GOVERNMENTS AND

CITIZENS IN A GLOBALLY
INTERCONNECTED WORLD
OF STATES
GROUP 2
CARLS
DALAGAN
DE VERA
INTRODUCTION

• “Fragmegration” (James Rosenau): States now face new kinds of pressures,

with advances toward supranational integration on the one hand and local
fragmentation (division) on the other.
• The United Nations (UN) had 5 founding members after the end of World
War II in 1945. By the end of 2012, the United Nations had 193 member-
states. Many of these states emerged as a result of decolonization in the
1950s and 1960s and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
INTRODUCTION

• Palestine gained recognition in November 2012 as a ‘non-member

observer state’ of the UN (a status also held by the Vatican).
• The Republic of China (Taiwan), completely lost its UN membership and
its permanent seat on the Security Council in 1971, when PROC (which
took over mainland China in 1949) replaced Taiwan as China's
representative in the United Nations. Taiwan has been trying without
success for years to be granted ‘non-member observer‘ standing within
the UN.
• Today nations are viewed as socially constructed political
communities that hold together citizens across many
kinds of cross-cutting identities: ethnicity, language,
religion, and so forth. The terms ‘nation’ and ‘state’ are
often used interchangeably in everyday political speech
and media commentary
MAJOR TOPICS THAT ILLUSTRATE ONGOING CHANGES IN
THE ROLES OF STATES AND THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
STATES AND CITIZENS

A. Economic Interdependence
B. Economic and Political Integration
C. International Law and Universal Norms
D. Transnational Advocacy Networks
E. New Communication Platforms
A. ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE

• Globalization is imposing a forced choice upon states:

either conform to free-market principles or run the
risk of being left behind.
GOLDEN STRAIGHTJACKET

• States are now forced into policies that suit the

preferences of investment houses and corporate
executives (The “Electronic Herd”) who move
money and resources into countries favored as
adaptable to the demands of international
business; and withdraw investment from
countries that are deemed uncompetitive.
GOLDEN STRAIGHTJACKET

• National leaders such as Ronald Reagan (USA)

and Margaret Thatcher (UK) pursued the
laissez-faire economics of Friedrich Hayek and
Milton Friedman. After the fall of Soviet
communism, laissez-faire economics created the
conditions for deregulation, privatization and
free trade to spread around the world.
COUNTRIES THAT TOOK ADVANTAGE OF
GLOBAL MARKETS
• Mexico failed to create a viable car industry, but now it took by storm
the global market for auto parts.
• Farmers in Argentina and New Zealand made fortunes selling
winter fruits and vegetables to Northern Hemisphere consumers.
• Companies in Thailand and Turkey, previously constrained by the
difficulty of borrowing at home, now had access to cheap and plentiful
foreign finance.
COUNTRIES THAT TOOK ADVANTAGE OF
GLOBAL MARKETS
• South Korea and Japan rejected American ideas about
specializing only in what they do best and trading for the rest.
They concentrated on developing world class capabilities by
protecting and subsidizing new and infant industries like steel,
consumer electronics, and semiconductors.
CRITIQUES OF GLOBALIZATION

1. States to take the power to determine economic, social and environmental

objectives for national development and the capacity to ensure that
transnational corporations meet these
2. To set the stage for ‘new forms of participatory democracy whereby
citizens become effectively involved in international policymaking on trade,
investment and finance
3. Support voluntary codes of conduct and higher standards for the
treatment of workers and the local communities in which global
conglomerates do business.
B. ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION

• Signing of the Maastricht Treaty (1992). A common citizenship

that accords citizens of the member-states the rights to live,
work, vote and even run for office in European parliamentary
elections outside one's native member-state.
• The European Court of Justice (ECJ). It functioned since 1952
as the top dispute resolution body for the EU and its
predecessors, has set forth provisions such as ‘direct effect’ and
‘supremacy’.
B. ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION

• The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It is a part of

The Council of Europe which upholds the European
Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), now signed by all 28 of
its member-states
• The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It is a part of
The Council of Europe which upholds the European
Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), now signed by all 28 of
its member-states.
C. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND UNIVERSAL
NORMS
• THE ROME STATUTE: The Security Council agreed to
follow the doctrine of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P) when it
authorized in early 2011 a ‘no-fly zone’, an arms embargo, and
ultimately the use of force in Libya's civil war to protect
civilians from impending government attacks and gave
revolutionary forces a better chance at displacing the regime of
Moammar Gaddafi.
THE ROME STATUTE

