This study guide is a guide, not a contract.  All the material in the text, reader, and lectures is fair game, regardless of whether it is explicitly mentioned here.  But this guide does say what I consider most important to study for the exam.

The exam will be focused about half on the Steger text and half on the other material covered in the course — particularly the fundamental questions.

The exam will be approximately half short essay (definition-type) questions and half longer, analytic-type essay questions.  My intention is to make both parts count roughly the same.

You will have a good deal of choice of questions, although choice will be inversely proportional to the importance of the topic.  If you have the time, it is often useful to include information surrounding and situating the core answer. This does not mean a "data dump".  When you include irrelevant information, it makes me think that you've memorized lots of stuff but don't really understand the subject of the question.

To study efficiently:

• Review the syllabus to see what we've covered.
• Review the online notes I've posted on the various topics (esp. the Steger text, obviously).  But be aware that these are just my ad hoc efforts to summarize what I plan to say.  They aren't necessarily complete.
• You should go over the Steger text with these main questions in mind:
  • What is globalization?
  • How does the process of globalization differ from globalism's image of it?
  • Steger says his purpose is the directly normative one of "show[ing] that [globalist ideology] can be changed to bring about a more egalitarian and cosmopolitan order" (p.20).  Has he accomplished that purpose?  Why or why not?   In answering this, you will have to state what you believe he means by "a more egalitarian and cosmopolitan order".
  • Steger states that globalization has been seen by various social scientists as an economic process, a political process, and a cultural process.  (Plus some other processes that he doesn't discuss in any detail.)  Based on what he wrote, which of these is the least important process, and why?
  • As I said in the online notes, Steger is trying to prove the six claims about globalism listed below. Evaluate each claim.  In particular, which of these claims is the weakest, and why?
    1. There is an ideology.  [Which is...?] {See above.}
    2. It benefits a certain class (not all, all the time, but most, usually);  it's politically motivated.  [What class, and how so?  On what basis does globalism claim that it does not benefit a particular class but rather benefits all equally (at least in the long run)?]
    3. It is pushed, and consciously so, to create popular beliefs & values.  [In what ways?]   It is not inevitable.  [Why not?]
    4. It creates what it tries to define.  [How so?]
    5. Is suppresses other perspectives, other discourses.  [How does it accomplish this?]
    6. It suppresses other sources of power — e.g., the institutions of collective decision-making.  It protects and fosters asymmetrical power relations.  [How does it accomplish these things?]
  • According to Chilton, the text's "left-right" distinction breaks down when trying to separate the various ideological responses to globalism.  In what way(s) is "left-right" a meaningful separation for them?  In what way(s) is it not?
  • One advantage possessed by the globalists is their control of most organized means of violence in the world.  What are the disadvantages of bringing that force to bear in shutting down their opponents?
  • Steger claims that various aspects of the media lead them to adopt the globalists' point of view when reporting on anti-globalism demonstrations.  What are these aspects, and do you yourself agree that they have the effect(s) he says?
  • Steger condemns Osama bin Laden as hypocritical for using advanced technology and international communications when his goal is to destroy the civilization that created them, but he admires the Seattle (& other) demonstrators for using similar technology, even though their goal is arguably similar.  Is Steger himself using a double standard here?  Why or why not?
• There is also Tweedistan to consider in relation to the Steger text.  An important question to answer is, "To what extent has the government of Tweedistan bought into the globalist view of the world?  Why has it done so (or not done so)?"