Week 10 Post-Class: Public Authority in a Globalized Age

Public Authority in a Globalized Age

The Weakening (and Re-assertion?) of the State

As has been a general theme of our class, the fringes of state power are not quite as clear cut as they may have been 100 years ago. My perception has, in general, been that the boundaries of a state's authority is very explicitly defined de jure, but has become much more porous de facto. This is not necessarily a bad thing as an interconnected world has allowed our economies to prosper and our wars to lessen. On the other hand, we have seen a weakening of the state's ability to affect many of the inter- or transnational actors operating within its borders.

There are many such examples of such weakening power. For one, the United States', though the most powerful actor on the international stage (and well established at home), has been unable to fully reign in the problem of tax evasion in foreign havens by its own corporations. Europeans have had similar challenges in reigning in foreign corporations who engage digitally with its citizens. On the other hand, more authoritarian states have made more progress in controlling such behavior, but at the expense of keeping these economically (or socially) beneficial entities out. For weaker nations, such violations of state authority can set a dangerous precedent and an overly-limiting state can prevent crucial economic activity that can be equally problematic.

Is there a balance? Likely, but it won't come from a single state or regional organization. One of the key themes of the Week 10 material is a "weakening of boundaries...but an absence of global public authority." This highlights the need for global authorities, through treaties, that create a standard (and binding) set of rules for such international non-state (and thus non-sovereign) actors. Tax evasion, data storage, private military organizations, etc. The list goes on, and without global standards to attack global issues in a coordinated manner, the list will grow. Unfortunately, in an age of interdependence, states must act together to face transnational activity if the state model of governance is to survive the 21st Century.