Does globalization foster democratization through transnational demonstration effects, growing human rights awareness, and civic activism across borders or do the economic effects of globalization by fostering social inequality, outweigh these democratic trends? Since the package deal of globalization coincides with growing social and political inequality and with trends towards democratization, the our come is volatile.
Probably what meager consensus exists could be formulated in the twin processes of the pooling of sovereignty at different levels (regional, international, supranational) in combination with the shift from government to multilevel governance, from local and municipal, national and regional, to supranational levels. Table 1.2 is a précis of political processes associated with contemporary globalization
Globalization goes together with regionalization. If between 184O and 1960 the main political form of globalization was the nation state, presently the leading political form of globalization is regionalization. This takes on forms ranging from regional customs unions‘(such as AFTA), free market zones (such as NAFIA, APEC, Mercosur, SARC and many others), security alliances (ASEAN, NATO, SEATO), to the deep institutionalization of the European Union (Oman 1994). Beyond this factual account the consensus unravels.