The following are excerpts from my current research. (Copywrite reserved) This is a rough draft ,I hope you will be able to sift through it and your comments will be greatly appreciated. Chapter I includes a set of slides and some commentary {see conceptual undersdtanding below}with the hope that you will be able to contexualize the variant nature of this phenonmenon. Exerpts are being added on daily bases, you are welcome to come back again soon. Happy parusal !!!!

In Context and Viewed From Below

By
Bamidele A. Ojo Ph.D

Globalization: In Context and Viewed From Below

There has always been an ongoing attempt to transfer values from one human community to the other. This process is as old as the human society itself. It evolves with the increasing desire of the human being to survive in its environment as well as persist in competition with others as they promote their respective agenda in a world of scarce resources. However, as we move further into this new millennium, this process will become more intense than ever because of the contemporary human environment. An environment that is characterized by "haute" technology and advanced scientific development as a result of which the best phrase that sums our modern world is "Honey! I Shrunk The World." The growing global transformation therefore begs for a critical examination as a contemporary phenomenon and in addition, as this world changes so does the dramatic shift towards universalism in many respect because of science and technology, cultural globalism and growing interdependence among nations.

Considering its intensity, globalization remains an important characteristic of the current world order. It not only represents an expansion of market forces, but also the global transfer of sociocultural and political institutions from one part of the world to the other. It represents the
predominance of certain values in currency and therefore the reduction in importance or survivability of other values as well. This is an exploratory study of this phenomenon as well as a critical appraisal, in context of its relationship with the developing areas of the world. The focus will be on the characteristics, the dimensions and dynamics of globalization, as well as emphasis on its impact on the global community in general and the relationship between the north and the south in particular.

This study is divided into two main sections reflecting two different themes:
Theme I: The History and Perspectives of Global Transformation
In this section we will examine the history of globalization and attempts to link it to contemporary global diffusion. It is important to establish a conceptual understanding of this phenomenon and while doing so present the dynamics of global transformation. An aspect of which is the important role played by the state in international politics. The State and its role and by its nature has changed over time, while it continues to determine the level of global participation. This section will be anchored to the dimensions of globalization, which is economic, political, social, as well as environmental.
Theme II: The Political Economy of Globalization.
The second section is an attempt to link the dimensions of global transformation through some applied political analysis. This is an extension of the dimensions of globalization to some important contemporary global issues such as human rights, democracy, science and technology, poverty and
international security. The section also examine the proposition that the increasing role of the
United Nations is directly related to the changing nature of contemporary global transformation. To demonstrate the inherent contradiction in globalization, the challenges it poses for Africa and Arab countries will be used as case studies. This section ends with an identification of some contradictions in globalization, which undoubtedly will affect it as we move further into the new millennium.

GLOBALIZATION: In Context And Viewed From Below
Contents:
Introduction:
- Honey I Shrunk The World!
Part I
History and Perspectives of Global Transformation-A Global Phenomenon!
Chapter 1: Conceptual Understanding
2. Contemporary Global Diffusion
3. The Dynamics Of Global Transformation-Duality in Participation: Assertive and Receptive Participation
4. The State In A New Global Order
5. The Dimensions of Globalization I- Economic Dimension: The Global Market Place
6. The Dimensions of Globalization II- Sociopolitical Dimension: Cultural Globalism, Democracy And Human Rights.
7. The Dimensions Of Globalization III- Global Environmental issues.
Part II The Political Economy of Globalization: From Colonization To Independence To Recolonization.
Chapter 8 : Human Rights And Globalization
9. Democracy And Globalization
10. The Question of Poverty And Economic Development.
11. The Dynamics of New Technology - The Internet and the Withering Away of the State !
12. Global Security Issues - International Security, Ecological Issues and Terrorism.
13. United Nations and Globalization.
14. The Challenges In The South I: Africa's Triple Dilemma.
15. The Challenges In The South II : Arab Countries and Globalization.
16. Contradictions of Globalization. Fragmentation and Cultural Revivalism.
Conclusion Trends and Synthesis of globalization.

