Global culture take home exam 1 notes

Question 2
Giddens:
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world order:
o capitalism is international in its scope, capitalist society
is only a society because it is a nation-state (57)
o capitalist enterprise played a major part in levering
modern social life away from the institutions of the
traditional world (61)
o In pre-modern states, class systems were rarely wholly
(61) economical, in modern states, class relations
became directly incorporated within the framework of
capitalist production (62)
o Spread modern institutions across the world was
originally a western phenomenon (62)
o Tearing away of modernity from traditional orders
(radically, rapidly, globally): through time-space
distanciation, disembedding, and reflexivity (63)
o Globalisation = intensification of worldwide social
relations (64)
o Influence of state in global political order is conditioned
by wealth, but derive their power from their sovereign
capabilities (72)
o Actions between countries sometimes diminishes
individual sovereignty of nations involved, yet by
combining power in other ways, it increases their

influence within the state system. (73)

Power relations
o War was diplomacy by other means, in relations
between states (58)
o Internal hegemony of the civil authorities and the armed
forces for the most part point outwards towards other
states (60)
o Nations states concentrated administrative power far
more effectively than traditional states could. (63)

o Development of globalised social relations diminishes

nationalists (towards state) feelings, but intensifies
localised feelings. (65)
o Autonomy inside territory claimed by state is sanctioned
by recognition of borders by other states: this is major
factor distinguishing the nation-state system from
systems of states in the pre-modern area (73)
o No third world in respect of weaponry, only first
world because most countries, even economically weak
ones, maintain stocks of technologically advanced
armaments and have modernised military in a
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thoroughgoing way. (75)

Human agency:
o Human beings live in a created environment, is physical
but no longer natural, landscapes become subject to
human coordination and control: nature is under the
control of humans (60)
o Feature of globalising implications of industrialism is
worldwide diffusion of machine technology: influences
the character of human interaction with the material
environment modern technology is applied in a way
that alters substantially the pre-existing relations
between human social organisation and the
environment (76)
o Global extension of institutions of modernity would be
impossible were it not for the pooling of knowledge
which is represented by the news access to pooled
information on the part of spatially widely separated
individuals (78)

Waller stein sees only one institutional nexus (namely capitalism) as

responsible for modern transformation
Therefore ignores largely (does not account for) the rise of the
nation state and the nation state system

According to Giddens, capitalism doesnt account for everything,

because the power of the biggest transantional companies cant
rival that of states in the case of territoriality and control of the
means of violence! (70)

Wallerstein
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power relations
o increasing response to popular demands =
democratization nearly universal and level of
demands has steadily risen within each country (261)
o World system remains capitalist world economy, nations
outside the core zone have been structurally unable to
catch up with wealthy countries (263)
o Worldwide upsurge of anti-statism: consequences: social
fears escalated & cant provide quasi-monopoly

anymore for the capitalists (263)

World Order
o World economy in stagnation: three consequences:
capital shift from productive to financial sphere;
increased unemployment; shift of production from
higher-wage to lower-wages areas (253)
o States (nation state structures) are losing legitimacy
states are crucial element in ability of capitalists to
accumulate capital; states make quasi-monopolies
possible that are responsible for significant profit levels;
states act to tame the lower classes with repression and
appeasement; states are the principal source of ideology
that keep masses patient. (262)
o Capitalist world-economy is in terminal crisis
transition from present world system to some other kind
of historical world system/systems what kind of social
action is possible and desirable during a systemic

transition (263)
Human agency

o No individual or group has the power to make the

necessary decisions (to save capitalism from its
systemic crisis), these decisions are made by large
number of actors, all operating separately and in own
interest, ensuring the continuance of the crisis, dooming
capitalism(264)
o The outcome of the crisis is intrinsically uncertain,
therefore open to human intervention and creativity
(265)