Globalization and the Ecological State

• Date: 01 November 1999
• Published date: 01 November 1999
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9388.00208
• Author: James Cameron

Volume 8 Issue 3 1999 Globalization and the Ecological State

Globalization and the

Ecological State

Globalization and the

Ecological State

James Cameron

When E. M. Forster wrote Howards End, he put on the

title page the simple phrase ‘only connect’. His novel

explored the connections, and the pattern of tensions

and responsibilities that arose from those connections,

between the different social classes of a small corner of

Edwardian England – broadly that part of Edwardian

England connected up by what used to be South Eastern

Regional Railways.

Within the space of the same century, we f‌ind ourselves

sharing a whole world linked by a web of global connec-

tions.

1

We are living with globalization. The word is itself a sign.

Many messages are carried within the word when it is

used in political discourse. The phenomenon of globaliz-

ation def‌ines our age and points to our future.

Responding to, reacting against or succeeding in the pro-

motion of globalization are all strategies for the politi-

cally organized in our society.

Our society is, perhaps for the f‌irst time ever, a society

of all societies.

2

The idea that there may be a single glo-

bal economy is modern. There have been several

examples throughout history of world economies which

have been the product of military conquest and empire

building. Today’s global economy retains some residual

elements of conquest and empire but has been con-

structed in a more haphazard, chaotic and spontaneous

way. It is also part-formed. If it is not tautologous to say

so, what is now global will become more so.

The main reason for this is technological. It is possible

to communicate ideas and information anywhere on the

planet. It is possible because our communication sys-

tems are connected to satellites above the earth with

global coverage. Ever since the f‌irst pictures of the earth

from space were returned for us humans to see, we have

been able to match visions of one world, in a political

sense, with a vision of the world which is factual pro-

vided by the world of science. The central issue for this

article is this:

If we retain the concept of a sovereign or nation state

at least insofar as it is necessary to make a series of

points about the future of environmental policy in the

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243

hands of governmental structures, then what would be

the effect of globalization on the state?

We have posited something called the ecological state.

We attach values to the state which give it a consti-

tutional purpose so that in a sense its future action is in

some way determined by those values. However, we

need to examine whether the state as we currently

understand it would, in its environmental policy, be so

signif‌icantly affected by the phenomenon of globaliz-

ation that it would inevitably change shape.

I would like to advance a series of propositions and leave

them to be tested by others. I do not advance them as

if they were the product of my own detailed research;

they are rather, the product of a mix of experience

and intuition.

Proposition 1. The globalization of the economy is the

consequence of the movement of ideas as much as

goods, services and capital. Nineteenth-century Liberal

politics in the United Kingdom promoted the idea that

free trade was good not only because it produced

cheaper bread

3

but because it kept the peace between

nations. Nations trading for mutual advantage, in theory

carefully calibrated on comparative gain, are less likely

to f‌ight over resources or use conquest to establish

access to markets. One of the essential moral arguments

of trade liberalization is that it spreads ideas, including,

specif‌ically, knowledge of both a pure academic and

commercial kind. Indeed, the very notion of commerce

amongst nations is broader than traded goods and ser-

vices. The transactions between people to exchange

widgets for a price involves the exchange of other values

including the very essential one which provides the

basis for their agreement, namely, the idea of contract.

Whilst one of the critical features of the global economy

in its current form is the free movement of capital, that

capital f‌lows carrying with it a whole structure of ideas

concerning the valuation of labour, natural resources,

intellectual property and the rule of law. Capital comes

on terms, it comes with conditions which affect not sim-

ply the cost of repayment but the policy choices of

those, including governments, making the repayments.

Because globalization is fundamentally about the move-

ment of ideas, ideas themselves become valued assets