ABSTRACT
This chapter asserts that globalisation compromises the basic symmetry of political and economic organization, of nation states and national markets. By globalisation the political economist means the coincidental effects of three major changes: the accelerated internationalization of production; the sharply increased mobility of capital; and the greater mobility of knowledge or information, from communication of messages to the transfer of technology. The factors shaping globalisation can be grouped into four general categories, many of which are inter-linked: Firm behavior, technology-related factors, macroeconomic factors and government policies. Vicki Birchfield offers a 'critique of neoliberal globalisation from the vantage point of democratic theory, exposing how this form of market ideology is inherently antithetical to democratic principles'. The process of globalisation by smothering the national sovereignty of the existing nation states has, seemingly paradoxically, triggered off the national aspirations of the regions with strong memories of crystallised identities.
