The Correctional Subculture

A wildly held belief about the globalization of

markets is that it has substantially decreased the autonomy of the nation-state

resulting in a `race to the bottom ' - a dismantling of welfare states - by

governments competing for mobile economic resources . For many globalization

threatens the prosperity and stability that has characterized the advanced industrial

countries since the Second World War , if not the legitimacy of the democratic

state itself . Visions of widespread social upheaval abound , and they are often

accompanied by pleas for international political

cooperation to regulate global

capitalism . The bottom line of the conventional wisdom is that there is a

fundamental mismatch between the global scope of markets and the national level

at which politics are organized . Something has to give , and most commentators

assume it will be the nation-state , de facto if not de jure

Globalization fosters an array of complex ethical dilemmas

where clear assessments and informed choice become difficult . Yet choices are

being made , by default if not intention . It affects how people think and

ultimately , how cultures evolve . Greater exchange of information symbols , and

ideas among once distant cultures can foster changes in the ways that individual

views their world and in the ways that people relate to one another as individuals

or groups (e .g , Kip 2000 John 1991

The ways that individuals view their world and the ways that

people relate to one another are in turn mediated by language , the embodiment of

a culture and the linguistic makeup of our planet have changed significantly in

the past few centuries . At the turn of the 15th century , humans spoke an estimated

15 thousand languages . Over the last five hundred years , that number hasdwindled to approximately 68 hundred , and of these , only a few are used in

international communication . Some estimates projects that...