Excerpts:

I. Introduction: Honey I Shrunk The World!

Globalization is a word that is frivolously banded around in all circles today. In the academia as well as in the political arena, the whole world is agog with what it is and what it represents. The business community is caught up in this as well, because of the multi-dimensional nature of
this global phenomenon. Our objective is simply to put the concept into proper context and examine it critically in all its multi-dimensional aspects in order to appreciate its impact and the problems associated with it. Globalization literally implies a process of homogenization of the world. This process is not limited to trade and increased economic interaction of the past five hundred years but involves the transfer of cultures, institutions and political domination as well as the environmental impact of such actions. In order to appreciate this process, the role of the state becomes important and the dynamics of global interaction and exchange becomes critical. The State and its implicit role in global politics determine therefore the direction and the potential of the heralded homogenization. It is therefore relevant to define what globalization is and what constitutes it, and what the impact is in all areas of the world.

While it is trendy to envision a world where we all look alike, and we find it profitable to create markets, infiltrate economies around the world, and patriotic to dominate and expand ones values abroad, there is also a contradictory response in the form of preserving ones uniqueness and rejoicing in ones values while resisting outside dominance and repudiating marginalization in the global market place. This discrepant nature of globalization is in itself a viable foundation of the universalist aspect of the phenomenon and the reaction it provoke in different parts of the world.
The reaction to the phenomenon is itself a product of wherever you are and to what extent
whatever is transferred around the globe represents you and your civilization. Taking a cursory look at globalization, one cannot but realize that the values and civilization represented in the universalizing religions of Christianity and Islam, is but the values and civilization original to a
specific part of the globe. The resulting governmental and legal structures and the responding linguistic diffusion, which characterize the "modern" world today, are not original to the majority of the global community. We must therefore realize that the contentious interaction between these values especially between the north and the south is inevitable and may only be reduced by a mutual recognition of the inherent values of all civilizations.

In the academy, there has been a simplistic approach to globalization. This manifests itself in a much more narrow academic discourse which focuses on a more "civilisatrist" contraption of the phenomenon. It is about a global advance of "a" particular attitude and values over less appropriate ones around the globe. It is seen in the context of competition within the market place while ignoring the historical foundation, which precipitated the creation of the global economy in the first place. The farce perpetuation aspect of the discourse makes it imperative to provide a contrary and realistic perspective from the south. All across the academic environment in the west, one is more likely to observe an increasing currency of global education programs. This academic response to globalization is flawed because many of these institutions lack an adequate understanding of the phenomenon. They are not even sure what it is they are engaged in. Is it an attempt to create a more attractive curriculum for an international student audience or simply a means of training and exposing their domestic student population to the ways of the world. It is difficult to figure out which is which because of ill-defined missions and a demonstrated lack of philosophical bases for these programs. In the south there is also a pre-dominance of the western educational curriculum in many countries of the developing world. In many African and Latin American countries, one is more likely to be exposed to European history, literature, and languages than domestic history and literature. For example in post colonial Africa, the African religion is not part of the curriculum and the African history is not an attractive option as is the French or English. And in many western institutions, the area study and foreign languages, wherever they do finally exist are designed to confirm preconceived stereotypes and demonstrate the inadequacies of some cultural attitudes. One is more likely to ask the question, what is the objective of a global education program in the context of globalization? Is it an attempt to expose the student population to other cultures as a means of celebrating those cultures and helping students develop a sense of understanding in cases of interacting with those cultures? Or is it simply a means of providing training and scholarly assistance to some of these societies by helping to train people from these societies and therefore shape their cultures? If the later is the answer, I believe many of these societies are facing tremendous problems because of having adopted the western culture in the first place. They have been trained in the western tradition to the point where they have become more valuable as resources for the western societies than their own societies. In addition, if the former is the answer there is a need to extensively review some of the curriculum and eliminate the tendency to affirm stereotypes and the tendency to judge these cultures. It remains difficult to bring these other cultures into an academic environment because of limitations, which includes enrolment priorities and potential career opportunities upon graduation.
To demonstrate this problem, let us assume that there is a desire to develop a third world nursing program as part of a global educational package in a North American institution. The question is where does this fit into in the globalization scheme? Is the institution trying to train third world nurses? If so, to be what? American trained nurses in their respective homelands? They are already over westernized, and another program is not going to make any change. Is this a reaffirmation of the fact that the American system is better than what they have right now? A look at pre-existing programs will provide answers to this because many of these students are already registered in programs in American universities because the acquisition of an American diploma will open doors for them in America as well. They constitute an already significant pool of foreign resident medical personnel in America. If it is simply an attempt to train American students in a third world healthcare system in order to make them resources for those countries. The question therefore is whether we have the expertise to inform the studentship about third world healthcare systems, (that is if there is any authentic third world healthcare system in place in those communities). Many of these societies have a system in place that is European and because of the nature of their economies, will be unable to sustain an American type medicare system. With people barely able to survive and put food on their table, there is no way they can buy insurance coverage "a la americaine". So what then could be the objective of this health care program? This is the dilemma that many of these institutions face today, and this is the type of uncertainty that surrounds the discourse on globalization. It sounds good in rhetoric, but in reality it is problematic As we observe the export of democracy and industrialization around the globe, we must realize that it is a continuation of a pre-existing pattern but only more subtle and rendered more fluent by the nature of science and technology of our time. Not long ago the spread of Christianity and Islam was conducted with arms and with total disregard for the rights of the subjects to be converted.
Moreover, as countries deal with this phenomenon, we can observe the on-going ripple effect in our living rooms as a result of "CNN-effect." And that itself transforms the way we observe other people and how they react to the impulse that we have pre-conceived to be better for them by virtue of the fact that we live it. The interdependence between nations also in effect makes these actions an important aspect of the global market place but the imperialist economic schemes in the developing world in the last century, more than guarantee the contemporary global transformation in favor of Western Europe.

