Globalization and digitalization of political institutions / Глобализация и цифровизация

политических институтов

Ларина Елена Дмитриевна

Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет

Larina Elena Dmitrievna,

St. Petersburg State University
В данной статье мы обращаемся к проблеме проявления цифровых и глобальных
процессов в сфере политики. Необходимо показать противоречивый характер этих
явлений, проанализировать их положительные и отрицательные последствия. Объектом
исследования являются цифровые и глобальные политические процессы. Предметом
исследования является выделение положительных и отрицательных эффектов влияния
глобализации и цифровизации на политику посредством анализа работ А.П. Цыганкова,
П. Гемавата, А.Е. Конькова и других авторов, проанализированных в эссе. Цель данной
статьи: доказать, что глобализация и цифровизация являются источниками прогресса в
сфере политики. Первая задача – определить основные термины исследования
(цифровизация и глобализация). Вторая задача – выделить основные аспекты влияния
цифровизации и глобализации на политическую сферу. Третье задание предполагает
иллюстрацию проявления этих двух явлений в реализации политических процессов на
примере современной России. Четвертый момент – выделить положительные и
отрицательные стороны глобализации и цифровизации в реализации политических
процессов. Несколько основных методов, применяемых для решения поставленных задач.
Во-первых, это описательный метод, суть которого заключается в теоретическом
обосновании понятий «глобализация» и «цифровизация». Используя сравнительный
метод, мы свяжем цифровизацию и глобализацию со сферой политики. Сравнительным
методом выделим различия и сходства в проявлениях этих двух процессов в политике и
других сферах общественной жизни. Благодаря системному методу мы обобщим
политические процессы, происходящие под влиянием цифровизации и глобализации, на
примере политических событий в современной России.

In this article, we address the problem of the manifestation of digital and global processes in the
field of politics. It is necessary to show the contradictory nature of these phenomena, to analyze
their positive and negative consequences. The object of the research is digital and global policy
processes. The subject of the research is highlighting the positive and negative effects of the
influence of globalization and digitalization on politics, through the analysis of the works of A.P.
Tsygankov, P. Gemavat, A.E. Konkov, and other authors analyzed in the essay. The purpose of
this paper: to prove that globalization and digitalization are the sources of progress in the field of
politics. The first task is to define the main terms of research (digitalization and globalization).
The second task is to highlight the main aspects of the impact of digitalization and globalization
on the political sphere. The third task involves illustrating the manifestation of these two
phenomena in the implementation of political processes on the example of modern Russia. The
fourth point is to highlight the positive and negative aspects of globalization and digitalization in
the implementation of political processes. Several basic methods used to solve the set tasks.
First, it is a descriptive method, the essence of which is the theoretical substantiation of the
concepts of «globalization» and «digitalization». Using the comparative method, we will relate
digitalization and globalization to the realm of politics. Using the comparative method, we will
highlight the differences and similarities in the manifestations of these two processes in politics
and other spheres of public life. Thanks to the systematic method, we will summarize the
political processes taking place under the influence of digitalization and globalization on the
example of political events in modern Russia.

Digitalization, globalization, politics, political sphere, politics of the Russian Federation,

political processes, political system of the Russian Federation.
Digitalization, globalization, politics, political sphere, politics of the Russian Federation,
political processes, political system of the Russian Federation.
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The concepts of «digitalization» and «globalization»

Digitalization is an irreversible process of the 21st century that has engulfed most developed
countries. Initially, it began to manifest itself in the economy, and then affected other areas of
society[1]. Now we can observe the manifestation of digitalization in almost all spheres of public
life.

The process of introducing digitalization into public life accompanied by the growth of
technologies that affect both the life of the individual and the life of the whole society. With the
development of digital technologies, the ways of production and distribution of goods are
improved. Thus, there are changes in the economy.

