THE ROLE OF DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL ACTION IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

This article aims to analyze some of the processes that contributed to the emergence of theorizing about local development, namely, the Keynesian model crisis and aggravated social problems after the fall of the welfare State, globalization, and the role local action, decentralization and local government in the process of seeking of local development with the participation of civil society. Among the factors that contributed to the social crisis that led to the emergence of new theories of development, we have the collapse of the welfare State and the process that ended in neo-liberalism and globalization. It was in this context that new social actors with a new paradigm, that and the Local development process. Thus, arises the civil society, composed of entities that aim to develop through socio-economic dimension alternatives and environmental preservation. The process of globalization has not solved the social and economic problems of the contemporary world, in contrast, has contributed to further increase the differences between developed countries and those in development, leading many times, the growth of poverty and social exclusion. On the other hand, he is responsible for a process of local development institutions, bringing new perspectives to the adequacy of national public policies at regional/local peculiarities and the urban and rural spaces, in your physical, economic dimension, social and cultural. This process comes calling into question many traditional structures and public institutions as to your fitness and your performance in the management of economic and social policies, creating a dichotomy arising out of the policy challenges for the construction of a local network of care and social inclusion, with the participation of the communities.


Introduction
When the process of knowledge construction, came out of the darkness of the middle ages, marked by the predominance of the faith, it was believed that the knowledge constructed out of reason, objective: for science, would lead us to a world that is more fair, equitable and harmonious. The enlightenment project broke the darkness and medieval modernity was placed as the promise of building a world based on autonomy and freedom.
The quest to understand nature led to the scientific development, putting knowledge at the service of human needs. The analysis of the natural processes and control of these processes by men redefined the relationship man-nature, allowing the great advancement of humanity in knowledge of the natural world and in your organization.
With regard to society, the secular reason introduced himself as possibility of questioning of the foundations of social organization and construction of a rational proposal of human coexistence. The State began to be discussed as an instrument able to curb the disorder and social violence. In a historical perspective, the rise of modern society and the rational knowledge was an achievement of humanity against obscurantism, ignorance and mysticism. The reason, while intellectual capacity, made possible the activity to understand, analyze, judge and intervene in objective phenomena of natural and social reality.
With modernity has built up a new way to organize the social life, the rise of the bourgeoisie as economic power and your corresponding political domination has made capitalism the dominant social system. The bourgeoisie, at first was revolutionary history, when he fought against the "absolutist regime", used the rational knowledge to denounce the evils of feudal society, the power of the Church, of the aristocracy and of the absolute State. The moment captured the hegemony, while ruling class, the bourgeoisie to become leader, lost your revolutionary character and purchased a conservative nature of the order for her inauguration, the capitalist order.
Thus, the rational knowledge was placed as an instrument of affirmation of the capitalist world. The right acquired a instrumental and knowledge, with the positivism placed as a synonym of scientific knowledge, was legitimized as ability to control reality. If the knowledge of nature, the instrumental reason led us to modern industry, to the advancement of medicine, biology, the human intelligence we got the computers, electronics applied to production processes, positivist perspective to human history was conceived as a set of "social facts" without ontological reasons and without a theological character. The bourgeoisie began to publicize the capitalist order as the "natural order" of human society, and subject to a linear process of evolution.
Structural changes left essentially transforms. Want to use the Division of labor allowed by the machine, in Adam Smith, or the development of the productive forces in Marx, there is no doubt that the engine of the story lies in the productive processes. The technological bases of our development are going through the most dramatic transformation in human history. It is considered today that the new knowledge acquired in the last twenty years correspond roughly to the set of the technical knowledge that mankind has accumulated during your story. What is globalization? This issue does not receive an easy answer and only. Globalization is a complex process triggered by way of production and circulation of goods, with an exponential growth from the second half of the 20th century, given a huge technological advancement. Next to the advancement of internationalization of production, globalization also acquires the character of a political movement, and cultural value, as it diffuses a type of society, capitalist society, as the only possible. As put Ortiz, there are points of interest in this emerging process of globalization:

Globalization and the Redefinition of the Social World
"Internationalization refers simply to the increase of the geographical extension of economic activities across national boundaries; this is not a new phenomenon. The globalization of economic activity is qualitatively different. She is a more advanced and complex form of internationalization, implying a degree of functional integration between the economic activities scattered (ORTIZ 15/16 .1994 :).
