Read the passage and answer the questions:
One of the debates that has been generated as a consequence of contemporary processes of globalization relates to its ongoing political impact. How does globalization affect traditional conceptions of state sovereignty? There are at least three aspects that we need to consider when answering this question. At the most simple level, globalization results in an erosion of state capacity, that is, the ability of governments to do what they do. All over the world, the old ‘welfare state’ is now giving way to a more minimalist state that performs certain core functions, such as the maintenance of law and order and the security of its citizens. However, it withdraws from many of its earlier welfare functions directed at economic and social well-being. In place of the welfare state, it is the market that becomes the prime determinant of economic and social priorities. The entry and the increased role of multinational companies all over the world leads to a reduction in the capacity of governments to take decisions on their own. At the same time, globalization does not always reduce state capacity. The primacy of the state continues to be the unchallenged basis of political community. The old jealousies and rivalries between countries have not ceased to matter in world politics. The state continues to discharge its essential functions (law and order, national security) and consciously withdraws from certain domains from which it wishes to. States continue to be important. Indeed, in some respects state capacity has received a boost as a consequence of globalisation, with enhanced technologies available at the disposal of the state to collect information about its citizens. With this information, the state is better able to rule, not less able. Thus, states become more powerful than they were earlier as an outcome of the new technology.
Globalisation as a concept fundamentally deals with-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Flows
Option (1) Functions of state — Incorrect. What the state does (law and order, security, welfare) is one area that globalisation affects, as the passage shows: the welfare state gives way to a minimalist state. It is a consequence of globalisation, not what the concept itself is about.
Option (2) Welfarism — Incorrect. Welfare functions are those directed at the economic and social well-being of citizens. Under globalisation the state withdraws from many of them, so welfarism is something globalisation weakens, not its basic idea.
Option (3) Flows — Correct. Globalisation as a concept fundamentally deals with flows: ideas moving from one part of the world to another, capital shunted between places, commodities traded across borders and people moving in search of better livelihoods. The passage does not define globalisation itself.
Option (4) Anarchy — Incorrect. Anarchy means disorder in the absence of any controlling authority. Globalisation is about the worldwide interconnectedness created by these flows, not about disorder.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Concept of Globalisation … Since much of the usage tends to be imprecise, it becomes important to clarify what we mean by globalisation. Globalisation as a concept fundamentally deals with flows. These flows could be of various kinds — ideas moving from one part of the world to another, capital shunted between two or more places, commodities being traded across borders, and people moving in search of better livelihoods to different parts of the world. The crucial element is the ‘worldwide interconnectedness’ that is created and sustained as a consequence of these constant flows.” |