developed countries.

Question 20

Global social movements and attempts to oppose globalisation

What have attempts to oppose globalisation by less developed countries often been through?

Answer 20

Governments and inter-governmental action, rather than popular protest.

Question 21

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What is an negative effect of globalisation for nation states?

Answer 21

They lose some power and authority.

Question 22

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What areas of economic policy do national governments lose control over as a results of globalisation?

Answer 22

1. Employment
2. Taxations
3. Investment

Question 23

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What has Ohmae (1995) argued about globalisation?

Answer 23

That globalisation “marks the end of the nation state itself”.

Question 24

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

How can TNCs be so powerful?

Answer 24

Less developed countries are often overly reliant on one resource that only TNCs have the expertise and ability to exploit. This means the TNCs can threaten to, or actually move to, other countries where costs are lower.

This limits the power of the less developed nation states where they operate.

Question 25

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What does the size/power of TNCs mean in relation to global treaties?

Answer 25

Global treaties etc. rely on their cooperation to be fulfilled.

Question 26

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What are nation states increasingly unable to achieve?

Answer 26

Desired outcomes alone.

Question 27

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

Examples of problems which require transnational responses

Answer 27

• The global drugs trade
• Pollution
• Depletion of the ozone layer
• Terrorism
• Carbon emissions and climate change
• Acidification of coeans
• The global illegal trade in endangered species and their body parts

Question 28

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What does the UK leaving the EU suggest?

Answer 28

That global cooperation can be vulnerable to anti-globalisation politics.

Question 29

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What does Beck (1992) argue we now live in?

Answer 29

A “global risk society”.

Question 30

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

Global risk society

Answer 30

Individual, groups, governments and corporations have to confront problems that earlier generations could not imagine and which are very different from natural disasters and plagues in the past.

Many of these risks are generated by science/technology.

Example is a global pandemic.

Question 31

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

Why does Beck say we need to think in terms of the universal, rather than nation states?

Answer 31

Because the nation state alone cannot deal with the issues a global risk society presents, nation states act in their own interest.

Question 32

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

Where is power starting to move from?

Answer 32

Some power has moved downwards from nation states to local levels.

Question 33

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

Example of nation states losing power

Answer 33

Mundialisation (cities declaring themselves as global centres independetly of the nation states which they exist in).

Question 34

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What is John Gray (2002) sceptical that globalisation involves?

Answer 34

“The world becoming a true single market, in which nation-states have withered away, supplanted by homeless multinational corporations.”

He argues that neo-liberal theorists simply want this to be the case.

Question 35

Debates about the role of the nation state in tackling global problems

What do Hirst and Thompson point out about nations?

Answer 35

That they are still the key to creating the stable political conditions under which trade and international development can continue.

Arguably, when nation states cooperate with others in intergovernmental organisation, their collective strength enables them to do more than otherwise would have been the case.