8 Theories of Globalization

Explained!

All theories of globalization have been put hereunder in eight categories:liberalism, political
realism, Marxism, constructivism, postmodernism,feminism , Trans-formationalism and
eclecticism. Each one of them carriesseveral variations.

1. Theory of Liberalism:

Liberalism sees the process of globalisation as market-led extension of

modernisation. At the most elementary level, it is a result of ‘natural’ human

desires for economic welfare and political liberty. As such, transplanetaryconnectivity is derived
from human drives to maximise material well-being andto exercise basic freedoms. These
forces eventually interlink humanity acrossthe planet.

They fructify in the form of:

(a) Technological advances, particularly in the areas of transport,communications and

information processing, and,(b) Suitable legal and institutional arrangement to enable markets
and liberaldemocracy to spread on a trans world scale.Such explanations come mostly
from Business Studies, Economics,International Political Economy, Law and Politics. Liberalists
stress thenecessity of constructing institutional infrastructure to support globalisation. Allthis has
led to technical standardisation, administrative harmonisation, trans-lation arrangement between
languages, laws of contract, and guarantees ofproperty rights.But its supporters neglect the
social forces that lie behind the creation oftechnological and institutional underpinnings. It is not
satisfying to attribute

these developments to ‘natural’ human drives for economic growth and

political liberty. They are culture blind and tend to overlook historically situatedlife-worlds and
knowledge structures which have promoted their emergence.

All people cannot be assumed to be equally amenable to and desirous ofincreased globality in
their lives. Similarly, they overlook the phenomenon ofpower. There are structural power
inequalities in promoting globalisation andshaping its course. Often they do not care for the
entrenched powerhierarchies between states, classes, cultures, sexes, races and resources.

2. Theory of Political Realism:

Advocates of this theory are interested in questions of state power, the pursuitof national
interest, and conflict between states. According to them states areinherently acquisitive and self-
serving, and heading for inevitable competitionof power. Some of the scholars stand for a
balance of power, where anyattempt by one state to achieve world dominance is countered by
collectiveresistance from other states. Another group suggests that a dominant state can bring
stability to world

order. The ‘hegemon’ state (presently the US or G7/8) maintains and defines

international rules and institutions that both advance its own interests and atthe same
time contain conflicts between other states. Globalisation has alsobeen explained as a strategy
in the contest for power between several majorstates in contemporary world politics.They
concentrate on the activities of Great Britain, China, France, Japan, theUSA and some other
large states. Thus, the political realists highlight theissues of power and power struggles and the
role of states in generatingglobal relations. At some levels, globalisation is considered as
antithetical to territorial states.States, they say, are not equal in globalisation, some being
dominant andothers subordinate in the process. But they fail to understand that everythingin
globalisation does not come down to the acquisition, distribution andexercise of
power.Globalisation has also cultural, ecological, economic and psychologicaldimensions that
are not reducible to power politics. It is also about theproduction and consumption of resources,
about the discovery and affirmation
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of identity, about the construction and communication of meaning, and abouthumanity shaping
and being shaped by nature. Most of these are apolitical.Power theorists also neglect the
importance and role of other actors ingenerating globalisation. These are sub-state authorities,
macro-regionalinstitutions, global agencies, and private-sector bodies. Additional types ofpower-
relations on lines of class, culture and gender also affect the course ofglobalisation. Some other
structural inequalities cannot be adequatelyexplained as an outcome of interstate competition.
After all, class inequality,cultural hierarchy, and patriarchy predate the modern states.

3. Theory of Marxism:

Marxism is principally concerned with modes of production, social exploitationthrough unjust

distribution, and social emancipation through thetranscendence of capitalism. Marx himself
anticipated the growth of globality

that ‘capital by its nature drives beyond every spatial barrier to conquer thewhole earth for its
market’