The capitalist world after the concussion of two great world wars entered a process of reorganization of political and economic relations. The winners of the Second World War countries, especially the United States, France, England, began to develop with greater emphasis on the system of international relations and a protectionist dynamics to their national economies.
The big change in the form of social adjustment of the production was given by the action of the State. Redistributive policies referred to welfare State, became a strong agent in maintaining a level of economic growth and social development in these countries. This strengthening welfare State lasted from the end of the Decade of 1940 until beginning of the years 1970.
The international political level, the great rivalry between the capitalist West and the Eastern Soviet bloc did with there was a definition of most developed countries ' strategies for peripheral countries. The fear of communism has always been a decisive factor in building a more egalitarian capitalism in developed countries and with some concerns to the world.
The increasing State intervention in the social sphere, creating a process social security in Western countries was a decisive factor for the economic growth of the post-World War. In this sense, Keynes's ideas about the role of effective demand in the economy seemed to be consensus. But the favorable environment for economic growth had order in the 1970 with the beginning of a process of capitalist economy-wide recession, the intensity of this process in each country.
The oil crisis of 1974, caused when the Group of oil-producing countries-OPEC, made a global boycott on oil sale, up to three times the price of a barrel of oil, which spent about 3 to 4 dollars to 12 dollars; had varied and complex consequences for the capitalist society. If, on the one hand sped up social tensions, on the other hand, created liquidity dollars, given the increase in the price of oil which became known as the "petro-dollars".
This liquid capital, taken from the industrialized economies had a fate too complex, served in part to finance the own production of developed countries and to the development of even more profound technological changes and, in part, was loaned to the countries the periphery that were in the process of industrialization. To escape the pressure of strong trade unions in developed countries, and seeking to lower production costs, now with greater technological resources, there was a more intense process of internationalization of production. This internationalization of production, transgress national barriers, is at the core of the advancement of globalization that makes evident.
All these processes have meant withdrawal of the State, via breach of State controls have been eliminated in cases of withdrawal of tariff controls and trade barriers; from the deregulation that eliminated governmental regulations; as the financial intermediation aid allowed the economic players involved securities and currencies markets without going by the rules governing the financial system; and through loss of control of certain sectors of the economy, in the case of privatizations.
Globalization is the process of redefining the pattern of accumulation capitalist, resets the actions of the nation State and creates a complex system of production and circulation of goods worldwide. François Chesnais (1996) provides an interpretation of the process of globalization, articulating it to the development of a new stage in the process of accumulation, where the financial capital acquires greater weight in the definition of Productive capital investment.
Still following the analysis of Chesnais, the two main mechanisms of financial capital are articulated to the public debt. The first refers to the inflation of the value of the assets, i.e. the formation of "fictitious capital". The others are based on actual transfers of wealth to the financial sphere, being the most important service mechanism of public debt and monetary policies associated with this.
Chesnais placements on the mechanisms used by the capital financial, we can analyze the movement of foreign debts that put Latin America States in fiscal crisis is actually an endogenous process of the rise of financial capital and the transfer of wealth from productive sphere of each country to a sector controlled by the international financial capital.
The social consequences of this process of strengthening of the financial sector, made at the expense of public funds channeled through the service of external and internal debts, are reflected in the loss of social investment and capacity in infrastructure by States. Other perverse consequence of this process is the submission of States to speculative capital, which leads to a climate of insecurity in the production system. This analysis shows that the economic instability has an impact on the political stability of Governments. The fluctuations of financial markets affect directly on the stability of local currencies and are reflected directly in the political stability of Governments. Although there is evidence that the search capital profits, wherever, the indifference in the application of foreign investments does not occur so unconditional. There is a system of political pressure on the Governments of the different countries that seeks to reduce tax costs for capital, liberalizing the domestic market and dismantle labor protection within each country. This is the proposal of the financial capital to the reforms of the national States. Become attractive to foreign capital became part of the concerns of the different Governments, especially in the peripheral countries.
