Answer to Question #284327 in Sociology for arthur

Question

Is the state remains to be relevant and the process and structures of globalization?

Answer 1

The structures of globalization include; Economic globalization which focuses is on the integration of international financial markets and the coordination of financial exchange, political globalization which focuses on the political economy and politics of the world, and lastly cultural globalization which looks at how globalization affects cultural diversity among nations. In a globalized world, the state has an important role to play in the establishment and maintenance of a fair competition base and also an enabling environment for private enterprise, individual creativity, and social action (Bertucci & Alberti, 2001:14). The role of the nation-state in a global world is largely a regulatory one as the chief factor in global interdependence. While the domestic role of the nation-state remains largely unchanged, states that were previously isolated are now forced to engage with one another to set international commerce policies. The state functions to set a zone of standards that serve either as trade barriers or people barriers. In one respect they are an ecosystem that collects taxes - this is then a life support system for the bureaucracy which sets up laws to maintain or improve their situation. A state then has to preserve its tax base by trading access for standards. Intellectual property is one example - to trade in our market you must respect our patents and so in essence, preserving terms and supporting local inventors then issues like health, by all means, sell us food but we won’t tolerate heavy metals in our food - the state screens imports for toxins and dumped produce.

States actively control their borders and decide who can visit and who can stay. In a fully globalized society you may argue for free movement of people but do you really want more competition for your job, or more competition for school places or housing or water so in many places the state decides how many and what kind of people may enter. Whether this suits you depends on whether you are a cleaner trying to improve your wages or a farmer trying to harvest crops.