. Accordingly, to Marxists, globalisation happensbecause trans-world connectivity enhances

opportunities of profit-making andsurplus accumulation.Marxists reject both liberalist and
political realist explanations of globalisation.It is the outcome of historically specific impulses of
capitalist development. Itslegal and institutional infrastructures serve the logic of surplus
accumulation ofa global scale. Liberal talk of freedom and democracy make up a
legitimatingideology for exploitative global capitalist class relations.The neo-Marxists in
dependency and world-system theories examinecapitalist accumulation on a global scale on
lines of core and peripheralcountries. Neo-Gramscians highlight the significance of underclass
strugglesto resist globalising capitalism not only by traditional labour unions, but also bynew
social movements of consumer advocates, environmentalists, peaceactivists, peasants, and
women. However, Marxists give an overly restrictedaccount of power.There are other relations
of dominance and subordination which relate tostate, culture, gender, race, sex, and more.
Presence of US hegemony, the
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West-centric cultural domination, masculinism, racism etc. are not reducible toclass dynamics
within capitalism. Class is a key axis of power in globalisation,but it is not the only one. It is too
simplistic to see globalisation solely as aresult of drives for surplus accumulation.It also seeks to
explore identities and investigate meanings. People developglobal weapons and pursue global
military campaigns not only for capitalistends, but also due to interstate competition and
militarist culture that predateemergence of capitalism. Ideational aspects of social relations
also are notoutcome of the modes of production. They have, like nationalism, theirautonomy.

4. Theory of Constructivism:

Globalisation has also arisen because of the way that people have mentallyconstructed the
social world with particular symbols, language, images andinterpretation. It is the result of
particular forms and dynamics ofconsciousness. Patterns of production and governance are
second-orderstructures that derive from deeper cultural and socio-psychological forces.Such
accounts of globalisation have come from the fields of Anthropology,Humanities, Media of
Studies and Sociology.

Constructivists concentrate on the ways that social actors ‘construct’ their

world: both within their own minds and through inter-subjective communicationwith others.
Conversation and symbolic exchanges lead people to constructideas of the world, the rules for
social interaction, and ways of being andbelonging in that world. Social geography is a mental
experience as well as a

physical fact. They form ‘in’ or ‘out’ as well as ‘us’ and they’ groups.

They conceive of themselves as inhabitants of a particular global world.National, class,

religious and other identities respond in part to materialconditions but they also depend on inter-
subjective construction andcommunication of shared self-understanding. However, when they
go too far,they present a case of social-psychological reductionism ignoring thesignificance of
economic and ecological forces in shaping mental experience.This theory neglects issues of
structural inequalities and power hierarchies insocial relations. It has a built-in apolitical
tendency.
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5. Theory of Postmodernism:

Some other ideational perspectives of globalisation highlight the significanceof structural power
in the construction of identities, norms and knowledge.They all are grouped under

the label of ‘postmodernism’. They too, as Michel

Foucault does strive to understand society in terms of knowledge power:power structures shape
knowledge. Certain knowledge structures supportcertain power hierarchies.The reigning
structures of understanding determine what can and cannot beknown in a given socio-historical
context. This dominant structure of

knowledge in modern society is ‘rationalism’. It puts emphasis on the empirical

world, the subordination of nature to human control, objectivist science, andinstrumentalist

efficiency. Modern rationalism produces a societyoverwhelmed with economic growth,
technological control, bureaucraticorganisation, and disciplining desires.This mode of
knowledge has authoritarian and expansionary logic that leadsto a kind of cultural imperialism
subordinating all other epistemologies. It doesnot focus on the problem of globalisation per se.
In this way, westernrationalism overawes indigenous cultures and other non-modem life-
worlds.Postmodernism, like Marxism, helps to go beyond the relatively superficialaccounts of
liberalist and political realist theories and expose social conditionsthat have favoured
globalisation. Obviously, postmodernism suffers from itsown methodological idealism. All
material forces, though come under impactof ideas, cannot be reduced to modes of
consciousness. For a validexplanation, interconnection between ideational and material
forces is notenough.

6. Theory of Feminism:

It puts emphasis on social construction of masculinity and femininity. All othertheories have
identified the dynamics behind the rise of trans-planetary andsupra-territorial connectivity in
technology, state, capital, identity and the like.Biological sex is held to mould the overall social
order and shape significantlythe course of history, presently globality. Their main concern lies
behind the
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status of women, particularly their structural subordination to men. Womenhave tended to be

marginalised, silenced and violated in globalcommunication.

