Globalization

Abstract

The consolidation of world-wide markets within a progressively compacted globe is permeating states. The effect is to undermine and perhaps relocate the powers of government and the expectations of the governed. If it is not possible to foretell with accuracy the new ‘shapes of life’ globalization is busily bringing into being, it is confidently asserted that the familiar composition of the world as a manifold of states will not escape its transforming influences. Some have already concluded that the EU is an early expression of how impersonal forces beyond the control of individual states has led to their combination, and that this development is a foretaste of how globalization is forming similar groupings elsewhere. At the same time others have depicted the EU as a regional body inspired by localized concerns that threaten to disrupt the homogenizing powers of globalization.