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passing as to negate effective resistance. They
instead argue that Empire produces the possibility, for the first time in human
history, of global democracy. This occurs not only because globalization
weakens the power of nation-states and claims to territorial sovereignty, but
because the maintenance of Empire as an economic system depends upon
more and more of the global population as producers, consumers, users and
participants in its global network of production. Moreover, production is no
longer simply economic production, or the production of material goods, but
social production, or 'the production of communications, relationships and
forms of life' (Hardt and Negri, 2005, p. xv). As a result, it creates the rnultitrrde
as 'the living alternative that grows within Empire' (Hardt and Negri,
2005, p. xiii), that is infinitely diverse as a population, but has a capacity to
act collectively as a result of the globally networked nature of social production,
and the fluid, open and collaborative network form provides its primary
means of acting politically. For Hardt and Negri, 'the creation of the multitude,
its innovation in networks, and its decision-making ability in common
make democracy possible for the first time today', and the weakening of
sovereignty by globalization and Empire means that 'the autonomy of the
multitude and its capacities for economic, political and social self-organization
take away any role for sovereignty ... \Vhen the multitude is finally able
to rule itself, democracy becomes possible' (Hardt and Negri, 2005, p. 340).
Strong Globalization Theories: a Critique
Strong globalization theories generally rest upon an interrelated set of claims
about the operation of markets on a world scale and the contemporary geo- i
politics of global capitalism, all of which can be found in a particularly i
marked version in Hardt and Ncgri's work, and in a more nuanced and i
complex version in the work of Manuel Castells: I
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1. Markets increasingly operate on a global scale, and are increasingly domi- t
nated by a diminishing number of transnational corporations (TNCs). 1
i
2. These TNCs organize their activities on a global scale, and are less and less
constrained by the policies and regulations of nation-states. 1
3. The power of nation-states is in decline, with many of their core operations I
being superseded by the laws and regulations established by supra-national j
governmental institutions.
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Theories of Global Media 59
4. As a result, political activity that focuses upon incremental reforms within
the framework of the nation-state is misplaced, as real decision-making
power increasingly resides outside of its territorial boundaries.
5. Globalization generates a global cultural experience where subjective identities
are defined less by the relationship of individuals to geographically
defined space sand the 'imagined community' of the nation-state, and more
by their relationship to complex and interc