MOST Globalisation - Introduction

Globalisation can be defined as a set of economic, social, technological, political and cultural structures and processes arising from the changing character of the production, consumption and trade of goods and assets that comprise the base of the international political economy. There is an increasing structural differentiation of these goods and assets that has spread across traditional political borders and economic sectors, and has resulted in the greater influence of political and economic changes. These changes are transnational and multinational dynamics which have a major impact on outcomes in determining ‘issue-areas’ (for instance, environment, trade and world regulation), and may induce global and local actors to be more autonomous from a traditionally exclusive State decision-making.

Globalisation can be considered as the result of a larger building process of a world market. It is not synonymous with the internationalisation and transnationalisation of capital, itself a dual ‘transformation’ which occurred mainly in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries. The two processes were rooted in increasingly mercantilist modes of regulation of world social relations and, particularly after the First World War, in a centre-periphery model of multinational development. Regulation too is affected by globalisation, in the sense that the lead regulating actors of this new process are not primarily and exclusively the States anymore.

Four principal features can explain the origin of globalisation:

the integration into world markets of national economies;
the transition from a "high volume economy" into a "high value economy" (this is due to the growing number of knowledge intensive products and services);
the end of bipolarity and traditional prize-fight between capitalism and socialism;
and finally the configuration of new trade blocs.

Nevertheless, globalisation is neither uniform nor homogenous. There is a marked difference between the degree of globalisation as reflected in trade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and international finance. Its boundaries are unclear and its constituent elements and multidimensional character have yet to be adequately explored. Some social scientists have considered globalisation as a second step to complex interdependence which accepts that the notion of transnational interpenetration is not homogenous either. Others contend that globalisation modifies deeply the structural framework of rational choice in world relations, since the role of the key actor which commonly defined both the international and the domestic relations (i.e., the State) is subject to a critical structural transformation. The State commonly faces crises of both organisational efficiency towards the consumer and institutional legitimacy towards the citizen.

Therefore, there is a need to understand and propose new governance structures and mechanisms at the global and local levels, encompassing political and social needs of the State, social movements and NGOs, grassroots movements, the media, multinationals, organised citizens, the science community, religious movements, among others.