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Smart Library on Globalization > Smart Library on Law and Globalization > What Is Globalization? > Overview: Who Controls
Globalization?
SMART LIBRARY ON
GLOBALIZATION
What Is Globalization?
Perspectives on Law and
Globalization
Sites and Types of Global
Lawmaking
The Global Spread of Law

Three Perspectives on Globalization

In their BOOK , Global Transformations, authors David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton
describe three perspectives on globalization.
Scholars David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton
provide an overview of different perspectives on globalization dominant in the
1990s. They describe the general conceptual contours of each perspective and
note the limitations of each. The authors identify identify the perspective as:
The Hyperglobalist perspective,
The Skeptical perspective,
The Transformationalist perspective.

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HYPERGLOBALIST PERSPECTIVE

Sovereignty over Global Markets

Becomes More Complex

The authors describe the hyperglobalist perspective as an approach which sees

globalization as a new epoch in human history. This new epoch is characterized
by the declining relevance and authority of nation-states, brought about largely
through the economic logic of a global market. Economies are becoming
denationalized.

Why Is Law Globalized? It Depends on

the Type of Law
General Features of Global Business
Regulation

Held and his colleagues point out, however, that even within this perspective,
different authors assess the value of these changes in very different ways. While hyperglobalist scholars may agree on the
general factors behind globalization and the likely outcome of this process, they disagree sharply over whether these forces
are good or bad. The authors distinguish between neo-liberal versus neo-Marxist orientations, and describe their different
assessments of the outcomes of globalization.

Greater Benefits or Greater Inequality?

In terms of the winners and losers of the new global order, both orientations agree that the lines and cleavages of
economic benefit are changing. One the one hand, neo-liberals view this as largely a good thing. They say that nearly all
countries have a comparative advantage in one way or another within the global economy. There will be groups who will be
worse off, but on the whole, the benefits are greater than in the past.
On the other hand, neo-Marxist scholars view the neo-liberal optimism with deep suspicion. Global capitalism, they believe,
will only create and reinforce inequalities within and between countries.

The Demise of the Nation-State

With increasing economic globalization, transnational governance organizations will become increasingly important. The
result is that national governments will lose influence and be forced to operate increasingly according to rules they do not
create.
This may be a bad thing, according to some scholars, as the democratic social models implemented and protected by
nation-states will become increasingly insupportable. Other scholars counter, however, that the diffusion of a consumerist
ideology is the first step in breaking down traditional modes of identification. The spread liberal democracy will extend the
global reach of more universal principles of economic and political organization. A truly global civilization will become
possible.
Both assessments agree, however, that the fundamental reconfiguration of the global economy will spell the demise of the
nation-state and the irrelevance of the welfare state.

SKEPTICAL PERSPECTIVE
Held and his colleagues say that the skeptical perspective on globalization views current international processes as more
by fragmented and regionalized than globalized. In fact, according to skeptical authors, the golden age of globalization
occurred at the end of the 19th century. Current processes show, at best, a regionalization.
The authors say that skeptics also disagree whether old cleavages are becoming increasingly irrelevant. The third world is
not being drawn into a global economy that destroys old lives of benefit and exploitation. Quite the contrary, the third world,
say skeptical authors, is becoming increasingly marginalized.
In contrast to perspectives that emphasize the growth of global capitalism, scholars in the skeptical perspective view global
capitalism as a myth. The growth of multinational corporations does not mean that nation-states are no longer relevant for
governing the flows of economic benefits. Held and his colleagues say that skeptical authors point to the fact that foreign
INVESTMENT
flows into the control of a few advanced economies. Multinational corporations are still tied primarily to

their home states or regions, and these ties produce benefits for these states or regions.
Authors with a skeptical perspective reject the notions of the development of a global culture or a global governance
structure. What is really going on, they argue, is that global governance structures and culture exist as a disguised version
of neo-liberal economic strategies that benefit the West.

TRANSFORMATIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
Held and his colleagues say that the transformationalist perspective differs fundamentally from the other two perspectives
in that:
There is no single cause (that is, the market or economic logic) behind globalization,
The outcome of processes of globalization is not determined.
So, even though transformationalist authors describe many of the same general changes involved in globalization, their
approach is considerably less certain about the historical trajectories of these changes and less limiting of the factors
driving globalization.
For instance, hyperglobalist authors believe that the power of national governments is waning. Skeptic authors argue that
the power of national governments is growing. Transformationalist authors, however, view the nature of national
governments as changing (being reconstituted and restructured) but a description of this change as merely growing or
waning is oversimplified.
Hyperglobalist authors describe the erosion of old patterns of stratification. Skeptical authors argue that the global South is
becoming increasingly marginalized. Transformationalist authors understand that a new world order architecture is
developing, though the exact nature of the emerging patterns of stratification are not yet clear.
In general, argue Held and his colleagues, the authors of the transformationalist perspective have a much less determinate
understanding of the processes of globalization than authors from the other perspectives. For transformationalist authors,
the range of factors influencing processes of globalization is much greater, and the outcomes are much less certain.

AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
The hyperglobalist and skeptical perspectives suffer from two underlying problems:
1. They are unacceptably teleological. They compare current processes of globalization to ideal types. The
processes are automatically progressing in a linear manner toward these ideal outcomes.
2. They are unacceptably empiricist. Statistical patterns do not speak for themselves, but have to be interpreted with
reference to a range of meanings.
In contrast, argue the authors, the historical process of globalization must be understood in more sophisticated terms.

Data and Methods:

Data Source:
Historical and theoretical research.
Funding:
Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Full Text Availability:

Available for purchase at

Reference
Held, David, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt, and Jonathan Perraton. 1999. Global Transformations: Politics,
Economics and Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Introduction, pp. 32-86.

Authors
David Goldblatt, David Held, Anthony McGrew, Jonathan Perraton

Other Keytexts from this source

A Framework for Understanding Globalization
A New Vision of a Global Legal Order

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