The Nation-State, Communications, and Globalization

Canadian Nationalism

flag Canada Council

NFBCBC

• National consciousness or awareness of oneself as part of a group

• National identity or identification with the group

• Geographical identification or a geographical dimension to the group

• Patriotism of love of the group• Demands for action to enhance the group

create?create? manipulate?manipulate?

foster?foster?nurture?nurture?

redefine?redefine?

State

NATION

STATE

COUNTRY

decolonization

economic interdependence

hegemonic power

succession

core area

federal state vs unitary

industrialized economydevolution

statesovereignty

NATION-STATENATION-STATE

STATESTATE NATIONNATION

identity

cultural boundaries = territorial boundaries

territory

...shapes society

...constituted by society...enmeshed in society

...regulates the conditions of our lives...

STATE

territoryterritory

social & social & economic economic interventionintervention

space&

goods transported readily

developing modern state

population held together with minimal difficulty economic activities coordinated

Large, uniform pool of labour

large market subject to single set of laws

hardware + ease of communication + technology

large scale industry and commerce

“To the extent that one believes the state emerged because it was made necessary by the modern economy, its invention represents

politics as choice.politics as choice.”“To the extent that one believes that it developed because people could now be controlled more easily, it represents

politics as power.politics as power.”

defined territory

relational capacity

exchange ambassadors

sign treatiesform alliances

join international organizations

permanent

population

politicaladmin.

legal

“ONE STATE MAY BE THE HOST OF MANY NATIONS.”

socio-cultural entitysocio-cultural entity

IDENTITY

“weaves together nationalities according to a deliberate political design”

creates a uniform

system of law

determines official languagesmanages a

single currency

controls the education system

builds a

national B

fosters

loyalty

to an abstract

entit

y

Social & Political integration

Nation-States Consider as a continuum between ‘Pure

Nation-States’ and ‘Multinational States’

“Pure” Multi-Nation-States Multi-Nation States

Japan United KingdomSweden Russia

State Power

POWER: the ability of an actor to get another actorto do what he wants, even against their will

A function of:• Capabilities or ‘Hard Power’ (population, military, economy, resources, geography, etc)

• Influence or ‘Soft Power’ (values, reputation,credibility, trust)

State SystemState SystemERA OF MONARCHS (1700s)Absolutist MonarchiesWars among KingsUltima Ratio Regnum (“The final argument of Kings”)Wars of Limited Scope and GoalsProfessional, Mercenary ArmiesEra of European ExpansionPROBLEMS: Challenge of Democracy & Rise of

Nationalism/Popular Sovereignty

ERA OF NATIONALISM (1800s)ERA OF NATIONALISM (1800s)

Napoleonic Wars

HEGEMONY: The primacy of one state over all others either globally, within a particular region, or within a particular area of activity (i.e., economic hegemony; cultural hegemony)

Wars of Nation against Nation

Problems: Nationalism, Democracy, Industrialization and Unification of Germany

IDEOLOGY AND SUPERPOWERSIDEOLOGY AND SUPERPOWERS(1900s)(1900s)

World War I and ‘Total War’

World War II – ‘Total War Continued’

Cold War• Bipolar (US and USSR)

Problems: Internal Weakness of USSR

TRAITS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEMTRAITS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM

STILL State-Centered and Anarchic

‘Unipolar’ Distribution of Power trending toward Multipolar with New Actors (China, India, Brazil)

Vast Increase in the Number of Actors (States,

IGOs, NGO’s)

Decreased Salience of Ideology?

‘End of History’ or ‘Clash of Civilizations’?

Increasing Emphasis on Norms & Values thatTranscend Sovereignty

highest authority

internal affairs external relations

absolute

Over 7,000 events are expected to take place in 180 countries for the 10/10/10 Global Work Party, the single largest day of carbon-cutting action in the planet's history.

The day is being organized by 350.org in partnership with hundreds of organizations around the world. Please click on the links below or the sidebars for more information.

Human, Gender and Human, Gender and Environmental Security Environmental Security

Which security?Security of whom?Security of what?Security from whom or what?

Human, Gender and Human, Gender and Environmental Security Environmental Security

Which security?– National security (political, military Dimension)

Security of whom?– The State

Security of what?– Sovereignty, territorial integrity

Security from whom or what?– Other States, terrorism, sub-state actors, guerrilla

Human, Gender and Human, Gender and Environmental Security Environmental Security

Which security?– Societal security

Security of whom?– Nations, social groups

Security of what?– National Unity, national identity

Security from whom or what?– (States), Nations, Migrants, Alien cultures

Human, Gender and Human, Gender and Environmental Security Environmental Security

Which security?– Human security

Security of whom?– Individuals (humankind)

Security of what?– Survival, quality of life, cultural integrity

Security from whom or what?– The State, globalization, nature, poverty,

fundamentalism

Human, Gender and Human, Gender and Environmental Security Environmental Security

Which security?– Environmental security

Security of whom?– Ecosystem, urban and agricultural system

Security of what?– sustainability

Security from whom or what?– Nature, humankind

Human, Gender and Environmental Security Human, Gender and Environmental Security

Which security?– Gender security

Security of whom?– Gender relations, indigenous, minorities

Security of what?– Equity, identity, social relations

Security from whom or what?– Patriarchy, totalitarian institutions (élites,

governments, religions, culture), intolerance

The following slides are sourced and adapted from : http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/staff/c.archetti/Lecture_3.ppt

THE QUESTION:

What is the impact of communications on the state?

1. THE STATE

2. GLOBALIZATION (& DOES IT REALLY EXIST?)

3. STATE COMMUNICATIONS

4. COMMS AS A “THREAT” TO THE STATE

5. COMMS AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE STATE

6. SO…WHAT RELEVANCE FOR THE STATE?

‘This is obviously a hybrid word, linking the idea of the “nation” with the idea of “state”. While the former refers to what might loosely be termed “people”, that is, to a cultural entity often defined in terms of ethnicity, the latter refers to a set of institutions through which public authority is exercised within a particular territory….’