• The R2P doctrine signals a growing willingness on

the part of states to intervene in the affairs of
regimes which are unable to protect their own
people.
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with

Britain, France and the United States taking the lead,
intervened in Libya. The Libyan revolution ousted
Gaddafi with the NATO air strikes.
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

• In Syria, Bashar Hafez al-Assad remained in power at

the start of 2014 even though his government and
military forces had committed far worse atrocities
against thousands of fighters and protesters, including a
chemical weapons attack in August 2013 that killed an
estimated 1,400 civilians.
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

• After U.S. President Barack Obama threatened to

launch limited military strikes against Syria, the Syrian
government promised in an agreement worked out by
the UN for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and
the United Nations Security Council to destroy its
stockpiles of chemical weapons.
• States now compete not only for economic advantage but also for moral
credibility, and this is particularly evident in the ways that many civil
society organizations and think tanks now rank states and release annual
indexes.
• 1. Transparency International’s “Corruption Perceptions Index”
• 2. Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World Index” of political rights and civil
liberties
• 3. The “Democracy Index” published by The Economist Intelligence Unit
• 4. The “Press Freedom Index” compiled by Reporters Without Borders
• 5. The “Failed States Index” from Foreign Policy Magazine and The Fund for
Peace
• 6. The “Better Life Index” launched in 2011 by the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
D. THE RISE OF TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM

• “Boomerang Pattern of Influence” It is when

domestic civil society organizations (CSOs) join forces
with compatible advocacy groups overseas that can
pressure the national governments in question.
THE RISE OF TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM

• The Sustained Global Citizens Campaign: the

Global Justice Movement which called for alternatives
to neoliberal economic globalization.
THE RISE OF TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM
• Alter-Globalization Movement (1999) : The movement was framed
as an “anti-globalization” movement rather than for an alternative model
of globalization more attentive to human rights, participatory democracy,
local control, sustainability and cultural diversity.
• This led people to think of themselves as ‘global citizens’ and to link this
idea substantially with concepts of awareness, responsibility, participation
and cross-cultural empathy.
THE RISE OF TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM
• The World Social Forum : Served as a reaction to the World Economic
Forum with a culture of avoiding hierarchy and centralized control, rather,
promotes socially and environmentally responsive alternatives over the
dominance of the world's largest corporations and national governments.
E. NEW COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS

• Globalization has accompanied new forms of digital media that bring to light the
possibilities for new kinds of communities to coalesce via networks and create new
arenas for political interaction, identity and belonging
• The new media opens up the potential for citizens to gain leverage
E. NEW COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS

• Technological advances have also made it easier for

authoritarian states from Russia to Saudi Arabia to Myanmar to
silence bloggers using software programs that filter Internet
content and “denial-of-service”, making the targeted computers
or web servers temporarily unavailable
• Wikipedia and WikiLeaks obviously fall into a similar category
of information sharing by global citizens for global citizens.
CONCLUSION

• Globalization coincides with states and indeed has spurred the creation of many new
states with many nations and ethnic, linguistic and religious communities long submerged
with existing states rising up and demanding statehood for themselves
• States now operate in a world in which power is dispersed both horizontally and
vertically
• Globalization shapes states, and states in turn shape globalization, and this circular flow
encompasses many elements, such as transnational capital investments, ideas, brands, art
and music, film, broadcasting, sporting events and so forth
CONCLUSION

• Because the benefits and costs of globalization are unevenly distributed across states and
populations, life chances for individual citizens are heavily determined by particular states
they are from – and how these state measure up in safeguarding basic rights and ensuring
the provision of basic needs
• States set the agendas and also drive the terms of cooperation that govern the world’s
leading international organizations, from the United Nations to the World Trade
Organization, States also craft an uphold the common standards that emerge from these
institutions
CONCLUSION

• Globalization places states into direct competition

REFERENCES
• Schattle, Hans (2014). Governments and citizens in a globally
interconnected world of states. In M. B. Steger, P. Battersby, & J.
M. Siracusa (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of globalization (pp.
105-122). London: SAGE Publications Ltd