7. Theory of Trans-formationalism:

This theory has been expounded by David Held and his colleagues. Accord-

ingly, the term ‘globalisation’ reflects increased interconnectedness in political,economic and

cultural matters across the world creating a “shar

ed social

space”. Given this interconnectedness, globalisation may be defined as “a

process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatialorganisation of

social relations and transactions, expressed in transcontinentalor interregio

nal flows and networks of activity, interaction and power.”

While there are many definitions of globalisation, such a definition seeks tobring together the
many and seemingly contradictory theories of globalisation

into a “rigorous analytical framework” and “proffer a coherent historicalnarrative”. Held and
McGrew’s analytical framework is constructed by

developing a three part typology of theories of globalisation consisting of

“hyper

globalist,” “sceptic,” and “transformationalist” categories.

The Hyper

globalists purportedly argue that “contemporary globalisation

defines a new era in which people everywhere are increasingly subject to the

disciplines of the global marketplace”. Given the importance of the global

marketplace, multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and intergovernmentalorganisations (IGOs)

which regulate their activity are key political actors.Sceptics, such as Hirst and Thompson
(1996) ostensibly argue that

“globalisation is a myth which conceals the reality of an interna

tional economyincreasingly segmented into three major regional blocs in which national

governments remain very powerful.” Finally, transformationalists such asRosenau (1997) or

Giddens (1990) argue that globalisation occurs as “states

and societies across the globe are experiencing a process of profound change

as they try to adapt to a more interconnected but highly uncertain world”.

Developing the transformationalist category of globalisation theories. Held andMcGrew present

a rather complicated typology of globalisation based on

globalization’s spread, depth, speed, and impact, as well as its impacts on

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infrastructure, institutions, hierarchical structures and the unevenness ofdevelopment.

They imply that the “politics of globalisation” have been “transformed” (using

their word from the definition of globalisation) along all of these dimensions

because of the emergence of a new system of “political globalisation.” Theydefine “political

globalisation” as the “shifting reach of political power, authority

and forms of rule

” based on new organisa

tional interests which are

“transnational” and “multi

layered.”
 These organisational interests combine actors identified under the hyper-globalist category
(namely IGOs and MNEs) with those of the sceptics (tradingblocs and powerful states) into a
new system where each of these actorsexercises their political power, authority and forms of
rule.

Thus, the “politics of globalisation” is equivalent to “political globalisation” for

Held and McGrew. However, Biyane Michael criticises them. He deconstructs

their argument, if a is defined as “globalisation” (as defined above), b as the

organisational interests such as MNEs, IGOs, trading blocs, and powerful

states, and c as “political globalisation” (also as defined a

bove), then theirargument reduces to a. b. c. In this way, their discussion of globalisation

istrivial.Held and others present a definition of globalisation, and then simply restates

various elements of the definition. Their definition, “globalisation c

an beconceived as a process (or set of processes) which embodies a

transformation in the spatial organisation of social relations” allows every

change to be an impact of globalisation. Thus, by their own definition, all thetheorists they
critique would b

e considered as “transformationalists.” Held and

McGrew also fail to show how globalisation affects organisational interests.

8. Theory of Eclecticism:

Each one of the above six ideal-type of social theories of globalisationhighlights certain forces
that contribute to its growth. They put emphasis ontechnology and institution building, national
interest and inter-state compe-tition, capital accumulation and class struggle, identity and
knowledge

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construction, rationalism and cultural imperialism, and masculinize andsubordination of women.

Jan Art Scholte synthesises them as forces ofproduction, governance, identity, and knowledge.

There are three major contemporary theories ofglobalization:

1 Homogenization Theory
 This theory recognizes a uniform standard for worldcuisine, tourism, culture,
consumption patterns, andcosmopolitanism. An example of homogenizationtheory is
George Ritzer's McDonaldization of Society.He theorizes that global expectations of
McDonaldsrestaurants are predicated on four dimensions(efficiency, predictability,
calculability, and control)and three forces. The three forces are economicaspirations
of the public, sensitivity to societalchanges (where mobility and efficiency are
highlyvalued factors in success), and the Americanappetite for an iconic brand.The
four dimensions:

a Efficiency

The stream-lined process of McDonaldization interms of consumer food preparation

has influencedglobal trends in shopping, dieting, healthcare, andeven entertainment.
For example, consumers cannow down diet pills to lose weight, shop on theInternet
instead of queuing in long lines, watch Netflix

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