With the growth of digital technologies, the service sector is flourishing. A second reality,
virtual, is being formed. Many people prefer this world more than the real one. They are willing
to pay a lot of money to purchase virtual goods and services. Some individuals spend a huge
amount of time on this computer reality, preferring network communication to live
communication.

The concept of «digitalization» is inextricably linked with other, important concept,

informatization. This process manifested in many aspects of the life of society, which aimed at
building and developing the telecommunications infrastructure. One of the main tasks of
informatization is to combine information resources that can be located quite far from each
other[2].

The main prerequisite for informatization was the development of digital and information
technologies, the development of the Internet as a new means of communication. This process is
one of the products of post-industrial society. The development of information technology is one
of the main characteristics of the society of the XXI century[3].

Thus, informatization has brought changes to all spheres of society, which in turn has left its
mark on the methods of managing this stage of social development.

Digitalization and informatization are prerequisites for another equally important phenomenon of
the 21st century, globalization. The latest technologies become forms of culture, resulting in the
transformation of cultural communities and the integration of representatives of one cultural
space into the system of another. As a result, we get the destruction of local cultures and the
formation of a single global structure. There is a dominance of one worldview, which is most
capable of transformations and accepting the challenges of a new (information) era. Thus, a
single global environment is emerging, which involves the integration of all countries and
peoples into the system of a single European civilization.

Political scientist and economist, Pankaj Ghemawat, defines globalization as the idea of creating
a universal humanity. It brings changes to all spheres of public life. A single economic space is
emerging, trade takes place not only within the country and region, between different states and
continents[4]. In addition to the general economic environment, geopolitics arises, requiring the
grouping of states into various blocs, since a country alone simply cannot represent any
significance in the world community and ceases to have any power.

Globalization is one of the main conditions for the formation of world politics. The Russian and
American political scientist, Andrey Pavlovich Tsygankov, in his article «World Politics:
Content, Dynamics, Main Trends» writes that it was it that caused the transformation of the
former structure of international relations and the formation of the geopolitical space that we are
seeing today[5].

In this section, we have examined the main processes of the formation of the social environment
in the 21st century. They are the foundation for building all spheres of society and are the
engines of the political sphere.

The impact of globalization and digitalization on the sphere of politics

Economics, politics and technology closely interconnected, therefore, due to changes and
transformations in one area, changes and transformations occur in another. The development of
digital technologies has become an impetus for the modernization of politics. With the transition
to a new (information) era, changes occur in society that the state simply cannot ignore.

Initially, digitalization affected the economy. The beginning of the 21st century is due to the
development of the digital economy. The functioning of the economic system of the digital
format is mainly associated with the functioning of digital technologies and the Internet. The
economy of this type works without an intermediary, and on its basis a new type of business
arises – Internet entrepreneurship[6].

The main feature of e-business is the distribution of goods and services not directly from
producer to consumer and not through intermediaries, but with the help of such a powerful and
productive tool as an information network, the efficiency of which can be higher than most other
channels of interaction.

All these changes in the economy could bypass the political component. In the last decade, the
priority in the economy and business has directed towards digitalization. In this regard,
politicians need to be aware of the developments of this trend, because it is the political sphere.
That sets the priority directions for the development of business and the economy.

The government forms a budget is certain areas of supported production; identifies the most
demanded, in their opinion, areas of training in universities; funds research grants for scientists.

The heads of state of the most developed countries are engaged in supporting the economy and
business, directly associated with the use of modern technologies. For example, the heads of
states such as the United States, the EU countries and Japan actively support the development of
small and medium-sized businesses in the fields of engineering, energy, electrical engineering,
instrumentation, microelectronics, telecommunications and other high-tech industries.

In the field of education and research, in many countries the government allocates the largest
number of places precisely to those areas that are associated with the training of specialists in the
field of working with the latest technologies. For example, in universities in China, places for
training are increasing every year and such areas of training as «digital economy», «network
marketing» and «electronic business» opened in many educational institutions[7].