II:

PART I: History And Perspectives Of Global Transformation

Chapter 1: Conceptual Understanding

.(commentary).................................................................

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Another aspect of globalization is its direct relationship to capitalist and imperialist forces which have been credited with the creation of contemporary economic inequities. According to Mittelman, globalization sets in train conflicts among competing capitalism's, generates deeper or reconfigured interregional disparities, engenders interregional rivalries among neomercantilist coalitions and has combined with local forces to consign at the end of this millennium, 265 million people on one continent to poverty, with little hope for escape in sight. The foremost contradiction of our time is the conflict between the zones of humanity integrated in the global division of labor and those excluded from it. ( Mittelman, James.1996. p18). The inherent "civilatrice" mentality of globalization and the apparent conflict is also a very potent aspect of this phenomenon. Globalization and globalism were both a product of specific historical conditions in the last three decades of the twentieth century. Both emerged in the advanced capitalist societies and "with the knowledge, prestige, and resources present in these societies they were disseminated as objectives truth among these societies' subordinate classes and to peoples in the rest of the world." (Cox, Robert W.1996 p.24.) Robert Cox reaffirms Mittelman's contention when he said further, "...globalization widened the gap in living conditions between most of the world's population and the relatively small segment integrated into global production and financial networks." To him, globalism also raised the ethical question of what the rich, who were already consuming the lion's share of the world's resources and had done most of the polluting, could offer to meet the aspirations of the poor for development and higher living standards. (Ibid.)
There is also the contradiction of globalization in terms of social polarization both within and between countries. The social stratification created by this phenomenon can be divided into three levels, namely: at the top are the people integrated firmly into the global economy and direct the activities within it. This involves everyone from the global economy managers, down to the relatively privileged workers who serve global production and finance in reasonably stable jobs. The second level includes those who serve the global economy in more precarious employment-expanding category segmented by race, religion, and sex, as a result of the 'restructuring" of production by post-fordism. The bottom level consists of superfluous labor-those excluded from the global economy and who serve it only as a potentially destabilizing forces; at this level are the object of global poverty relief and riot control.( Cox, Robert W. 1996. Ibid). Africa and many, if not all the countries of the third world falls into the third level. The loss of the autonomous regulatory power of the state is also another contradiction because of the reduction in the power of the state to shield their economy from the global influence. What makes it more of a vehicle for promoting inequality is the widespread and uneven tendency toward decomposition of civil society. The sociopolitical decay in many third world countries clearly undermines their ability to control their destiny in this environment. This is complicated by widespread corruption in many of these societies as well.

