Globalization and Public Administration

Globalization, which has become a widely used concept in every field of social sciences, means different things for different people. First of all, globalization refers to a social transformation in which the dimensions of cross-border interaction have developed and the concept of distance has disappeared. Globalization also means that economic activities can easily spread beyond the borders of countries.

Globalization has conceptual effects in economic, political, technological, environmental and cultural dimensions. The economic dimension is the most substantial dimension of globalization.

Problems such as global warming, air pollution, nuclear and chemical wastes, droughts and floods, problems related to biodiversity and species extinction, acid rain, sea, lake and river pollution are related to globalization.

Globalization is of great importance for developing and emerging countries. In economic terms, this importance is regarded as necessary especially for trade volume, capital flow, the realization of investments and for having a say in the international arena.

The world order established by globalization has reconstructed new dynamics, political tendencies, integration, concentration and changes. The reconstructed process has been realized as stages in historical development. The development process of globalization is examined in five stages: Formation, Stage Inception, Stage Ascension, Stage The Stage of Struggle For Hegemony, The Stage of Uncertainty.

After the Formation and Inception Stages, the stage that is of particular importance for globalization is the Ascension Stage. In this stage, the concept of “modernity” began to be formed and used for the first time. Ideas of national and personal identity were introduced. Several non-European societies were accepted into the international community. The internationalization of globalization brought with it endless change. Globalization in communication started to increase and global competitions came into play. The increase in globalization in terms of communication has caused this stage to be called  the ascension and the process has experienced its fastest period.

There are basically three main approaches to globalization. These are Evolutionary, Skeptical and Extreme Globalizationist Approach.

According to this approach to globalization, the concept of globalization itself is doubtful. This approach questions, “what is global within the concept of globalization?”. According to the Skeptical Approach, there is no such thing as globalization. This is because a large part of the globe and the world’s population has remained outside the processes generally associated with globalization. This is enough to deny that the term globalization refers to a truly global phenomenon.

Thanks to technological developments that have the effect of eliminating time and space limitations, globalization has gained great momentum and the world has become a small village. The increasing trend of globalization in the light of technological developments contributes to policy transfer, policy learning and lesson drawing, especially among the public administrations of countries.

In general terms, economic globalization refers to the integration of the world into a single market or the integration of national economies with the world economies. With economic globalization, flows of goods, labor and capital between countries have increased; economic relations between countries have intensified and countries have become closer to each other. In this process, the role and support of states in the economy has decreased, and a market structuring has taken place in which privatization has come to the fore.

With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Socialist Bloc, statist economies began to be abandoned in a short period of time and liberal market economies began to rise.

If we consider the historical development process of globalization in terms of political development; the Cold War, which started after World War II and continued until the 1990s, divided the world into two poles in both economic and political terms.

The United Nations defines multinational companies as follows: “a commercial enterprise consisting of economic enterprises that operate in two or more countries, regardless of the legal form and field of activity of the economic enterprise units; that enables the determination of harmonious and common policies among the business units to formulate a global strategy; that has a decisionmaking system based on the effective control of one or more decision-making centers; and that shares information, resources and responsibilities among the units.

There is no superiority of any country in international organizations. For example, global and regional organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) have a supranational character.

Global non-governmental organizations correspond to “socially oriented” grassroots organizations on issues such as democracy, human rights, peace, development, ecology, political repression and education. Non-governmental organizations, which have a bureaucratic, market-oriented organizational structure, are also active and influential actors in the global sense.

International non-governmental organizations are evaluated as global actors is their ability to form an “international public opinion”. Therefore, when international non-governmental organizations engage in activities aimed at influencing decision-makers, they also have the feature of being a pressure group.

Economic globalization manifests itself in three different areas: globalization of production, trade, and financial activities.

Globalization in trade refers to removing or reducing restrictions on the flow of goods and services between countries.

Socio-cultural globalization is a concept that refers to the common ground of countries on issues that concern the whole world such as democracy, human rights, protection of the environment, combating terrorism and global diseases, and the awareness of world citizenship.

The reflection of globalization in the politics of countries has led to some changes and transformations in the governance and administrative approaches of states.