GLOBAL INTERSTATE SYSTEM

• Politics is the distribution and balance of power that determines who gets what, when, where and how. It involves the authoritative allocation of values (tangible as well as non-tangible resources)
• Historically, the Balance of Power has evolved from Nation States to European System to International System to Global System
• Author: '“It is essential then to understand the ways in which globalization has reconfigured and continues to reshape the role and functions of the state”'
• Regimes

  • Economic Regimes
  • Politico-economic Regimes
  • International Law Regimes
  • Transnational Activists Regimes
  • Communication Regimes
• Global Interstate System

  • Provides the structure of globalization as Integrated economy (market) + political integration
• The state is the most significant “invention” of man for governance/politics
• Fixation to the state + reconfiguration = Changing characteristics of states
• Regimes

  • E.U. – economic and political integration
  • U.N. – international law and universal principles
  • Transnational Advocacy/Activist Groups
  • Communication Networks
• Reconfiguration of the state

  1. Role of the state

  2. Relationship between the state and the people
• Changes in the state

  • Economic interdependence
  • Politico-economic integration
  • Universal norms & international law
  • Transnational advocacy networks
  • New communication platforms
• Global governance is a purposeful order that emerges from institutions, processes, norms, formal agreements, and informal mechanisms that regulate action for a common good
• States at present face various types of pressures towards supranational or regional integration and forces of domestic fragmentation
• Formation of Regimes

  Implicit and explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge regarding particular aspects of social life
• The 21st century illustrates that globalization dispersed political and economic supremacy beyond the state
• According to Max Weber, a state is an obligatory political association having endless operations as long as its administrative staff effectively gains a claim to the monopoly of the use of legitimate physical force in the execution of its mandate
• Nation emphasizes organic relations that hold clusters of people as one and promotes a sense of allegiance and belongingness
• Max Weber: 'An obligatory political association having endless operations as long as its administrative staff effectively gains a claim to the monopoly of the use of legitimate physical force in the execution of its mandate. Regimes and constitutions come and go, but states continuously endure'
• Globalization is associated with global free-market capitalism; the intensification of transnational enterprises, the easy flows of capital across intercontinental borders
• At present, nations are seen as communities of people that unite citizens together based on various cross-cutting identities: ethnicity, language, religion, etc. (Anderson, 1991)
• Thomas Friedman (2000): 'Introduced the notion of the "Golden Straitjacket" which explains how countries are now obligated to adhere to rules that suit the likings of investment houses and corporate executives (the "Electronic Herd") who speedily transfer capital (money and other resources) into states preferred as adaptable to the dictates of transnational firms. On the other hand, withdraw investments from nation-states which are believed to be uncompetitive. Hence countries rely heavily on the Electronic Herd for investments'
• Under import substitution policy, Mexico failed to produce a feasible car industry but developed its global market for automobile parts. Growers in Argentina and New Zealand generated profit exporting winter fruits and vegetables to Northern Hemisphere buyers. Firms in Thailand and Turkey benefitted from foreign markets to hasten their growth
• Both supporters and detractors of the Washington Consensus and its neo-liberal stress on deregulation, privatization, and free trade view globalization as commanding a forced choice among nation-states which is to comply with free-market principles or suffer the risk of being left behind
• Former national leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher pursued the laissez-faire economic policy of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, generating conditions for deregulation, privatization, and free trade to flourish worldwide
• Opposing dynamics is called "fragmegration"


  2003
• Experts on neoliberalism argue that if LDCs follow recommendations on free and open markets, they would later become newly-industrialized countries. However, in reality, what the HDCs planned was to sustain control of the LDCs wealth, raw materials, and cheap labor
• The detractors of economic globalization encourage states to define economic, social, and environmental objectives for their national development. In addition, states must compel MNCs to meet these priorities and establish new systems of participatory democracy whereby citizens become effectively involved in determining international policies on trade, investment, and finance
• The Japanese rejected American ideas and focused on developing globally competitive capabilities by protecting and funding infant industries. In South Korea, the most prosperous companies are the steel maker POSCO and Samsung
• Due to intensifying economic interdependence, states decided to form regional linkages with neighboring countries that encourage commerce and economic cooperation. Some of these include the African Union (AU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), trading blocs (i.e., North American Free Trade Agreement - NAFTA), the Caribbean Community (Comunidad del Caribe)
• After World War II, political leaders in Europe launched the European Coal and
• The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was launched


  After World War II
• The EU has a single currency (euro) and monetary system
• Campaigns for "fiscal union" among the 17 member-states of the Eurozone were ongoing by the summer of 2012
• In 1992, with the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, the EU approved a common citizenship for citizens of member-states
• European Union (EU)


  • Established a supranational European Parliament with increasing legislative powers alongside the Council of Ministers
  • EU Parliament composed of elected representatives from the national governments of member-states
• The European Union (EU) has 28 member states with Croatia becoming the 28th member in July 2013
• Organizations that encourage commerce and economic cooperation

  • African Union (AU)
  • Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
  • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
  • Caribbean Community (Comunidad del Caribe)
• The European Court of Justice (ECJ) operated as the highest dispute resolution body for the EU and its forerunners
• European Court of Justice (ECJ)


  Set forth provisions such as "direct effect" and "supremacy"
• European Parliament

  Passed a law in September 2013 to administer closer integration and regulation of the banking sector
• Partnership among countries may lead to better provision of government services but may also infringe civil liberties and privacy rights