The development of digital media has become one of the main drivers for the manifestation of
digitalization in the field of politics. The media have a significant impact on political processes.
The media transmit political news to citizens, creating in them one or another image of some
event. Previously, one could learn about some important political event only after a long time.
When a person learned this news, it could already cease to be relevant, since the citizen could no
longer change anything.

For example, the inhabitants of distant provinces could learn about the death of the old emperor
and the accession of a new emperor in Russia in the 19th century only after a few months. Now
the news is often ahead of the events themselves. A person can learn about the approximate
content of the law long before the official publication. The citizens of the Russian Federation
learned about the approximate content of the Federal Law «On the procedure for the adoption
and entry into force of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation» dated
04.03.1998 №. 33-FZ[8] even before its official announcement.

On the one hand, digital media impose on citizens a certain, often beneficial for the Government,
opinion. The speed of the transmitted news makes it inaccurate, since there is no full-fledged
verification of the broadcast information. Because of this, completely unjustified rumors arise
that create a distorted image of the events taking place among the population. Another aspect is
the ability learn about some important incident, which, in turn, gives people the opportunity to
become a part of the events that took place. Citizens can express their opinion or oppose the
ongoing changes in the country. This leads to the development of democracy and the progress of
the legal component of the state.

In the article «Digitalization of politics vs digitalization policy», Alexander Evgenievich Konkov

focuses on the inconsistency of such a phenomenon as digitalization. The scientist believes that
with the advent of digitalization in the field of politics, we can talk about the rejection of the
hierarchical management of society. There is a blurring of boundaries between the state and the
public. A person ceases to manage networks, but falls under their influence. Thus, the
uniqueness of each individual is lost, and a mass society arises, which becomes easy to
manage[9].

In the 21st century, a new kind of democracy has emerged and is spreading, which called e-
democracy. Democracy of this type uses information and communication technologies (IT) in
management processes[10]. E-democracy has gained momentum in the last decade. It manifests
itself at different levels of government: from local to international[11].

The use of IT helps in solving many administrative processes. For example, informing people
about some important events (publication of laws, draft amendments to bills). After the
introduction of electronic voting for elections, this procedure has become much faster and more
convenient. Less time spent on counting votes, and voting results broadcasted live to all citizens.
Moreover, not only the result announced, but also preliminary results.

However, the electronic voting system is still inferior to the traditional one. Firstly, this is due
the fact that there is no well-designed surveillance system. Therefore, observers simply will not
be able to see the violations occurring at the polling stations. Another problem involves the
possibility of non-compliance with the law by the executive branch. Having access to personal
accounts of citizens, its representatives can vote for a person and change his voice.

The use of digital technologies in elections is controversial. Despite this, the Federal Law of May
23, 2020 No. 152-FZ «On the Experiment on the Organization and Implementation of Remote
Electronic Voting in the Federal City of Moscow» was adopted by the State Duma on May 13,
2020 and approved by the Federation Council on May 20, 2020.

This law implemented in the voting for approval or disapproval by citizens of the Federal Law
«On the procedure for the adoption and entry into force of amendments to the Constitution of the
Russian Federation» dated 04.03.1998 No. 33-FZ. One of the main reasons for the adoption of
this project law was the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to prevent a strong congestion of citizens
at voting sites, which could result in a second wave of the spread of coronavirus infection, it
decided to use a remote voting format[12].

Not all citizens expressed their approval for the adoption of the law on electronic voting. For
example, representatives of the Russian United Democratic Party «Yabloko» opposed the entry
into force of this law. The head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, Maxim
Kruglov, said that voting through the Gosuslugi portal undermines the system of legitimacy of
elections[13].

However, it is worth considering the fact that the disadvantages of electronic voting are
associated with the misuse of this resource. The electronic elections themselves are a great
progress, since with their help people who are not able to come and vote in person can do it
through the electronic portal.