(Robert Holton 1998)

1. THE NATION-STATE

State: exercise of authority on a territory (sovereignity)

Nation: cultural identity

1. THE NATION-STATE

2. GLOBALIZATION: Star Trek Fantasy or Reality?

- End of geography‘Territoriality will disappear as an organising principle for social and cultural life…it will be a society without borders or spatial boundaries. In a globalized world we will be unable to predict social practices and preferences on the basis of geographical location’ (Waters, 1995)

‘A social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding’ (Waters 1995)

-Homogenization: ‘economies trend towards liberalization…polities trend towards democratization… and culture towards universalization’ (Waters 1995)

interconnectedness

2. …DOES GLOBALIZATION REALLY EXIST?

- Something really new?QUESTION: When does globalization start?

- If you are totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day the benefits of globalization never come to you’ (Jimmy Carter)

-1492?

- Andre Gunder Frank (1992): 5000 years ago !!!

- Earlier?650-850: Expansion of Islam from the Western Mediterranean to India1100: Rise of Gengis Khan (integration of Eurasia)1300: Creation of the Ottoman Empire spanning Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East1492 and 1498: Columbus and de Gama travel West and East to the Indies (age of European seaborne empires)

2. …DOES GLOBALIZATION REALLY EXIST?

- Globalization as a myth

‘globalization’ reverberates through the corridors of politics, commerce, industry, scholarship, communication, environmentalism and popular culture.

In moving from prophecy to assumption about the world, globalization is invoked to signify sweeping social, cultural, institutional change’ (Ferguson 1992)

PROBLEMS:

Meaning. It is not clear whether the different parties invoking globalization mean the same thing or even if they are addressing the same issue. Evidence. Neither the indices, nor the extent, of its actual occurrence are always clear. Evaluation. positive benefits or negative costs are difficult to assess. The deeper questions’: “who is being globalized (or de-globalized), to what extent and by whom?’

Even if globalization did not exist, what is the impact of the development of communications?

2. …DOES GLOBALIZATION REALLY EXIST?

?

3. COMMUNICATIONS STATE

-Harold Innis: technology of communications has been a determining factor in the structure and duration of empires

- Time-biased and space-biased media

‘Media that emphasize time are those that are durable in character, such as parchment, clay, and stone. . . .

Media that emphasize space are apt to be less durable and light in character, such as papyrus and paper. The latter are suited to wide areas in administration and trade’ (Innis 1986)

Communications are essential for running a state

3. COMMUNICATIONS STATE

-Benedict Anderson: communications create the state

-‘Imagined communities’:

‘[the state] is an imagined political community...

...It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in their minds of each lives the image of their communion’ (Anderson 1983)

4. GLOBALIZATION AS A THREAT TO THE STATE

- Threats to sovereignty

-Increased economic interdependence of nation-states

‘Public debate may still be hostage to the outdated vocabulary of political borders, but the daily realities facing most people…speak a vastly different idiom. Theirs is the language of an increasingly borderless economy… the traditional nation-states begin to come apart at the seams’ (Ohmae 1996)

-Increased political inderdependence- multi-lateral organisations- increasing number of international problems…

4. GLOBALIZATION AS A THREAT TO THE STATE

- The “CNN Effect”

-‘This is a common view of the power of the media, especially television journalism which through emotive images moves the public to demand action of its government.

-The “CNN Effect”, it is argued, pushes the government into foreign policy pursuits in response to public opinion’(Lyn S. Graybill 2004)

4. GLOBALIZATION AS A THREAT TO THE STATE

- WARNING:

- Sovereignty has never been absolute!

- TNCs do not operate outside national jurisdictions! (symbiosis)

- CNN effect widely rejected: the media reflect government’s agenda!

4. GLOBALIZATION AS A THREAT TO THE STATE

- Threats to cultural identity

- ‘Re-imagined communities’ (Morley and Robins 1995): new technologies change people’s perceptions and experiences new imaginary spaces

- ‘e-mail nationalism’ (Anderson): connection of migrants to causes of original homelands

- empowerment of minorities

- ‘imagined worlds’(a) ethnoscapes; (b) mediascapes; (c) technoscapes; (d) finanscapes; and (e) ideoscapes : these landscapes, are the building blocks of ‘imagined worlds’ that is, the multiple worlds which are constituted by the historically situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe (Appadurai 1990)

4. GLOBALIZATION AS A THREAT TO THE STATE

- [the history of the world] ‘…will inevitably have to be written as the history of a world which can no longer be contained within the limits of “nations” and “nation-states” as these used to be defined, either politically, or economically, or culturally, or even linguistically. It will see “nation-states” and “nations” or ethnic-linguistic groups primarily as retreating before resisting, adapting to, being absorbed or dislocated by, the new supra-national restructuring of the globe’ (Hobsbawm 1990)

5. COMMUNICATIONS AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE STATE

- In relation to sovereignty/power

- Country branding

- In relation to sovereignty/power

- Spin

- Media management

- E-government: using ICTs to deliver government information and services to citizens

5. COMMUNICATIONS AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE STATE

5. COMMUNICATIONS AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE STATE

- In relation to cultural identity

- Audiences look for familiar cultural products

- National broadcasting system public service (BBC)

- Development of communications can be used in support of local media

- National press still dominant among print media

6. WHAT RELEVANCE FOR THE STATE?

- Development of communications has a deep impact on the state

- Does this make the state less relevant?

- Communications is crucial to the state

BUT… YOU DECIDE!

Probably not…