Globalism and Comparative Public Administration
Globalism is perceived differently depending on its most outstanding features or impact at the time. In this analysis, globalization is recognized as the “growing integration of the economic, financial, political, social and cultural lives of countries” (Thomas 1999, 5; Kettl 2000, 490). Globalization evokes processes of open communication, negotiation, persuasion, and free interactions among nations that
seek to promote their self-interest within the rules of the game. It is not, however, empire building based on the brutal putdown of challenges to the imperial authority, as history amply illustrates. The advocates and critics of globalizationtrends are plenty; each camp is able to cite numerous positives or negatives of globalism in its modern form. The positive effects of globalism appear overwhelming. Advocates emphasize that globalism is the rise of market capitalism around the world, which creates jobs, transfers money and investments, and makes products available to
consumers who did not have them before. Voluntary universal dissemination of scientific and technological inventions has been facilitating and accelerating the processes of globalism. From this perspective, new technologies and current communication systems, especially the Internet, make it possible to disseminate information around the world easily, rapidly, and cheaply. Not only has the Internet “fueled the 24-hour financial markets, it has, just as importantly, transformed governance” (Kettl 2000, 491). As a result, free trade, increasing travel, internet information transmission, and cultural exchanges of various types are regularly cited as evidence of growing globalization. Moreover, “an increasing number of policy decisions are now being made by global institutions instead of individual
countries” (Welch and Wong 1998, 45). On the other hand, criticism of globalism is mounting, occasionally taking violent expressions. The stormy reactions that have exploded in cities around the world, wherever international meetings of the industrialized nations have been held, are only one indication of the dissatisfaction
with the status quo. Typically, criticisms include the following:
1. Global capitalism, advanced by leaps in technology, the failure of Communism, and a few spectacular economic successes in East Asia, has not benefited everybody. In some cases, it has caused severe damages. Illustrative statistics supporting this contention indicate that 88 percent of the world’s internet users live in industrialized countries, while only 0.3 percent live in the poorest
countries of the world.
2. in some developing countries, “multinationals have contributed to labor, environmental, and human-rights abuses” (Business Week 2000, 74) and have caused damage to these societies far greater than the benefits. Thus, it is not surprising that many developing societies view the growth of globalism with concern, considering its links to the visible behavior of multinational corporations.
3. Poor countries find global capitalism disruptive to their lives and societies. Lacking effective systems of governance, they have been unable to enact safeguards and
regulations to protect their environments and workers, as industrialized countries did decades ago.
4. Global capitalism and free trade have also stimulated free commerce in money. For small countries, this has often destabilized their economies and held them hostages to the whims of wealthy financial speculators.
5. Globalism serves the interests of the big industrialized nations, particularly the United States, in their search for new markets. But these powerful countries are able,
at will, to restrict the freedoms of others in travel, trade,and the exchange of information. Nevertheless, public administration today is at the center of the human endeavor to restructure and reshape societies from within, to be viable components of this stillunfolding but rapidly growing phenomenon known as globalism. We are not witnessing an old system passing away in its entirety and a new global system being born to replace it. Instead, it seems that we are heading into a profoundly changing order. The economic revolution remains in progress, and the world’s political boundaries are giving in to the free movement of people, goods, information, ideas, and even cultural values. Knowledge, too, regularly crosses cultural boundaries in important areas such as finance, technology, and management. To be sure, these changes and developments do not mean the traditional nation- state is dead, but they do underscore the magnitude of the problems facing the contemporary state. One such problem for modern states, particularly those of developing countries, is a growing concern about the capacity of public institutions to shoulder new responsibilities and to ensure fair dealings within the new global