This article is an analysis of Anthony Giddens' attempt to articulate a globalization-friendly alternative to traditional social democracy (the `old' Left) and neo-liberal market fundamentalism (the `new' Right). Specifically, I focus on Giddens' insistence that globalization is not merely an economic phenomenon but also, and more profoundly, a political and cultural force of `time-space distanciation'. Whereas Giddens conceives of a direct causal connection between the disembedding forces of globalization and outcomes of democratization, I argue that such a conception is deeply flawed. Indeed, rather than develop a politically useful explanatory social theory of the complex relationship between globalization and democracy, Giddens' `third way' theorizing merely hypostatizes the former by invoking it as a cause of the latter. I provide a series of arguments designed to highlight the weaknesses of Giddens' position, and conclude by questioning the general thesis that underlies Giddens' account of globalization.
Appadurai, Arjun
(1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
2.
Appadurai, Arjun
ed. (2000) Globalization: Millennial Quartet. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
3.
Barker, Jonathan
(1999) Street-Level Democracy: Political Settings at the Margins of Global Power. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.
4.
Bauman, Zygmunt
(2000) Globalization: The Human Consequences. New York: Columbia University Press.
5.
Beaud, Stéphane
(1999) `The Temp's Dream', in Pierre Bourdieu et al. (eds) The Weight of the World. pp. 282-296. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
6.
Beck, Urlich
(2000) What Is Globalization?Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell.
7.
Beck, Urlich
, Giddens, Anthony and Lash, Scott (1994) Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
8.
Blair, Tony
(1998) The Third Way. London: Fabian Society.
9.
Blair, Tony
and Schroeder, Gerhard (1999) The Third Way - Die Neue Mitte. London: Labour and SPD.
10.
Blum, Joseph A.
(2000) `Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-five Years in the San Francisco Shipyards', in Michael Burawoy et al. (eds), pp. 106-136. Global Ethnography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
11.
Bourdieu, Pierre
(1998) On Television. New York: The New Press.
12.
Bourdieu, Pierre
, et al. (1999) The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
13.
Burawoy, Michael
, et al. (2000) Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections, and Imaginations in a Postmodern World. Berkeley: University of California Press.
14.
Caldiera, Teresa P.R.
(1996) `Fortified Enclaves: The New Urban Segregation', Public Culture8: 303-328.
15.
Calhoun, Craig
(1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
16.
Cardoso, Fernando Henrique
(2001) `Democracy as a Starting Point', Journal of Democracy12(1): 5-14.
17.
Castells, Manuel
(1998) The Rise of the Network Society, 3 vols. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell.
18.
Castells, Manuel
(2001) The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. London: Oxford University Press.
19.
Champagne, Patrick
(1999) `The Fall', in Pierre Bourdieu et al. (eds) The Weight of the World, pp. 392-407. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
20.
Davis, Mike
(1992) City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage.
21.
Democratic Leadership Council
(1996) The New Progressive Declaration: A Political Philosophy for the Information Age. Washington, DC: Democratic Leadership Council-Progressive Policy Institute.
22.
Frank, Thomas
(2000) One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy. New York: Doubleday.
23.
Fraser, Nancy
(1992) `Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy', in Crag Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere, pp. 109-142. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
24.
Giddens, Anthony
(1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
25.
Giddens, Anthony
(1998) The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
26.
Giddens, Anthony
(1999) Runaway World: The Reith Lectures. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.
27.
Giddens, Anthony
(2000) The Third Way and Its Critics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
28.
Giddens, Anthony
and Hutton, Will (2000) Global Capitalism. New York: New Press.
29.
Gowan, Teresa
(2000) `Excavating “Globalization” from Street Level: Homeless Men Recycle Their Pasts', in Michael Burawoy et al. (eds) Global Ethnography, pp. 74-105. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
30.
Habermas, Jürgen
(1962) Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der burgerlichen Gesellschaft. Berlin: Luchterhand.
31.
Hall, Stuart
(1998) `The Great Moving Nowhere Show', Marxism Today. 9-14.
32.
Haney, Lynne
(2000) `Global Discourses of Need: Mythologizing and Pathologizing Welfare in Hungary', in Micahael Burawoy et al. (eds) Global Ethnography, pp. 48-73. Berkeley: University of California Press.
33.
Jameson, Frederic
and Miyoshi, Masao, eds (1998) The Cultures of Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
34.
King, Anthony
, ed (1997) Culture, Globalization and the World-System. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
35.
Low, Setha M.
(2000) On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
36.
Mazzocco, Dennis W.
(1994) Networks of Power: Corporate TV's Threat to Democracy. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
37.
O'Riain, Sean
(2000) `Net-working for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace', in Michael Burawoy et al. (eds) Global Ethnography, pp. 175-202. Berkeley: University of California Press.
38.
Pialoux, Michel
(1999) `The Old Worker and the New Plant', in Pierre Bourdieu et al. (eds) The Weight of the World, pp. 267-281. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
39.
Porter, Michael E.
(1998) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Free Press.
40.
Poster, Mark
(2001) What's the Matter with the Internet?Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
41.
Putnam, Robert D.
(2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
42.
Sassen, Saskia
(1990) The Mobility of Labor and Capital: A Study in International Investment and Labor Flow. London: Cambridge University Press.
43.
Sassen, Saskia
(1991) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
44.
Sassen, Saskia
(1994) Cities in a World Economy. London: Pine Forge Press.
45.
Sassen, Saskia
and Appiah, Kwame Anthony (1999) Globalization and Its Discontents: Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money. New York: New Press.
46.
Tuomioja, Erkki
(1998) `Blairism May Not Work Elsewhere in Europe', Newsletter of the Finnish Institute in London.
47.
Vergara, Camilo Jose
(1997) The New American Ghetto. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
48.
Zukin, Sharon
(1989) Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
49.
Zukin, Sharon
(1995) The Cultures of Cities. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell.
