What Impact Has Globalization Had on the Nation-State - Research Paper Example

What impact has globalization had on the nation Last years in the scientific and political literature, and also in performances scientific, political and public figures of the various countries of the world the term "globalization" is often used. The reason of it consists that process of globalization of society becomes the major distinctive feature of the development of a civilization in the 21-st century. The term "globalization" has appeared rather recently. Therefore it has not found the encyclopaedic and philosophical reflection in the dictionaries. Though already today there is no doubt that this process designated by this term will play a defining role in all further history of the development of a human society. There is an opinion, that the concept "globalization" assumes as well comprehension by the world community of unity of mankind, existence of the general global problems and uniform for all the world of the basic norms. Below it will be shown, that concept "globalization of society" designates today rather complex and multidimensional development of the world community which includes not only economic and geopolitical aspects, but also and rather thin aspects of psychological and cultural character, for example, such, as national identity and cultural wealth (Steger). The most important characteristic of the process of globalization of society is a movement towards international integration that is to unite humanity worldwide in the unified social organism. After all, integration is the connections of various elements into a coherent whole. Therefore, society and globalization presupposes not only their transition to the global market and international division of labor, but also to the common law, to the same standards of justice and public administration (Stiglitz). It is expected that by this process people of our planet will, ultimately, understand ourselves as a coherent and unified political community. And this, of course, would be a qualitatively new level of development of civilization. Indeed, thanks to scientific advances in the field of general systems theory, we know that any system is highly complex and there is something more than a simple sum of its parts. It always has fundamentally new properties that can not be inherent in any of its individual components, or even some combination. This, actually, is the self-evident synergies complex systems. Thus, the process of globalization of human society can be seen as quite a natural stage of its evolution. And the result of this segment of society should be moving to a new, higher stage of development. One can predict that globalized society will have significantly greater integrity compared with the existing. And it happens at the expense of the unprecedented development of information, economic, geopolitical and cultural ties between individual countries and regions of the world, as well as through further and very rapid development of similar linkages within countries and regions. In doing so, the total amount of information in the world community should be substantially increased, which means that increase the level and complexity of the world community as a self-system. As a result, the level of sustainability of the global community in relation to external influences, as well as its ability to counter these influences, of course, will increase. And this is an important projected positive effect of globalization. At the same time, the globalization of society today can be seen as series of destructive factors that distort and even destroy altogether individual structural components of society and, therefore, must be brought to a partial degradation. In recent years, these factors all have shown themselves more visible in the sphere of culture. Therefore, their analysis and forecasting possible consequences are very important both for science, and for practical activities(Stiglitz). A distinctive feature of the modern world is its ethnic and national diversity. At the beginning of the third millennium on our planet, there were about 200 independent States, 5000 ethnic groups and more than 600 communities whose representatives speak the same language. However, in recent years, the structure of the world community rather quickly deforms under the influence of the globalization process(Steger). In order to understand and adequately assess the trends and contemporary manifestations of globalization of society, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between the two major phases of the development of globalism, as the ideological foundation of the globalization process. Globalism as ideology originated in the early 70 - ies of the 20 - th century. A distinctive feature of globalism of the 20 century was that its main task was to consolidate the world community in the face of universal and rapidly impending danger, the global threat, which questioned the continued existence of man himself as a biological species. In response to this threat followed a number of broadly representatives of international forums on global issues systems analyst further development of civilization and attempts to develop a common strategy for some action by the international community to prevent a global environmental catastrophe. Now we are dealing with it entirely new form neoglobalization, which has quite different strategic goals. The essence of these objectives is to ensure access by any means limited number of people on our planet - namely, the population of developed Western countries to the commodity and energy for the planet, most of which is located on the territory of Russia and countries of " Third World ", which in future will be doomed to poverty as a commodity colonies and places for storage of industrial waste. This is the strategy for further development of civilization, according to the apologists of modern neoglobalizm, provides an opportunity for the population of