Global Society – SYP 2450- Final Exam Study Guide
l. Global Politics and Global Society
Global politics, also known as world politics, names both the discipline that studies
the political and economic patterns of the world and the field that is being studied
The term "global society" is used to refer to a society that is being built in modern times in
which all the people of the world have a good deal in common with one another.
Know the Theoretical concepts of politics, government, authority, legitimacy, sovereignty,
citizenship, civil society, nation, state, and nation-state
Politics: a process of resolving conflict and deciding “who gets what, when and how” (Laswell,
1936). A struggle over power or influence within organizations or informal groups that can grant
or withhold privileges (2007)
 Government is the most important institution controlled by political activity
Government: An institution which decision are made that resolve conflict
or allocates benefits and privileges.
Government activity revolves around solving most pressing problems at local, national,
international, and global levels (food, employment, welfare, security, pollution, health,
redistribution of resources, etc.)
Authority: Each government must have authority – that is, the right and power to enforce its
decisions
Legitimacy: Legitimate authority is one that is broadly accepted by those
subject to its jurisdiction
Sovereignty: States granted each other rights of jurisdiction over them
respective territories and communities
Citizenship: A membership of and inclusion in a national community.
Citizenship confers a set of entitlements – to legal equality and justice, the right to be consulted
on political manners and access to a minimum of protection against economic insecurity – but
simultaneously requires the fulfillment of certain obligations to state and society.
T.H Marshall (1950) argued that it involved 3 sets of rights
1.) Civil rights: The right to own property and arrange contracts, the right to freely assemble,
speech and thought, and right to expect justice from an impartial legal system based on laws that
apply equally to everyone
2.) Political rights: the right to participation in national decision-making
through voting for the political party of your choice at elections. It also
implies the right to establish your own movement or seek direct access to
positions of leadership in party, government, or some other powerexercising forum
3.) Social rights: access to welfare provisions that provide protective floor below which
individual and family income are not supposed to fall. It includes old age, disability, family and
unemployment benefits and the right to decent housing, education and health.
Civil Society: Civil society (Anheier, 2004: 22): the sphere of institutions, organizations
and individuals located between the family, the state, and the market in which people associate
voluntarily to advance common interests.
Nation-state: Nation-states are constituted by governments assuming a legal and moral right to
exercise sole jurisdiction, supported by force in the last resort, over a particular territory and its
citizens. This involves institutions for managing domestic and foreign affairs.
Nations: Group of people who consider themselves to have common culture
culture, history, language, or other distinguishing characteristics
States: Political entitles based on territory
- know when the majority of African countries gained independence
 1960-1989 is when countries gaining independence In Africa
-know the concepts and different types of organizations and groups associated with the
emergence of global politics (UN, IGOs, INGOs, Social Movements, etc.)
Global politics: Stretching of political relations across space and time; the extension of political
power and political activity across the boundaries of the modern nation-states.
UN: Central component of global governance
IGOs: United Nations, the World Bank, or the European Union.
INGOs/international non-government organizations: Doctors without Borders, Amnesty
International, Green Peace International, International Red Cross, the World Council of
Churches, International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU), etc.
Social Movements:
- know the main arguments of the documentary Empire: Comerica
-know the concepts of soft power and hard power
Hard Power: the ability to get what one wants through violent coercion (using police force or
the military).
Soft Power (Joseph S. Ney): The ability to shape the preference of others trough appeal and
attraction.
-know the issues concerning foreign aid, the size of foreign aid as a percentage of GDP
Issues concerning Foreign aid
- Should we give government Aid to countries when we don’t agree how they treat their
citizens?
- Do we have the money to send it in the first place?
- What will they do with it, it is not our choice.
 The size of their GDP reflects how much aid they would receive
-know examples of America’s unilateralism:
unilateralism: Supporting a doctrine or agenda that is one sided
 U.S. support for institutions advancing the interests of global capitalism
 U.S. non-participation in global democratic governance (International, Criminal Court,
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Kyoto Protocol, the ban on land
mines, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, etc.)
