Globalization, ID and the State

The State and ID

• State appropriates traditional national ID state is challenged today by plural identities attempts to reassert power through international institutions (IMF, WTO, UN, IJC) further undermines state

• While nationalism thrive the nation-state is threatened

Why is the nation-state threatened by globalization?

1. Globalization of media and electronic communication

2. Globalization of social protest3. Globalization of crime4. Globalization of insurgency

Interdependence of financial markets

• Forces systemic coordination • Monetary policy become interdependent

Pressure for fiscal policy to be harmonized• Growing difficulty of government control over

economy is accentuated by transnational production more difficult for governments to capture revenue

Globalization and the Welfare State

• The Welfare State: A main building block of state legitimacy

• The globalization of production and investment threatens the Welfare State

• Firms can locate to different sites and still link up production networks downward spiral of social costs

Downward spiral

• In the past there were limits to “negative competiveness:

1. Higher productivity and quality in rich countries

2. Public pressure (unions) induced protectionism

Downward spiral

• Today:1. Workers in the ROW are catching up in terms

of productivity 2.Unions weakened

Solutions: “Global Social Contract” (utopian)