Political Globalization / Blog assignment 3 / Angela Wibowo

Summary :

Globalization has multidimentional aspects in the society, and one of them are political aspects. In this chapter we will be talking about how globalization is related and can influence political perspective in the society. According to the article, political globalization concerns to the approach to the social worild that focus on postnational and transnational processes. Political globalization has been much discussed in globalization literature, but it has been decline by nation state because of the impact of global forces. We can understand political globalization as a tension between three processes which interact to produce the complex field about global politics. In the introduction we will talk about global geopolitics, global normative culture, and polycentric networks.

One of the example of global geopolitics is about democracy which is based on the parliamentary nationstate. Democratic government is exists, and Indonesia, my country, use this type of politic system, and there are so many countries in the world that use this kind of politic system, but for the country that is not use this kind of politic system, such as China, considerable demand by democratic movement. This territorial are based from kind of globalization and largely confined to the political form of the nation-state, and it takes traditional forms as constituting a new kind of global geopolitics. The second is global normative culture. Global normative culture provides normative reference points for states and an orientation for political actors. The third one is polycentric networks that is less related to the states and which is not reducible to global normative culture. Polycentric networks is forms of nonterritorial politics which emanate from a multiplicity of sites and can’t be reduce to a single center. This is associated with networks, mobility, communication, and new relationship between individual, state, society, and associated with emerging forms of global governance.

The transformation of the nation-state, nationality, and citizenship. The transformation of the nation state start from the idea of zero-sum situation of state that is disappearing and replaced by global structure of governance and westphalian state as a sovereign actor must be rejected. The transformation of nation-state mostly influenced from economic aspects, economic globalization, and usurped by global market. Now, the most powerful nation-state country in the world today, are US and China. The decoupling of nationality and sitizenship can be attributed to the impact of global normative culture, that is led to blurring of the boundary between national and international law, especially European Union, it is difficult for states to resist international law.

The transformation of the public sphere and communication. Communication is one of important aspects in political globalization. According to the article, communication is the central to politics. Nation-states have been based on centralized system of communication ranging from national system of education, national newspaper, media, and popular cultures. Most nation-states have been based on a national language, that was increasingly standardized. In political parties, political communication have used for social influence, that’s why in my opinion, communication is really important in political matters, especially for democratical political system, or when have a discussion, professional political communication and mass persuasion through systematic advertising, and lobbying. Public sphere is the site of the politics that is not merely a spatial location but a process of discursive contestation. We can conclude that communication is very important, because it can change relationship, between political parties, or between state.

The centrality of civil society. Civil societalization of politics can reinforce the idea that politics is increasingly informed by a normative global culture to the transformation of the nation-state as a site of political struggle. Civil societalization resulted from the erosion of the state that is inspired by the governance turn. Global civil society promise to resolving contradictory tendencies that have become central to the experience of globality.

The transformation of spaces and borders. There is a term called ‘borderless world’ and it is related with globalization, that every country is connected to each other, and for the transformation of globalization, supposed to have the awareness of the people in it. The relationship between globalization and new political spaces and borders revolve around 2 key spatial dynamics. The firsy associated with the work of castells that the network society is constituted by the space of flows which exist in tension with space of places. The second dynamic is the idea of cosmopolitanization by beck (2002), emphasized that the nature of state and society is undergoing change as a result of globalization and that inside/outside, and domestic/foreign assume new meanings.

What was interesting / what I learn :

I’ve learned so much about political globalization, and it is interesting to learned about globalization in different aspect, and it has their own transformation of the political globalization. I’ve realized that globalization can influence political system in other countries. In Indonesia, my country, the political system is democracy, and democracy is used by other countries, and maybe there is some new political system that can used by other countries, and this globalization has important role.  

Discussion :

Can countries help each other to fix the political system?  

Is culture can influence political system in one country?