As already mentioned in the first section, the development of digital technologies in the economy
and education leads to the formation of a single global space. If digitalization more pronounced
in the field of education and the economy, then global processes carried out in the political
element.

Globalization is an important part of the new post-industrial or informational type of society. The
21st century is the time in which the formation of a single universal space takes place. During
this period, the formation and development of world politics is taking place. International
relations have become capable of exerting a significant influence on the processes taking place in
the domestic politics of individual countries[14].

The formation of a global space is one of the reasons for the increase in the scale of global
problems, the solution of which requires the efforts of not one country. States alone are no longer
able to solve them. To maintain security in the world.
In addition to the positive aspects of digitalization and globalization, it should be not that these
two phenomena have led humanity to global problems. No nation alone is able to solve these
problems, therefore, international organizations created, which include several countries. The
UN is one of the most striking examples of an organization of this kind. It is the largest
international organization. Today it includes 193 states. The purpose of the organization is to
maintain and strengthen international peace and security, development of cooperation and
interactions between states.

Both digitalization and globalization are rather contradictory phenomena. On the one hand, the
development of digital technologies simplify and improve human life, but on the other hand,
there is a threat that artificial intelligence can prevail over the human mind.

Globalization is no less controversial than digitalization. At first glance, it may seem that
countries and peoples have become closer to each other, as their interaction has increased.
Despite this seemingly unity, the number of conflicts only increased[15]. Moreover, the
consequence of the formation of the global space.

If we combine all the positive and negative aspects of globalization and digitalization, we can
conclude that they are the engines of progress. Their shortcomings mostly lie in their incorrect
application and not fully formed strategy for their development.

The manifestation of the processes of globalization and digitalization in the implementation of

policy on the example of modern Russia.

Political processes in the Russian Federation, as in other countries, are involved in digitalization
and globalization. This is manifested both at the level of building the political strategy of the
constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and in the management of the whole country as a
whole.

In the economic sphere, the areas related to the use of new innovative technologies for the
production and distribution of goods and services enjoy the greatest support from the state. In
2018, the Russian government allocated 3,955 grants in the field of digital technology
development. In financial terms, this amounted to $37.1 million[16].

In 2014, the President of the Russian Federation, V.V. Putin, in his Address to the Federal
Assembly, notes the need to develop modern technological production in the country. The
message was one of the reasons for the development of a national technology initiative. The
policy of the Russian Federation aimed at maintaining and developing business strategies based
on innovative technologies.
Over the past two or three years, the state policy of Russia has given great emphasis to a new
scientific direction, e-science. A result of the development of electronic science, a network of
computer cyber centers is emerging that allows you to track the latest scientific achievements.
For state policy, the functioning of this mechanism is very important, because with its help the
Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has an idea of the level at
which Russian science is now.

In Russia, great importance is attached to the development of e-learning. The Ministry of

Education of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education support
the development of a system of distance education, the educational process of which conducted,
as a rule, with the help of electronic technologies. The development of education using electronic
technologies shows the fact that the state understands the importance of the opportunity to
receive education for everyone, including the disabled and people with disabilities (disabled
health).

However, despite this, this type of education has not fully developed, and therefore cannot
function on a par with traditional full-time education. Advisor to the President of the Russian
Federation, Rector of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov, Viktor Antonovich
Sadovnichy, spoke at a meeting of the Council for the Development of the Digital Economy.
One of the main topics of this meeting was the discussion of the transfer of lectures to an online
format. «Lectures on a computer screen cannot be compared with traditional lectures». Viktor
Antonovich notes in his report: «I think that there can be no talk of transferring all lectures to an
online format yet. Such a format of knowledge transfer can only be considered as an additional
one»[17].

E-learning quite quickly and unexpectedly entered the Russian education system in the spring of
2020. This is to the fact that the spread of COVID-19, all educational institutions in Russia
transferred to distance learning. At first, e-learning gave big failures both on the part of the
population and on the part of educational institutions. On the part of learners and educators, the
difficulty lies in the fact that many people do not have special technical equipment for studying
at home. On the part of educational institutions, there is a problem in the unpreparedness for
such a rapid transition. Universities and schools did not have time to prepare programs and
platforms designed for the electronic learning format.