As we further examine this phenomenon, we must be careful with the use of words such as global and globalization. The word global has two meanings that tends to become confused with globalization. One meaning refers to the planet earth (the French term mondialisation, used as an equivalent to globalization, is confined to this meaning). The other refers to a whole, or a set of factors conceived as a whole, giving globalization a totalizing connotation. The latter meaning is evoked by the consequences often perceived as those of the globalization process: a world increasingly homogenized-economically, socially and culturally. The dialectical response to homogenization, according to Robert W. Cox, has been the affirmation of difference, equally
present if lacking the material force of the apparently dominant homogenizing tendency. Globalization, in current usage, is to be understood in this dialectical manner (Cox,Robert W. 1996. p.30).
An exploration of literature also evokes another aspect of globalization. Gary Gereffi in his article, The Elusive Last Lap In The Quest For Developed-Country Status, concluded that globalization is not inevitable, nor is it an unmixed blessing in terms of development. According to him, its foundations are political as well as economic and therefore far from stable. Further more, globalization also generates substantial social and cultural resistance because of its uneven and in some cases marginalizing consequences within as well as between countries and regions. (Gary Gereffi, 1996. p.78.) While there is a wide range of the interpretation of globalization on one hand, there is also a mosaic explanation of the process itself on the other. The process involves changes in the organization of production, consumption and other aspects of social relations, which by the very nature of its transference, "compression of the time-space aspects of social relations' as Fantu Cheru calls it, allows the economy, politics, culture and ideology of one country to penetrate another, (Fantu Cheru, 1996.p145). This process of rapid inter-penetration of social relations (such as world industries, labor flows, lending institutions, communications, scientific and information technologies as well as new cultural norms) makes national borders less relevant while severing family ties and undermining established authority and straining local community bonds.
The interpretation of the global transformation process also involves the emergence of global consciousness. It is also a variant of westernization which reaffirms to many, the movement towards convergence (Pye, 1990) and the triumph of liberal values (though with resistance from other civilizations) (Huntington, 1993). However, Mustapha Kamal Pasha and Ahmed I. Samatar, in their article, The Resurgence of Islam, situate globality as a feature of modernity and as a product of a long historical exchange between different cultures, including elements that draw their inspiration from the Islamic civilization. To Them, Falk's distinction between two types of globalization allows them a useful framework to identify the aggressive and reactive dimension of globalization both interacting with one another as they condition the life situation of individuals and collectivities (Falk, 1992b). They are referring to what Falk called, the first type: globalization-from-above, and the second type: globalization-from-below.
The first type: globalization-from-above, reflects "the collaboration between leading states and the main agents of capital formation with its key feature being a relentless drive for accumulation
undergirded by a consumerist ethos; its chief actors being transnational capital and transnational political elites. Which together, creates a powerful momentum that leaves behind a high degree of seemingly functional integration and at face value, homogenizing habits that makes all other
cultures submit to the pervasiveness of the West's perception of the world and its conception
of lived reality (Falk, 1992b).
But globalization-from-below on the contrary, indicts the dysfunctional and degenerative consequences of the phenomenon by pointing to a corrosiveness of the autonomy, individual and group efficacy, which weakens the local bases of material sustenance and results in the diminution of ecological values and the breakdown of cultural foundations (Falk, 1992b). Contrary to Falk's hypothesis, globalization is one type not two. It is a singular process with dual interactive activities existing within it. The dual interaction represents therefore what Falk calls globalization-from-above and globalization-from-below. To accept Falk's interpretation is to accept that the civilizations from below actually engage in the process similar to that of the civilization from above. The societies from below are incapable of doing so, and what Falk describes is simply the effect of globalization from above. The only globalization there is. In chapter 3, we discuss this even further by identifying the dual interactive process within globalization as assertive participant level and receptive participant level. And that the participation at either level is conditioned by the nature and effectiveness of the state in identifying and defining it interest in the global system and the capability of participant state to promote such an interest.

