Social divides in the age of globalization

Abstract

In recent decades, a new integration-demarcation cleavage has emerged in Europe, pitting political parties in favour of globalisation against those opposing globalisation. Although a lot is known about the socio-structural basis and the political organisation of this cleavage, we do not know the extent to which these political divides have led to social divides. Therefore, this article investigates how losers and winners of globalisation oppose each other. On the basis of representative online experiments in Germany and Austria, this article studies attitudes and behaviour towards people with different nationalities, education, and party preferences, which correspond to the cultural, socio-structural, and organisational elements of the new cleavage. More particularly, the extent to which people are willing to interact with each other in daily life and how much they trust each other is investigated. The main results show that people who identify with different parties (especially if they belong to the other side of the cleavage) oppose each other much more strongly than people with different nationalities. There is no divide, however, between the low-skilled and high-skilled. Finally, it appears that the social divides are asymmetrical: the winners of globalisation resent the losers more than the other way round.     

Comprehensive security： Challenge for China in the age of globalization

Traditionally, security is understood as merely ＂national defense＂. During an on-going process of globalization, economic, political and cultural interdependence between individuals, nations and regions have changed the traditional ideas of national security to broader dimensions. The notion of incorporating economic security, environmental security and human security, with national security into a single whole, formulate the idea of comprehensive security （CS）. This paper tries to explore the origin, components, and significance of comprehensive security. In case studies, the rise of China in the twenty-first century is not an assumption any more, but a reality already. In this research, the author focuses on China, a country which not only experiences comprehensive development, but also faces comprehensive security challenges in the age of globalization. The author discusses China＇s security challenge from a comprehensive perspective and argues that understanding them and finding the solution will not only benefit China itself, but also benefit other nations as a whole in the age of globalization.     

Global inequality as one of the root causes of the financial crisis: a suggested explanation

Abstract

The global financial crisis was caused because the volume of toxic assets in the financial system had grown to the point where the system could no longer cope. The dominant view among heterodox economists is that this point of critical mass was reached because of various failures in the financial system. This paper puts the accompanying view that the toxic assets were created largely in response to external pressures, a principle source of which was global inequality: while income inequality was an important factor behind the supply of those assets, wealth concentration was a major factor behind the demand for them. The policy implications of this analysis are that income distribution and wealth ownership have to be more equitably structured if global financial crises are to be avoided in the future. This is not to exclude other proposals for making the financial system more transparent and accountable. The point, rather, is that these proposals are insufficient on their own. No matter how radical the re-structuring of the financial system, as long as there remain external pressures on it to create products or to indulge in practices that are harmful to it, such products and practices will continue to be introduced and financial crises will continue to occur.     

Civil society in an age of globalization: A neo-Gramscian perspective

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the world has seen an intensification of the globalization processes of social relations, an intensification that has direct implications for the study of contemporary world politics. One important aspect of such implications concerns the emergence of new actors in world politics, not just in national terms, but also at the local, regional and global levels—in other words, approaching the global political economy as a whole. In some sense, it is possible to say that dominant and dominated social groups are being influenced and are influencing such globalization processes, so at present it would be possible to note the rising of a transnational fraction of the capitalist class and the rise of a globalized resistance within the ambit of a civil society influenced by globalization processes. Therefore, the objective of the current article is to analyze the transformation process of social forces in an age of the intensification of globalization of social relations. Put another way, the article assesses the transformations of civil society in an age of globalization that present new dilemmas and possibilities to the collective political agency in the twenty-first century.     

Being unequal and seeing inequality: Explaining the political significance of social inequality in new market democracies

Market economies inevitably generate social inequalities, of which the new democracies of Central and East European (CEE) societies have seen dramatic – though widely diverging – levels of growth. Do CEE citizens believe that inequality is excessive and, if so, why? And what is the connection between perceptions of social inequality and citizens' views of new markets and democracy? These questions are addressed using new data from mass surveys conducted in 2007 in 12 post‐communist CEE states. Surprisingly weak links are found between social inequality perceptions and national‐level measures of inequality as well economic, social and political conditions. Perceptions of social inequality are mainly driven by individual‐level assessments of market and democratic performance, but not by market or democratic ideals.     

Global corporate responsibility in domestic context: lateral decoupling and organizational responses to globalization

This paper examines how the domestic reception of global corporate responsibility is significantly shaped by institutionalized differences among state, business and civil society actors in the domestic context. In the global diffusion of ideas and practices, the decoupling of global policies and domestic practice is endemic, a process that this paper argues results from competing domestic interests and orientations. I examine this process of ‘lateral decoupling’ in a case study of the reception of the United Nations Global Compact among corporate responsibility practitioners in the city-state of Singapore. Differences in ceremonial, pragmatic and non-adversarial orientations towards global corporate responsibility generated significant uncertainty for businesses around how to apply corporate responsibility principles. In response, businesses constructed distinct narratives: large transnational and domestic companies emphasized values, community and tradition, while small businesses focused on the competitive advantages of corporate responsibility. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of domestic institutions for mediating global principles and local outcomes.     

Resisting globalization: a study of localism in Thailand

Recent work has suggested that the discontent over perceived negative impacts arising from liberalization and globalization need to be more carefully considered. The critiques emanating from non-governmental organizations and social movements are considered to be amongst the most significant. This paper examines one example of such criticism – localism – that emerged during the economic crisis in Thailand. This example is found to be a variety of populist reactions to the changes and inequalities generated by capitalist industrialization. The paper assesses this critique, its political strength and its potential to provide an alternative economic model for Thailand. While populist localism develops a useful moral argument regarding the impact of neoliberal globalization, it is unable to develop a sound alternative model.     

