Chapter 3

The Globalization of Modernity

- Anthony Giddens

Giddens’s main point is about how the framework of time-space distanciation leads to the local
movements being influenced by the global. While it may not happen directly, he defines
globalisation as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in
such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice-
versa. Local transformation is as much a part of globalisation as the lateral extension of social
connection across time and space. Simply put, the network formation and connectivity is just
one part, the other is the influence that this global phenomenon has on the local.

Nationalistic sentiment related to nation states may decrease due to this global phenomenon
of coordination and connection of events. However, the opposite may also occur due to a
pushback against this uniformisation of the local and the global due to an intensification of
nationalistic sentiments. While social relations become stretched and become part of a common
process, a strengthening of pressures for local autonomy and regional cultural identity occurs.

This theory is based on the assumption that the states had more sovereignty in the past, and it
diminished with the reduction in the time space distanciation. Before, they were represented as
having more or less complete control within their borders. There is an overall movement
towards one world, although in Giddens’s view there are being continually fractured by war and
conflict. Once again, he reiterates that nation states are becoming less sovereign in the control
of their own affairs. However, he does say that the prospect of world state is less likely now.

Two issues with this theory emerge. For instance it limits itself to the international coordination
of states with regard to the overall dimension of globalisation. It is far more political in its scope
and hardly, if ever focuses on the economic aspect of globalisation. Secondly, states were
never truly sovereign in character, and had to depend on recognition by other states. Every
state’s autonomy was recognised by another state… a mutual alliance proposition. No state
ever had as much sovereignty as was enshrined in legal principles.

Immanuel Wallerstein’s world system theory in contrast focuses primarily on the economic
principles of it all, with its primary focus being a world capitalist society. It purports the theory
that the ultimate objective of globalisation is the creation of this world capitalist theory. However
in doing so, it ignores one of the major actors, the nation state - almost as if it did not exist.
Focusing solely on the centre periphery west centred - which sought to show that exploitation
existed in the world cost it dearly in the political spectrum.
Dimensions of globalisation

Giddens proposes a four dimensional globalisation system - which has the nation state, world
capitalist economy, world military order and international division of labour. The main
centres of power are the capitalist states, in which capitalistic practices is the chief form of
production. The domestic and international policies of these states involve many forms of
economic activity, but their institutional organisation maintains a degree of insulation - so as to
separate the political from the economical. This is done for smoother economic progress.

In such a situation business firms, especially the MNCs wield immense economic power which
they can use at will to influence governments and political parties of the states in which they
conduct business to give them more and more leeway and freedom to expand. The biggest
transnational companies have budgets larger than those but a few nations. However, their
economic power has little bearing on the control of means of violence within a country’s territory.

If nation states are the ‘actors’, then the corporations are the dominant agents within the world
economy. Spread of the influence of the corporations brings with it a global extension of
commodity markets, which include money markets.

One aspect of the dialectical nature of globalisation is the “push - pull” between tendencies
towards centralisation on one hand, and the sovereignty of particular states on the other… The
system of an integrated state system pulls towards centralisation while the states strive to hold
their power and autonomy from the world system.

Now we proceed to the third aspect which is a world military order. While it isn’t the case every
time, it is certainly possible that a nation’s monopoly over violence and coercion in its own
territory can be compromised due to military alliances.

Nation states which are among the most powerful militarily are often bound to seek alliances.
For instance, the US and the USSR (at the time) built a bipolar network of alliances. Countries
other than the two aforementioned in the respective alliances - NATO and Comintern accepted
limitations of opportunities to form independent alliances externally as well as trade selectively.
The American and Soviet forces stationed abroad received their orders and were responsible
only to the US government. They also conducted several third party wars in hotspots such as
Vietnam and Korea, where the majority of the troops involved were the domestic troops and the
big two were simply pulling strings on opposite sides of the battlefield. While these were
conducted in “Third World” countries, these were nowhere near underdeveloped in military
capability. These are described as orchestrated wars in peripheral areas of military strength by
Giddens.

Eventually the point of holding a military advantage is to deter other countries from attacking
you. It has become especially true in nuclear warfare. After the two bombs used in warfare were
dropped, the hundreds of others made were made just to deter the other from using them.
The fourth dimension concerns industrial development. Giddens points out the fact that labour is
becoming more and more specialized as well as mechanized. In the area of specialization - it is
not just in occupation but also a regional specialization as each country produces what it can
most efficiently. Deindustrialization of industries which were too expensive in the west leading to
industrialization in the newly industrialized countries seems to restore a sense of balance. A
notable example of this would be the textile industry - which has relocated to South Asia in the
last few decades.

Even sectors which remain non mechanised in primarily agricultural or developing nations are
undergoing an industrial transformation with a shift to modern technology. For instance,
fertilisers or artificial farming methods. Here Giddens reiterates that this has created a “one
world”.

The greatest phenomenon is actually cultural globalisation which is fundamental and lies behind
each of the aforementioned institutional dimensions. Media is one of the greatest globalising
factors as it allows anyone from anywhere to know about anything from anywhere else. There is
now a pooling of knowledge which is the reason for the global extension of modernity.