 Terrorism and global governance
-know examples of social movements against globalization, environmental destruction,
and privatization of water (Bolivian Water Wars, Protests in Peru over mining on indigenous
land)



Global justice movement against World Trade Organization (WTO)
Bolivian water wars are a series of protests that was in response to the city’s privatization
of the city’s water.
April 2004, Farmers from Huancabamba Province, Northern Peru, marched to peacefully
protest the mining that was near their water source and crops because of possible
contamination and lack of communication.
ll. Global Environmental Problems
-Be familiar with a brief history of global environmentalism
-
The idea to protect the government dates back to the early 19th and early 20th century.
1970- Earth day was started by Dem. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (Wl); 1990
1963- Clean Air Act
1973-Endangered Species Act
2009 Copenhagen Accord reflects a goal of reducing worldwide greenhouse emissions
sufficient to limit the increase in global temperature to below 2 degrees C
Forces behind environmental Problems
1. Explosive growth in worlds population
- Increased demand for resources (Food, water, energy, land)
-Increased pollution and waste
- Rapid population growth linked to poverty
2.) Growing inequality of income between rich and poor
- Overconsumption by wealthy nations.
- (the top 20% of the world’s population consumes 86% of the world’s goods and services, while
the poorest 20% subsist on just 1%)
- environmental impact by wealthy nation far greater than that of the poor nations
3.) Economic Growth
-Since the 1950’s Global economy has expanded fivefold
- economic growth means higher rates of extraction and consumption of fossil fuels, timber,
minerals, and water.
- spread of Western consumption patterns in the rest of the world (cars, homes and home
decoration, McDonalds, “conspicuous consumption”)
- The average person in the U.S. uses 250 times more gasoline and 300 times more plastic each
year than the average person in Bangladesh
- know the specific issues concerning global energy consumption and solid waste
Solid waste concerns: U.S is the largest producer of solid waste. Causes Landfills, (54% of waste
ends up here), Incinerators (releases toxic chemicals into air).
-know about global deforestation, its causes and consequences (see slides on Canvas)
Importance of forest: produces oxygen (20% of Earths air), Home to 170 indigenous people,
provides habitats to millions of species and plants, absorbs gases responsible for global warming
Who is responsible for deforestation: Lumber companies, mining companies, industrial
farming (soybeans, cattle, development.
Consequences of deforestation:
- destruction of indigenous people and their cultures (Manoki and Panara Indians of Brazil)
- climate change (greenhouse effect from burning and from diminished capacity to absorb CO2)
- lose of biodiversity (more than half of world’s plants and animals)
- by destroying the forests, we may be eliminating future solutions to disease and famine
-know the science of climate change and global warming
Science of global warming /causes
* The major greenhouse gasses are water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane CH4),
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and hydrogenated chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), ozone(O3), and
nitrous oxide (N2O)
* Human activity has contributed to a significant increase in the atmospheric concentrations of
CO2, CH4, and CFCs, beyond the earth capacity to absorb them, causing climate chance due to
global warming.
Consequences:
- Global temperature rose 1.1 degree F.
-Artic sea has thinned 40% in the last 30 years
- Accelerated melting of Polar caps and World Glaciers (Greenland)
- Rising sea levels world wide
Future Consequences:
-researchers predict that the sea level could rise
three feet by 2100 if greenhouse warming doesn’t let up
-low-lying land around the world will be under water
-change in weather patterns (violent storms, persistent droughts)
- change to the world’s biodiversity
- know about the trends in different types of meat consumption in the U.S and globally (how
does the U.S compare to other countries)
 Globally, since 1950 meat consumption has doubled
 Annual meat consumption per person in the U.S grew from less than 100 lbs. in 1920 to
184 in 2004.
 7lbs of grain the produce 1 lb. of beef
 takes 441 gallons of water to produce 1 lb. of beef
 U.S is the second largest meat consumers per capita by country.
