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What question does Benjamin Barber address in Jihad vs. McWorld?
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Benjamin Barber addresses the question of how to prevent the undermining of democratic institutions in the post-Cold War world. He examines two competing ideologies: "Jihad," which prioritizes cultural identity and factionalism, and "McWorld," driven by consumerism and globalization. Both threaten democracy by challenging the nation-state's sovereignty. Barber's focus is on finding ways to support new democracies and strengthen established ones by understanding these ideological forces.
One of the most important questions that Barber tries to answer in Jihad vs. McWorld is what can be done to prevent the undermining of democratic institutions around the world.
The world after the Cold War intrigues Barber. While democracy was valorized after the Soviet Union was disintegrated, Barber sees it as under siege. He sees two new ideologies competing for the hearts and minds of the modern setting.
Barber defines the forces of "Jihad" as elements that cling to cultural identity. This force suggests that individuals are not bound by nation-states as much as they are bound by "cultures. . . parts, not wholes; sects, not religions, rebellions, factions, and dissenting minorities." These elements seek to emphasize their cultural notion of the good over any other. They are also a direct response to the rise of socio-political structures that minimize differences into larger entities. Barber sees these factions...
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as a major threat to the democratic system because they seek "smaller worlds within borders that will seal them off from modernity."
Positioned against this is the threat from "McWorld." Barber sees this reality as predicated upon consumer consumption. In a "McWorld" setting, there is peace, but it is a result of the mass media world. The insistence of being closed off in Jihad is repudiated with the unlimited openness in McWorld. Cultural identity is pushed aside in favor of a world where everyone is defined by "passivity, consumerism, vicariousness, impulse buying, and an accelerated pace of life." Given how technology has increased the "access to every other person" on the planet, McWorld is homogeneous and ubiquitous. Inescapable, it renders everyone the same. Barber believes McWorld's corporate power on a global scale threatens democratic sensibilities.
Barber sees the danger in both realities to liberal democracy. He suggests that Jihad and McWorld “make war on the sovereign nation-state and thus undermine the nation-state’s democratic institutions.” Barber's primary motivation is to understand how new democracies can be supported and how established democracies can grow through understanding the necessary elements in both paradigms.