References:

Chapter 1
Cox, Robert W (1996), "A Perspective On Globalization" in Mittelman, James (ed.) (1996),Globalization: Critical Reflections (Boulder:Co: Lynne Rienner)
Cheru, Fantu (1996),"New Social Movements: Democratic Struggles And Human Rights In Africa", in Mittelman, James H. (ed.)(1996), Globalization: Critical Reflections. (Boulder:Co:Lynne Rienner).
Falk , Richard (1992a),"Democratizing, Internationalizing and Globalizing: A Collage Of Blurred Images." Third World Quarterly 13 (4):627-640.
---------(1992b),"The Making of Global Citizenship" in Brecher, Jeremy et al(eds),Global Visions: Beyond the NewWorld Order.(Boston: South End Press.
Gereffi, Gary (1996) "The Elusive Last Lap In The Quest For Developed-Country Status," in .Mittelman, James H. (ed.)(1996), Globalization: Critical Reflections (Boulder: CO: Lynne Rienner)
Huntington, Samuel P.(1993),"The Clashes Of Civilization? "Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer):22- 47.
Pasha, Mustapha K. & Samatar, Ahmed I. (1996) "Resurgence of Islam" in Mittelman ,James H.(ed)(1996),Globalization: Critical Reflections(Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner)
Pye, Lucien . (1990) "Presidential Address" American Political Science Review.

III:

Chapter 14

AFRICA'S TRIPLE DILEMMA:
The Challenges of the Democratization, Globalization & State Building.
As the rest of the world prepares for the new millennium, African states are, as usual, preoccupied with the daunting problems of development, state and nation building while remaining a marginal and insignificant actor in contemporary politics. African states unlike the rest of the world, which is pre-occupied with issues surrounding space technology, information superhighway, social security or health care delivery, and AIDS, are at this time enmeshed in the process of state and nation building, and the problem of legitimate governance which inhibits their ability to effectively engage in contemporary world order. The future is not clear, and it offers little hope of competitive African states despite prevailing wisdom to the contrary. This assumption is not bore out of any afro- pessimism, but clearly a product of the experiences of the past decades, as we have witnessed the sociopolitical and economic decay across the continent. We have, therefore, seen a constant shift in response from colonial to neo-colonial and to the problems of leadership as causes of the decay in post colonial Africa.
This paper is the result of a year long exploratory research in identifying the prevailing problems afflicting Africa at the end of last millennium. And the conclusion be drawn that three basic, recurring and somehow interdependent variables, that by their nature and dynamics, will continue to shape the place of African states in the world. A critical examination of contemporary African politics as it relates to post-colonial governance, consistently revolves around the question of state building, democratization and globalization. Each of which, in that order dictates the nature and the extent of African states participation in the global community. The first, state building revolves around the effectiveness of the state and its ability to discharge its responsibility vis-à-vis, its relationship with its citizenry. The second, democratization, concerns the process of institutional governance which facilitate the effective allocation of resources within a particular geo-political entity while the third, globalization, focuses on the ability of the African states to engage and the extent to which it influences or be influenced, within the global infrastructure. The important role of the African state in the development of the African society cannot be over emphasized and what remained as a dominant feature of the last three decades is the continuing search for a democratic formulation that will facilitate the sociopolitical and economic development of the African society. In its totality, the impact of the global system and the direct participation of Africa in global transformation remain an important factor in determining the capability of the African state in a world in which its underdevelopment is a by-product of its incorporation into the capitalist modes of production.