It is a truly new dawn: Blacks and the politics of the postmodern age

This interpretive essay uses insights from cultural and postmodern theory, literature, history, and economics, interspersed with personal observations and narrative, to argue that the present historical ‘moment’ is ushering in a qualitatively new era for blacks. Culturally, American society is more truly inclusive of the black presence and interests—symbolized by the ‘arrival’ of Toni Morrison; the hegemony of the Westernized worldviews is weakened, creating a space for legitimate claims of difference to be actualized. While the moment is opportune for attempting to create a “cooperatively diverse” world, the altered socio-economic configuration of the new global order makes it progressively difficult for the old politics of pluralism to persist. In this essay, I argue that the emerging global order requires a shift to a new politics of recognition and a more equitable political partnership. In the main, the task is to fashion those accommodations that will enable blacks and whites (and additional Other(s)) to construct a new social and economic agenda from this new interdependence.     

Hedging in search of a new age of non-alignment: Myanmar between China and the USA

Abstract

The American ‘return’ to East Asia is currently characterized by a particularly high degree of competition with Beijing among the small and medium powers of Southeast Asia, where the recent Chinese ‘charm offensive’ achieved its most significant outcomes.

This article, hence, aims to explore the nature and patters of this ongoing process of strategic repositioning put into practice by Myanmar within the political triangle with Washington and Beijing. Against this backdrop, we will draw upon the conceptualization of ‘hedging strategy’, which identifies a set of multidimensional ‘insurance policies’ adopted by small actors in their relations vis-à-vis great powers.     

Rhetoric and resources: notes for a new approach to public relations and issues management

This theoretical paper criticises the dominant rhetorical approach to public relations and issues management for not integrating symbolic and material dimensions. It is suggested that public relations and issues management assist actors in pursuing their interests with the help of symbolic strategies and various types of resources or capital. By drawing on rhetorical and sociological theories, the paper presents elements for a heuristic analytical device that has the potential to help both the critic and the practitioner to get a better grasp of such processes. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Colombia: new approach to guerrilla threat

Colombia is reassessing its approach to its decades-long struggle against guerrillas and criminal gangs. It is embarking on reforms of its security services and legal system as part of its efforts to tackle a new hybrid threat: groups with the military know-how of insurgents and the adaptability of criminal actors.     

Government size and growth: Accounting for economic freedom and globalization

We examine the relationship between government size and economic growth, controlling for economic freedom and globalization, and using Bayesian Averaging over Classical Estimates in a panel of rich countries. Countries with big government have experienced above average increases in the KOF globalization index and in the Fraser institute’s Economic freedom index. To maintain comparability with earlier studies, we use two sample periods: 1970–1995 and 1970–2005. Government size robustly correlates negatively with growth. We also find some evidence that countries with big government can use economic openness and sound economic policies to mitigate negative effects of big government.     

Pockets of resistance to globalization: the case of the Lega Nord

ABSTRACT

From its inception, the Lega Nord has been a populist social and political movement obsessed with the Other. In the world-view of the Lega Nord, the Other is anything that threatens the cultural and regional identity of Italians in the northern part of the country, particularly the Northeast. In the early 1990s the Other was constituted by corrupt politicians in Rome, Italian economic monopolies and southern Italians. By the late 1990s the Other had increasingly become the forces of globalization that, according to the Lega leadership's shrill arguments, threatened the economic and social fabric of what the party now refers to as ‘Padania’. Woods explores the manner in which anti-globalization became the dominant ideological Other in the rhetoric of the Lega Nord.     

Responsibilities for Human Capabilities: Avoiding a Comprehensive Global Program

Violence, poverty, and illness are all too prevalent in our world. In order to alleviate their hold systematically, we need normative schemes with a global reach and with definite responsibilities. Martha Nussbaum’s human capabilities theory (Martha Nussbaum 2006) provides us with an insightful example. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (The United Nations 1948), however, already includes most of the human capabilities central to Nussbaum’s theory, and violence, poverty, and illness usually appear as objectionable enough without any additional reference to capabilities. In the current article, the author argues that the primary global responsibilities can mainly be established without Nussbaum’s account of capabilities. The human rights-based approach is more promising for this purpose (Jack Donnelly 2007; Abigail Gosselin, Human Rights Review 8:35–52, 2006; Ivar Kolstad, Human Rights Review, doi:, 2008). However, the author also contends that Nussbaum’s theory may be very instructive as a relatively comprehensive moral approach that supplements the human rights view and inspires its adherents to assume secondary responsibilities in addition to the primary ones. Once we learn to see Nussbaum’s agenda in this way, not as the global program, but as one of the many reasonable and relatively comprehensive views in the global background culture, we can also learn to cultivate the responsibilities it implies in a duly dialogical way.     

Civil Society and Global Governance: The Possibilities for Global Citizenship

In this article we reassert the role of governance as well as of civil society in the analysis of citizenship. We argue that to analyse global civil society and global citizenship it is necessary to focus on global governance. Just as states may facilitate or obstruct the emergence and development of national civil society, so too global governance institutions may facilitate or obstruct an emerging global civil society. Our key contention is that civil society at the global level thrives through its interaction with strong facilitating institutions of global governance. We start with a discussion of civil society and citizenship within the nation-state, and from there develop a model of global civil society and citizenship. Through analysing the impacts of various modes of global governance, we identify strategically appropriate forms of political and social engagement that best advance the prospects for global citizenship.