The Future of the State.

Эссе на английском языке об изменении института государства под влиянием процесса глобализации ...

The State remains central to the well-being of its citizens and to the proper management of social and economic development. The State is also responsible for adopting policies which are conducive to greater economic integration. We should not forget that further global integration can be reversed by state policies inimical to openness, as occurred between the two World Wars. Globalization does not reduce the role of the nation-State, but redefines it given the pressures and responses it must give at the local, national and international levels. It has modified the meaning of sovereignty but not undermined it.

Globalization impacts heavily on the State — its policies, institutions and functionaries. Within the context of globalization, domestic politics raise difficult questions such as what are nation states for? and what do they do in a world where Governments face considerable constraints on their freedom of action?

The lifting of trade barriers, liberalization of world capital markets, and swift technological progress especially in the fields of information technology, transportation and telecommunications, have vastly increased and accelerated the movement of people, information, commodities and capital. Correspondingly, they have also broadened the range of issues which spill over the borders of nation-States requiring international normsetting and regulation and, therefore, consultation and formal negotiations on a global or regional scale. Many of the problems afflicting the world today - such as poverty, environmental pollution, economic crises, organized crime and terrorism - are in effect transnational in nature, and cannot be dealt with only at the national level, nor by State to State negotiations. Greater economic and social interdependence seems to affect national decision-making processes in two fundamental ways. It calls for a transfer of decisions to the international level and, due to an increase in the demand for citizen’s participation to the local level also.
The fact that cooperation and regulation are required on many levels as a consequence of the complexities and transnational nature of present world issues has led a number of scholars to predict the "end" of state power. Some argue that the State may only adjust to globalization, but not have an active role in it. Some believe that the State will become obsolete. But despite the many concerns about the loss of sovereignty, the State remains the key actor in the domestic as well as international arenas. It is still States, that set the rules of the game, that enter into agreements with other States, and that make policies which shape national and global activities, and the agenda of integration; though this is true in principle, in reality the problem of inadequacy in capacity of individual States has become clearly pronounced. This means that some States have more political leverage in shaping the international agenda whereas others have a less active role, as is the case for many developing countries. To put it more simply, globalization may require that the State improve its capacity to deal with greater openness, but it does not seem to undermine its sovereignty or its fundamental role within the national and international landscapes.