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The triple dilemma that Africa faces in the next century revolve around the effectiveness of the state which in effect is dependent on its degree of democratization, which will in turn provide the foundation for sociopolitical and economic development, thereby facilitating a more effective, interest protecting capability in the global transformation process. The African states however have been characterized among others as being soft, collapsed, (W. Zartman (Ed), 1995), failed (Kelevi J. Holsti, 1996), fractured (Crawford Young, 1994). These characterizations made by many outstanding scholars imply that an African State either exhibits a European state-like characteristic or they have based their assessment on such tradition. While those arguments remain tantalizing, I am more reluctant in my own analysis and cannot ignore the characteristics of the pre-colonial state and its impact on the colonial and post-colonial state. Some of the aforementioned analysis may have been apropos, but incomplete in their understanding of the nature of the African states. In addition, the results are an in complete understanding of contemporary African state and society. One must therefore ponder the question, what is the nature of the pre-colonial state?
The pre-colonial African state predates the birth of the nation state as defined by the Westphalian treaty of 1648. The treaty marked the beginning of the nation state system in which sovereign political entities, independent of any outside authorities exercised control over people residing in separate territories with officially marked boundaries (Peter J. Schraeder, 2000, p98).The African state of Ghana (Old Ghana Empire), Mali and Songhai for examples which predated the treaty and many other sovereign states that followed later like the Oyo empire, Buganda and Borno, to mention just a few, that demonstrated some of these characteristics. The fact that the scramble for Africa and the resultant colonization and re-organization of territorial boundaries under the new colonial infrastructure does not render inconsequential, what these states were. The debate about the state in Africa seems to assume that the state does not exist in the sense propre until the end of colonial rule. It is extremely inadequate to assume non-existence of the state during pre-colonial and colonial period, but to expect a functional state at the inception of independence. What started at independence is the process of state formation What started at independence is the process of state formation, which is characterized as nation building. It could also be argued that independence marked the birth of the state in Africa and at this same point witnessed the reintegration of the pre-colonial (self) aspect with the post-colonial (self) aspect of statehood, while the period of colonial governance serves as a period of interruption, which clearly muddled the process of state building and national identification as a result of political reorganization and administrative engineering resulting from the Berlin conference and on.
THE STATE IN AFRICA
The state is central to the questions of economic and sociopolitical development in Africa. Why a state in its sense propre possess some attributes including territory and population in order to be considered a state. The question of sovereignty is also a significant characteristic of the state while maintaining law and order within its territory. Most if not all the pre-colonial states in Africa displayed these attributes prior to the coming of European colonization. The state must develop a "raison d'être", which should be based on the notion of a particular entity as a nation. A sense of nationalism must be developed through that state's ability to maintain security throughout its territory. The state must also be capable of enjoying a relationship with other states in the international system. As an idea, the state must promote effective orientation, and images and expectation among its citizens. These capabilities are in many cases derived from the function of a state as an historical factor, which has been sustained in the memory of its citizenry. While it is imperative that the notion of a state's sovereignty be capable of ensuring the supremacy of its authority but it should be sustained through policy initiatives. A predominant aspect of the "state talk" focus's on the question of legitimacy, whereby the state must be able to sustain its authority through securing the consent for its rules in the exercise of its authority.

