170 CHAPTER FivE ■ The STaTe
their populations from either crass Western values or dangerous po liti cal ideas
transmitted through modern media. Th ese new communication technologies have
facilitated the organ ization of transnational and ethnonational movements and trans-
national crime, in many cases posing a challenge to the authority of the states.
globalization
Externally, the state is buffeted by globalization, the growing integration of the world
in terms of politics, economics, and culture, a pro cess that undermines traditional
state sovereignty. In po liti cal terms, states, an overwhelming number of which are
now democracies, are confronted by transnational issues— environmental degrada-
tion, disease, crime, and intrusive technologies— that governments cannot manage
alone, as Chapter 11 discusses. Increasingly, cooperative actions to address these
issues require states to compromise their sovereignty. In the economic realm, states’
financial markets are tied inextricably together; multinational corporations and the
internationalization of production and consumption make it ever more difficult for
states to regulate their own economic policies and make states more subject to inter-
national forces, as Chapter 9 discusses. Culturally, globalization has prompted
both homogenization and differentiation. On the one hand, people around the world
share a culture by watching the same cinema and listening to the same music. On the
other, people are also eager to differentiate themselves within this homogenizing cul-
tural force by maintaining local languages or pressing for local po liti cal and economic
autonomy. An outgrowth of globalization has been both increasing demo cratization
and the emerging power of transnational movements.
transnational religious and Ideological Movements
Transnational movements, particularly religious and ideological movements, have
become po liti cal forces in their own right. Diff er ent religions have always existed, and
their current numbers reveal the diversity (2.2 billion Christians; 1.6 billion Muslims;
1 billion Hindus; 376 million Buddhists; 14 million Jews). What has changed is that
increasing demo cratization has emerged as a by- product of globalization, providing an
opening for members of the same religion to or ga nize transnationally and therefore
increase their po liti cal influence. Now that groups can communicate with their adher-
ents and compete for po liti cal power both within states and transnationally, some of
them, antisecular and antimodern, pose stark challenges to state and international
authorities.^23 More than 20 years ago, prominent po liti cal scientist Samuel Huntington
predicted that the next great international conflict would be a “clash of civilizations”
arising from under lying differences between Western liberal democracy and Islamic