Theory of the Global State

Abstract

This ambitious study, first published in 2000, rewrites the terms of debate about globalization. Martin Shaw argues that the deepest meaning of globality is the growing sense of worldwide human commonality as a practical social force, arising from political struggle not technological change. The book focuses upon two new concepts: the unfinished global-democratic revolution and the global-Western state. Shaw shows how an internationalized, post-imperial Western state conglomerate, symbiotically linked to global institutions, is increasingly consolidated amidst worldwide democratic upheavals against authoritarian, quasi-imperial non-Western states. This study explores the radical implications of these concepts for social, political and international theory, through a fundamental critique of modern 'national-international' social thought and dominant economistic versions of global theory. Required reading for sociology and politics as well as international relations, Theory of the Global State offers a historical, theoretical and political framework for understanding state and society in the emerging global age.

Foreign policy and globalization theory: The case of Israel

“…First, states comprising the quasi global unified political sphere depend on it as a centre of violence 44 and, therefore, cease to be what Giddens terms 'border power containers'. This term indicates that the borders of states are not mere administrative divisions; they are also, potentially at least, lines along which violence might erupt.…”

“…Jointly, these mechanisms are seen to play a crucial role in the rise of this 'global layer of state'. 47 In fact, Shaw and others go further to argue that what emerged was a global state/bloc state with many governments. 48 This claim, however, seems flawed, particularly since Shaw predicates his notion of the bloc-state on Mann's institutional definition of the state.…”

“…47 In fact, Shaw and others go further to argue that what emerged was a global state/bloc state with many governments. 48 This claim, however, seems flawed, particularly since Shaw predicates his notion of the bloc-state on Mann's institutional definition of the state. A central tenet of Mann's conceptualization is that states 'bind' territories by exerting either despotic or infrastructural power.…”

“…In the process, to paraphrase Mann, states were 'uncaged', and driven to reducing the 'statization' of their economies, societies and cultures. 52 As a result, the expansion of social relations to a global scale through the activities of private, sub-state and supra-state entities, was taking place within a politically unified social space. Under these conditions, and unlike the period of empire consolidation, the expansion of and the USSR was rife with tensions and disagreements, the organization was increasingly seen as an ally of the USSR.…”

Global Civil Society and Its Discontents

“…Even for MartinShaw (2000), perhaps the most confident theorist of the global state, the "global western state" is a state in a very different way to the nation-state.…”