The state through this legitimate authority will be able to command some degree of power. The power to engage in activities toward sustaining its capacity to command loyalty and authoritatively allocate resources within the society. The "state talk" also involves an agreed notion that the people are not necessarily consulted about whether they choose to be parties to a social contract (Richard Muir, 1997). However, some of these notions have changed over time and will continue to change given the changing nature of the state and its function in contemporary politics. But an important aspect of the ability of the state to sustain the support of the people within its boundaries is by setting the extent of geographical or territorial extension of its authority. According to Camilleri and Falk, "the spatial question of the state, understood as a geometric entity with precisely demarcated boundaries, is integral to the notion of sovereignty and to international relations theory (Camilleri, J.A., and Falk J. 1992). The voluntary nature of the contract freely entered into by the population of a state is also a significant aspect of statehood, because by its established sovereign power, the state offers the people protection from violence and disorder, and by so doing serves as a neutral empire and arbiter presiding over disputes and supporting the common good (Camilleri and Falk, 1992, p83). This particular notion of the state is undermined by the experience of the African state, because of colonial rule. Whereby many groups forced together remain unable to believe or accept the state's role as an impartial arbiter in the distribution of the common good. Some of this is itself a result of colonial manipulation and immediately post-colonial leadership manipulation of the ethnic divide within their respective state.
The state also serves as a protector because it protects the majority from arbitrary usurpation by socially and economically powerful groups, other than those allied to their state. Subsequently, it seeks to integrate conflicting elements of the national community and to bind them together into a coherent unit. In addition, the legitimate authority of the state within its territory is measured by its strength (Kelevi, Holsti, 1999.p.90). According to Kelevi Holsti, "the state may be placed on a continuum of strength at one extreme are the strong states whose main features are strong linkages between the population, attitudinal and institutional components, all encompassed within highdegrees of vertical and horizontal legitimacy"(p.90). He also placed on the other extreme, failed states or other political entities that have collapsed. Under this scenario, the legitimacy of the study is performance based, in which case, the state maintains its right to rule through the provision of services including, security, law and order, justice and varying range of welfare measures (p91). This argument presumes a contractually based interaction, whereby the state exerts its right to extract resources for the provision of services. This is very much an interesting assumption concerning the colonial state as a continuation of the pre-colonial state and a predecessor of the post-colonial state. But an important argument that could be made is the fact that the issue of legitimacy may be over emphasized because the lack of international legitimacy may in the present world order undermine domestic legitimacy and vice -versa.
DEMOCRATIZATION
Another important process which constitutes a challenge to the contemporary African state is the process of democratization. As a prevailing contemporary phenomenon in Africa, it is recognized as one of the most important solutions to the problems facing the continent. Democracy is seen as process of choosing any competing candidates and following prescribed procedures. It is also a process associated with equality within a polity. While emphasis is placed on the right and liberties of the individual, another contending variable of democracy is the predominance of the welfare of the collective (the community) which must be valued over any individual benefits. It is difficult to ascertain the exactness of democracy in as much as it progressively evolves. A democracy is constantly evolving as it seeks to maintain a reasonable standard of living for its citizenry. It is also a product of the sociopolitical environment within which it exists. A mere adoption or import of democratic ideas does not guarantee effective take-off of democracy. The adopting political system must however facilitate an open and equal participation from its citizenry. It must guarantee a periodic election based on free choice and provide for the protection of the fundamental human rights of all within its boundaries.
GLOBALIZATION
The final challenge that Africa faces is that of globalization. As a process involving being part of the global community through reception and export of certain attributes, accepted all over the world. The current preoccupation with globalization is as if its a new phenomenon. In a report on globalization, the National Geographic characterized it as an "assortment of changes in politics, business, health, entertainment, wherein modern industries has established a world market" and that "we are in the throes of world wide reformation of cultures, a tectonic shifts of habits and dreams "(National Geographic. August, 1999,Vol.196, #2). From such an analysis one is made to believe that there is a free movement of cultures, ideas, people and goods in such a away as to create a mutually interdependence among global inhabitants. Is it really true or is it simply a renaissance of western values and cultural expansionism, in a different time and in a world with a different type but faster communications and technology. Global communication and interaction is far more complex than it used to be and the exploitation and conquest of the mind no longer needs physical transport to foreign land and can be carried out in the comfort of ones own home. While industrialization furthered the conquest of distant lands, the technological revolution of today has reduced the ability of distant cultures to resist domination thereby enhancing global transformation. However, as global economy developed, so has the notion of self -sufficiency reduced. This neo neo-imperialism, involves a sociopolitical and economic transformation dominated by cultures and ideas from developed countries at the expense of the less developed.
Economic linkages have heightened cultural diffusion. So globalization can be defined as the organization of activities throughout the world thereby creating and reducing the whole globe as one place. In spite of this homogenization, there exists a contradictory reaction leading to fragmentation of cultures. The fragmentation results not only from the schism created by the global diffusion which has pitched the new found culture, economy and institution against their domestic and preexisting counterpart. The clash of values is a product of such interaction because not all aspects of the society are receptive to change.
These three variables therefore are interdependent. Because of this, the propensity for African states to democratize is directly related to the nature and strength of that particular state and the level of its activity and participation in the global market place. We have observed that the state is characterized by the extent of its sovereignty, its ability to maintain security and promote the well being of its people within its polity is directly related to the level of democratic institutionalization which in turn is measured by the level of justice and sustainable equality and protection of fundamental rights, all of which facilitate political and economic participation.