developed countries and the West, primarily the United States, to continue its course of economic development based on the priority of unlimited consumption. The ideology of neoglobalizm no longer provides for the development of science, education and high technologies. It also does not impose any reasonable self society nor the material or moral plan. On the contrary, today encouraged most lowland instincts human consciousness which focuses on meeting the needs of sensual "here and now" to the detriment of its spiritual development and plans for the future. The only obstacle, which today stands in the way of disseminating the ideology of neoglobalizm worldwide, are major national state, where the still strong traditional values such as patriotism and service to the people, social responsibility, respect for their history and culture, love to motherland. All these values neoglobalists declared to be obsolete and inconsistent with the realities of a new era dominated by militant liberalism, economic rationalism and property instincts. The methodology of modern neoglobalizm is free to access of the "golden billion" to the commodity and energy resources of other countries. First, being "brainwashed" the most active part of the national elite in a country with a view to ensuring its pro-Western orientation. Then the countrys proposed financial assistance to address economic and social problems. The role of «benefactors» usually has the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are under the supervision of the United States. However, assistance is provided, not usually in the form of money and, in the form of so-called "related lending", when a significant portion of the loans must necessarily be spent on the purchase of food or industrial goods from Western countries. Naturally, these products are often not far better quality(Steger). As a result, two objectives are achieved at once: the country falls into financial dependence on neoglobalistic apologists and, moreover, undermines the foundations of the national economy, as well as an influx of imported products quickly leads to bankruptcy own industrial enterprises. As a result, the countrys growing unemployment and rising social tensions, undermining the confidence of the people to the national Government. The next step is to acquire the shares of transnational companies important for national enterprises. Moreover, the priority is given to the commodity and mining industries. All this is being presented under the guise of "investment in the development of national economy". In fact, this is a very frank economic colonization of the country. And if colonizers past centuries somehow cared about the existence of native population, as well as themselves living on occupied territory, but now it looks very different(Stiglitz). A brief analysis of the development of contemporary society of globalization and its impact on the evolution of national and ethnic cultures leads to the following key findings: 1. The globalization of society is one of the dominant trends in the development of civilization in the 21 - st century, which has a very strong impact on socio-economic, political and cultural aspects of development of almost all countries in the world. This process is very complex and internally contradictory. It is still poorly understood in scientific terms, and its projected impacts are poorly understood even elitist part of the world community, although in recent years, they are beginning to increasingly debated in the scientific and socio-political literature. 2. On the cultural point of view, globalization means a new society humanitarian revolution, which resulted in many traditional national and ethnic culture change significantly, and some of them may be not only distorted, but also completely destroyed. Under the pressure of neoglobalizm policy, which is now being very aggressive countries "golden billion", led by the U.S., should expect the revision of traditional value systems not only of the eastern countries but also the countries in Europe. In doing so, the values of social responsibility, patriotism, high morals and respect for elders, actively pushed by new values, set at the service of individualism, the quest for material well-being and self in society based on the primacy of consumption. Naturally, this trend deformation culture of the society represents a new global threat to its future, as is in full contradiction not only with outstanding achievements development of world culture, but also with the basic conditions for further sustainable development of civilization. 3. Observed recent years, the facts supported by the neoglobalists manifestations of ethnic separatism in several countries in the world does not mean their concerns about conservation and development of traditional ethnic cultures. In fact it is only a tactical admission deftly aimed at undermining the stability of nation states, which are today the main obstacle to neoglobalists to world reserves of natural resources(Stiglitz). 4. History shows that followed the destruction of a national multi-ethnic state will inevitably be the degradation of not only national culture, but also the ethnic cultures of the peoples that form the nation. And it violates the continuity of generations, leads to a loss of linguistic diversity and loss of much regional knowledge necessary for human survival in the face of global economic catastrophe. That is why the struggle for preservation of a strong nation-state today is also a struggle for the preservation and development of ethnic cultures. 5. The experience of nation-building in countries such as Australia, Mexico, Singapore, convincingly demonstrates that when using the multiracial approach in the state cultural policy may be necessary to achieve balance in the combined national and ethnic interests, which is essential for ensuring social stability in society even in the face of increasing globalization. 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