Page 74 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

60 Politics in a Small World

contribute to and implement the tenets of world culture: International
Governmental Organizations (IGOs), especially those in the United
Nations system; nation - states, which copy each other ’ s ways in ways that
lead to the diffusion of cultural norms of political and social organization

world - wide; voluntary associations in different fields, especially those that
are attached to social movements; and scientists and professionals, experts
who give advice to other actors of world society (Meyer et al., 1997 :
162 – 6). Perhaps the single most important elements of world society are
International Non - Governmental Organizations (INGOs), which repre-
sent, carry out, and elaborate global principles. They are “ built on world -
cultural principles of universalism, individualism, rational voluntaristic
authority, progress, and world citizenship ” and they promote those same
principles (Boli and Thomas, 1997 : 180).
World polity theorists understand the nation - state as culturally con-
structed and embedded in world culture (Meyer, 1999 : 123). Their theory
of world culture is an attempt to understand the “ isomorphism, ” or struc-
tural similarity, between states across the world. The question world polity
theorists set out to explain is the following: Why do nation - states adopt
similar constitutional forms, public educational systems, welfare systems,
policies on women ’ s rights, and so on, regardless of their appropriateness
to local conditions (Meyer et al., 1997 : 152 – 3)? They argue that world
society actors fashion nation - states in such similar terms through three
processes. First, they produce models to which nation - states should be seen
to conform. For example, joining the United Nations involves demonstrat-
ing appropriate understandings of sovereignty, control of populations,
territory, and so on. Second, world society systematically works to main-
tain the identities of state actors as committed to those models. If, for
example, state actors resist putting into practice the goals to which states
have formally committed themselves – by violating human rights agree-
ments, or failing to meet goals of socio - economic development, for example,
– they will come under the scrutiny and the criticism of external actors,
especially IGOs and INGOs. Third, world society legitimates citizenship,
individual rights, and democracy. In this respect, it creates links between
local actors and world culture, so ensuring that individuals and social
movement organizations are also active in holding states to the promises
they have made to uphold universal principles of world culture.
Meyer and his associates argue convincingly that sociologists should
overcome their historic reluctance to consider the importance of culture in
explaining political change. Their own model, however, is problematic in
this respect. They explicitly counter - pose cultural explanations of global
development to those theories that consider “ patterns of infl uence and