After one or two months, the e-learning process more or less returned to normal. However,
failures still occur and it is not yet possible switch to a remote format, as shown by the example
of the Unified State Examination. However, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation are working on the
development of distance learning programs, and it is possible that very soon it will become
perfect and firmly enter our lives.
In Russia, as in many other countries, e-democracy is developing. In 2010, the Government of
the Russian Federation proposed the state program «Information Society» (2011-2020). To
implement this program, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia created
the federal state information system «e-democracy».

Thanks to this system, it became possible to send collective appeals to state authorities and track
the status of the submitted application. Now it has become easier to generate and maintain
statistics on the quality of work of public authorities based on the assessments of citizens. The
population, in turn, has the opportunity to evaluate how the authorities reacted to the appeal.

Digitalization is more of a domestic policy issue for Russia. Globalization extends to foreign
policy, to which the state policy of Russia pays significant attention.

Unfortunately, there is a huge number of international political conflicts going on in the world
right now. Examples of such conflicts are military operations in Syria and the radical mood of
the Government of Ukraine directed against the Russian population living on their territory.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine are not only binary. This conflict included the European
Union, the United States and many other countries, geographically located far from the zone of
action, the events taking place.

This example is an excellent illustration of how practically the whole world can be involved in
political relations between two countries. In the world politics of the 21st century, it is very rare
to find purely local conflicts between countries. Now, when politics is becoming global, states
that, in fact, have nothing to do with the conflicting parties, find themselves in the conflict
zone[18]. As a result, a bloc of states formed that supports one of the parties to the conflict. As a
result, in such a system of international relations, the weaker side can win if it supported by a
bloc of powerful states.

Conclusion

Digitalization and globalization are rather contradictory phenomena. On the one hand,
digitalization has a number of advantages. Advances in technology contribute to faster and less
energy-intensive production and distribution of goods from producer to consumer. The
development of e-learning, based on the high technical equipment of universities, makes
education accessible to people with disabilities[19]. The development of e-science favors the
dissemination of knowledge and the development of new directions in science and industry.

However, digitalization also has negative consequences. A result of technical equipment,

classical aspects in economics, education, science, medicine and politics are lost. A global
problem arises, the essence of which is that artificial intelligence can prevail over the human
mind.
The task of the state policy of any country is to maintain a balance in society. It is necessary to
stimulate the development of innovative projects through special programs, grants and
scholarships. It do not forget about the possible consequences of this phenomenon. The heads of
state should not allow the complete transition of entire spheres to the digital format.
Digitalization still has positive aspects, as electronic technologies make life easier for people and
give them many opportunities.

The policy strategy of the Russian Federation operates in this direction. The Russian government
supports the development of young scientists in the innovation field by issuing grants,
scholarships and building new technically equipped centers for these developments. In the
economic sphere, the initiative to create new business sectors based on the use of innovations is
encouraged. There is an active development of e-learning and e-science, which contributes to
mass access to educational and scientific resources.

The state understands the importance of developing new innovative technologies, but it also
emphasizes the importance of moderation in this matter. For example, a project to transfer all
lectures to an online format rejected.

The Russian Federation, like most other countries, is involved in the process of globalization.
Based on this, Russia’s foreign policy based on bipolar relations. For the successful
implementation of world politics, a fruitful analysis and development of a long-term strategy for
embedding a system of international relations is necessary, based on the alignment of forces and
events on the world stage.

Globalization, like digitalization, is an evolution in the field of international relations, as it

contributes to the unification of countries and peoples, is aimed at the development of education,
the economy, trade, science, tourism, sports and other areas of society, the well-being of which is
important for heads of state and citizens any state.