Subnational governments and globalization: The changing face of federalism

We live in an era where globalization is transforming the original meaning (and understanding) of governance (Sassen, 1997). This transformation is due, in part, to the ascendance of the information technologies, the mobility and the liquidity of capital, new patterns of immigration and technology transfer, and the marked blurring of the boundaries between international and domestic affairs in the United States and in other countries. Some have referred to this process as the ‘‘domestication’’ of international affairs (Hanrieder, 1978) and the ‘‘internationalizing of politics’’ (Czempiel, 1989). Manning (1977), for instance, has coined the term ‘‘intermestic politics’’ in referring to how international factors are also interlocal in that ‘‘disruption of particular trade flows can cause disproportionate concern and reaction in certain regions or among specific important groups, thereby creating the basis for a more concentrated political response’’ (cited in Kline, 1984, p. 53). In short, subnational governments — particularly in the last 25 years — have increasingly involved themselves in international affairs that has taken the form of ‘‘global microdiplomacy’’ whereby ‘‘states, willing or not, have been drawn into the global economy where they must fend for themselves with their own set of problems and mix of goods and services’’ (Luke & Ventriss, 1988, pp. 113–114).