ABSTRACT

Popular as it has been for many years, convergence globalization theory has been undermined by the reality of a global system that has evolved into a fragmented, divergent reality, where grassroots movements, political parties, and states alike oppose convergence. While multinational corporations seeking cheaper labor and the expansion of the so-called global market still favor convergence, politics often has gone in the opposite direction. In the 1990s and early 2000s, opposition to globalization was conceived as taking place mainly in the periphery. Today, the once almost forgotten enemies of convergence – nationalism, populism, religious opposition to integration, cultures of resistance – have become stronger and, in some cases, dominant at the core of global system. A potent combination of populism and nationalism (PN) has, more than anything else, successfully pushed for this fragmentation. The strengthening of nationalism in all its forms, and of populist traditions that were long vibrant in Latin America but not in developed democracies, marked the beginning of a new era in the US and Europe.