Environmental Impact:





livestock produce 130 times as much waste as people
industrial farms responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide
30% of the earth’s land is occupied by livestock (deforestation)
33% of earth’s land is used to grow feed crops
according to the EPA 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and ground water in 17 states has
been permanently contaminated by industrial farm waste
- know the statistics on energy consumption and CO2 emissions discussed in class




US Irresponsible for 25% of all CO2 emissions.
It is continuously increasing
petroleum and natural gas are the biggest contributors to energy consumption in the US
Based on scientific studies, 99.999 of climate change is because of humans.
- Be familiar with the concepts of bio-capacity and ecological footprint (what it tells us about
modern impact on the planet Earth, differences in ecological footprint of developed vs.
developing countries, “debtor” nations vs. “creditor” nations)
Ecological Footprint:
Ecological footprint refers to land and water needed to produce resources that are consumed.
Biological capacity or bio capacity
The ecosystems' capacity to produce biological materials used by people and to absorb waste
material generated by humans, under current management schemes and extraction technologies.

More developed countries tend to have higher footprints than non-developed nations
Creditor nations: nations whose bio capacity exceeds its ecological footprint.
Debtor nations: nations whose bio capacity is lower than its ecological footprint.
- know the consequences of climate change (a list on 10 consequences on Canvas, also examples
of Lake Chad, Bay of Bengal, etc.)
Consequences of climate change
1.) Extreme weather phenomena (heat waves, stronger hurricanes, increased precipitation
2.) Coastal and Inland flooding
3.) Migrations of people from the coastal areas
4.) Food supply (overall food supply will go down; impact of livestock, “hotspots of hunger”)
5.) Drinking water (no glaciers to supply rivers and streams, drying up of lakes in Africa)
6.) Biodiversity
7.) Coral reefs and global fish stocks
8.) Diseases
9.) Economic Impacts
10.) War
Lake chad: Since 1963, the lake has shrunk to nearly a twentieth of its original size, due both to
climatic changes and to high demands for agricultural water.
Bay of Bengal: Sea levels are rising twice as fast as the global average. 200 islands are going
under in India.
Know about EV1
 GM created EV1, an innovative battery powered car. It was created in response to
California’s law requiring car makers to produce zero-emissions Vehicles.
 Discontinuation is controversial. Potential self-sabotaging to the parts because of
government regulations on sales, conspires of oil industry’s interfering, CARB, Fuel cell
technology, Consumers, etc. Source is unknown.
- know some of the solutions to environmental problems discussed in class (including
international agreements on climate change)
Environmental problems:
 CO2 emissions
 Protection of the environment
 Global warming/ Climate change
 Water conditions across the globe
- know the assigned readings by Shiva, Esteva and Prakash, Evans, and Weston
Shiva reading
Ecological Balance in an era
Notes on this reading.
- Citizens in the Earth Summit in Rio marked the maturance of ecological awareness on a
global scale
- Instead of commence being held accountable to state and society, economic globalization
is holding citizens and their governments accountable to corporations and global
economic bodies
- Globalization is a political process (not natural).
- 3 waves of globalization: Colonization, imposition, and finally repeat of history through
recolonization.
-
The community, state, and corporation all have a relationship that resemble mere
instruments of the global capital
Northern dumping in the south is extremely high. US generates 275 million of toxic
waste every year
New social and environmental movements are emerging
Dynamics of Globalization and violence associated are creating severe challenges in
India and throughout the world. Continuous efforts of globalization may threaten forms
of life
- know the information from
videos watched in class
- know the problems associated with industrial hog farming in North Carolina (slides on
Canvas)
Cape Fear River Basin is home to more factory farms than any other location on the entire
planet. That equates to about 5 million hogs, 16 million turkeys, and a staggering 300 million
chickens produced on an annual basis.
Why is this a problem?
The Waste from these farms are continues and large with untreated animal waste. It makes its
way into the Cape Fear River, which when mixed with algae, kills fish on a large scale. Along
with viruses such as salmonella, and MRSA. This affects food and the water quality.