IS DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA
Globalization: some definitions Although no one can deny that globalization is going on, a clear definition of this process has not yet been given. Jan Aart Scholte gives four definitions of globalization, and these definitions do apply, but he also considers that a much broader and complex notion is needed in order to fully catch the characteristics of the globalization process. The first definition identifies globalization with internationalization. According to this notion globalization manifests itself through intensified cross-border relations between countries and it designates a growth of international interdependence and exchange. Other authors, such as Paul Hirst and Graham Thompson, defined globalization in terms of “large and growing flows of trade and capital investment between countries”. A second definition is that of globalization as liberalization, otherwise said, a process of removing government imposed restrictions on movements between countries in order to create a borderless world economy (international economic integration). “Universalization” is another concept used to define globalization. Understood in these terms globalization is a process of spreading various objects and experiences to people all around the world. Westernization or “Americanization” is a fourth understanding of globalization: “[…] globalization is a dynamic whereby the social structures of modernity (capitalism, rationalism, industrialism, bureaucratism, etc. ... The definition that Scholte subscribes to is of globalization as “deterritorialization”/ spread of supra territoriality. Scholte says: “globalization entails a reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders”. David Held and Anthony McGrew also define globalization as “a process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions”. Debating the effects of globalization on democracy Globalization has undermined conventional liberal democracy, with its focus on national self-determination through a territorial state. ... The geographical/territorial division of the world is hard to maintain due to the increased interdependence that globalization brought. ... Democracy is understood, for the purpose of this presentation, as a society/polity in which the members determine collectively, equally, and without arbitrarily imposed constraints the policies that shape their destinies.