Put simply globalisation is…..
The following powerpoint provides an overview of Globalisation covering many key points
Globalisation is where the power of national boundaries are becoming less significant……
- Proponents of globalisation argue globalisation has weakened the power of nation states in the areas identified below
- Global communication systems enables consumers to purchase goods from almost anywhere in the world, for example ebay. This shift has moved economies from local to global processes
- Global brands such as Apple, allow global corporations to create a global culture through brand association
- Politics and political action has become globalised, for example anti-capitalist movement
- Global movement of people through air travel, tourism etc means that diseases are harder to contain within national boundaries (bird-flu; HIV etc)
- Transnational corporations such as Ford, Apple are seen to have more power than nation states
Economic globalisation has seen the growth of transnational companies/corporations (TNCs)
- TNCs operate in a large number of countries, have their headquarters in a nation of convenience making them beyond control of individual nation states
- TNCs like Ford, Apple move production and investment to any country where economic conditions best suits them, for example Apple’s European HQ is in Cork, Ireland
- TNCs use countries of convenience like China to produce their goods because labour costs are low and there’s little or no trade unionism
- Individual nation states no longer have the power to control the activities of TNCs and so have lost a significant amount of power over their own economies
- As a consequence of the above some TNCs are now more powerful than many governments
Political globalisation reduces the power of nation states
- Nation states are increasingly forming transnational organisations such as the European Union; United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
- These mergers form organisations effectively blur the boundaries of sovereignty by shifting powers from the nation state to transnational organisations. For example EU law now has precedence over a significant amount of British law.
- For some commentators Like Ukip’s Nigel Farage this shift in power from the nation state to transnational organisations erodes national democracy by handing it to an EU bureaucracy – see clip below
Cultural globalisation and heterogeneity
- The growth in online communications through popular platforms such as Facebook; Twitter, Youtube; Sky TV has resulted in the world sharing Western values, culture, lifestyle through broadcast media including advertising to create a heterogeneous global culture
- This is seen to be creating a global culture whereby the whole world recognises brands such as Apple, Coca Cola
- A global culture via online communications makes it difficult for nation states to control its citizens access to information
A word of caution
Hirst and Thompson acknowledge globalisation has eroded power of the nation state but they argue it’s over emphasised as nation states power over foreign policy and the military remains along with their citizens sense of national identity.
Globalisation and anti-capitalism
sociologytwynham.com 
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