The interaction between the three variables is very important. The state is able to sustain nation building become attached to its ability to promotes its interest in the process of globalization. There are two levels in the process of interaction: the upper level, which is occupied by those state capable of promoting their interest and measured by the economic and political influence while the lower level is occupied by the absorbed and less important state, who are incapable of promoting their interest. The determinant of which level a state belong is dependent on the nature of that state and how its resolves the question of democracy, which are directly linked to the productive capacity of such a state.
THE AFRICAN DILEMMA
The problem of the state in Africa stems from the European incursion and the lack of survival of the pre-colonial state structures. This situation led to the reordering of the sociopolitical and economic aspects of the society. The predicament of the African state did not start at independence but initiated as a result of the African state inability to defend itself, maintain its authority, unable to protects its population during the colonial period. The colonial powers were not interested in state making and do not need any legitimacy or the approval of its local population. It was established as an instrument for extracting resources. It lacks legitimacy and cannot be described as a state per se. As a result of this quasi-state situation of the colonial authority makes the ethnic groups the sole repository of power, loyalty and legitimacy. The ethnic groups therefore assumed a far more important role during the colonial state and continue to do so today. The current wave of democratization faces a tremendous challenge because of the direct connection between the process and the degree of legitimate authority within the state. In order for the state to successfully develop the right condition within which to sustain democracy, it must be perceived by the population as the protector of their interest and in order for the state to sustain the process, it must also establish a level of trust between itself and the people. This seemingly endless dance of death is compounded by global transformation that imposes additional stress on the legitimate authority of the state. The recognition and the effective participation in the global environment promotes sustainable growth in these societies, which is impossible to attain because of the nature of the new African states. The African state is limited in its ability to compete. The African state is not soft or weak nor has it collapsed, but it is a state in the process of being. It is in the process of re-inventing itself which is compromised by the changing nature of the global system and the speed of the change. Many Africanist contend that the current spate of global transformation is nothing but a re-colonization process that not only democratized disempowerment, but facilitated the sustenance of the status quo. (Claude Ake, 1996). The question of nationhood has not been about how to define nation per se but how to effectively utilize the state to recreate or redefine itself as a representative of all. Sometimes it is difficult to perceive a problem because we have assumed the inevitable dominance of the newly adopted ideas from abroad or as imposed by the previous colonial administration.
Normally a state develops its attributes over time, after it must have impressed its relevance and value in the memory of its citizens. No wonder it has taken the United States, the United kingdom and France, such a long time to be able to maintain the degree of democratic postures that they have assumed today. For the African state, the precolonial state was terminated by the colonial state, which represented a disconnection between the people that it dominated and had no interest of protecting them, except when her lucrative economic infrastructure is in danger. The succeeding post-colonial state lacks a history and has no connection to the pre-colonial state, except some values dynamic enough to resist the years of colonial domination. The post colonial state is therefore in a flux, or a process of integrating a non-native value system and infrastructure, in an uncomprehensive domestic environment. Those institutions that have survived the colonial domination exist in contradiction to newly adopted European values. The level of confusion is enormous and undermines the successful assertion of the new state structure because of the lack of trust and the disconnection inherited from the colonial experience. For example, the extended family system remains a critical support for the individual within an African societal setting but in the context of modern Africa, it is inherently injurious to the survival of the individual and the need to eliminate this support system, creates problems in the attempt to build a vibrant and united community. Another example can be found in the redundant role of the traditional institutions and values in modern Africa. For hundreds of years these institutions and values provided legitimacy for the state and the spiritual identity for the relation between the governed and the governor. However, today they have remained irrelevant, and in time of crisis are unable to sustain the people in their search for answers to the challenges of the modern state within which they exist.
CONCLUSION
One can assume that since the African state is in a process of finding a common denominator through which it can reinvent itself, it has in no way reached the catastrophic level of failure, but rather that it is actively trying to contend with the changing sociopolitical and economic changes of the global system. Under this scenario, there is definitely hope for Africa. The observation in this piece is that unless the African state can effectively and independently define its interest in the global environment as a first step toward protecting and promoting these interests, there is no way it can benefit from the global transformation. Globalization for Africa will no doubt bring more imperial influence and dominance. It will represent a deliberate reduction in African values and institutions at the expense of the expanding European values. The contradiction resulting from the competition and the frustration from incompetence will continue to undermine the process of state building and further dissipate the capacity of African state to make necessary sociopolitical and economic progress as we move into the next century. The solution therefore lies within the global community itself. Just like colonialism created its own contradiction through the education and missionary activities that led to the emancipation of western educated elites, who then motivated the nationalist drive that led to the end colonization, the democratization process as an integral part of the global phenomenon, will serve as the saving grace capable of supporting African progressive revival to claim its place in the global market place. It is at this level that the question of leadership, political tolerance and sustainable interest in promoting the interest of all will play an important role in the coming of age of the African continent.

*Presented at the 6th. Annual Conference of the AADERT, Springfield College.Springfield, MA .December 3, 1999.

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