Another point to highlight in the process of internationalization of markets is the conversion of all currencies to the dollar. The U.S. power is evident when the dollar becomes the globally accepted currency, in addition to the military might of American power. For this new stage of capitalist accumulation national Governments should be redefined, currently as a result of globalization, circulates in the world financial system billions of dollars that are not controlled by any Government, even by the Federal Reserve American.
This mobility of financial capital already raised the theory postulated by OHMAE, the end of the Nation State. Who needs a National State which can no longer control the process of capital? This bold question OHMAE proposes an answer the emergence of regional economies.
"The forces now in action have raised troubling questions about the relevance and effectiveness of the nation-States as significant in terms of households which think and manage economic activity" (OHMAE .1996: XIV).
To put the discussion on the lack of mechanisms of national Governments in controlling the financial capital, which would make impossible the very existence of the nation State, shows clearly that the State has always been articulate the determinations of the capital. To change the historical conditions, European countries are also adapting to this new globalized scenario. In Italy the State reforms are also being implemented to suit the country demands of the Maastricht Treaty which provides for low inflation, public deficits, and reforms in social security, labor laws and privatization.
The abolition of distances in time and space created the globalized world of continuous information permanently interconnected financial markets. Is the online world that reigns. In this logic the redesign of the State is only one element of the adequacy to the globalized world, seen as a path of no return and no choice of alternative process. This is the logic of the reform of the very concept of the nation State, since finally the capital may admit that your logic always was. The capital has no homeland. This is true that now the capitalists don't tire of talking, as if it were the latest of human knowledge.
In the globalized world, individuals are still citizens of specific countries and use their social security National States against the lack of employment, and fight for national economies to preserve their jobs. Even becoming fluid this reality the national gridlock lived within it are treated as internal issues of each country, the economy, the State and its finances. The reference of the idea of nation is still strong and its mechanisms operating in the social imaginary.
Beside by capital, the capital takes a global space in your relentless pursuit of profits, breaking down national barriers to disrupt the nation-State and undermine the national economy.
One might think so on the side of potential developed during the 20th century? No doubt that there has been a process of development of human potential, even if contradictory and taut. The life expectancy of the human population, especially in capitalist centers, tripled reaching an average of 80 years of life. In the capitalist periphery this average is still 55 to 65 years; in Africa, and in the poorest regions, infant mortality and adult is still huge.
A more careful look on the set of socio-spatial changes that have been taking place in today's world as a result of the evolution and accelerated diffusion of globalization-especially from the end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 80 (fall of the Berlin wall and reunification of Germany) and early ' 90 (disintegration of Soviet Union)reveals a new geopolitical and geo-economic panorama marked by an intense and complex restructuring/global space segmentation, manifesting itself as a true mosaic of socio-territorial.
The dynamics of globalization, ongoing, does not allow, however, definitive assessments and finished as, for example, the "end of history" and the apotheosis of "democracy" in the world of money (FUKUYAMA, 1992), or the end of jobs (RIFKIN, 1995), the end of the nation-State (OHMAE, 1996) etc.

Social Inclusion Sustainable and Local Development Logic
In the classical theory, development strategies and local development initiatives in cities, focused especially on the economic development of the territory, aimed at the implementation of employment-generation initiatives, increased productivity and output growth.
These initiatives were broadening your scope, starting to act more and more from an integrated perspective of development that goes beyond the purely economic framework, to constitute a human and social development, which implies the participation of all the actors of civil society and local socio-economic fabric as an indispensable condition for the sustainability of development.
Local development became a concept and an instrument of consultation and social dialogue that puts in the hands of its beneficiaries, the local actors, the responsibility to design and set in motion sustainable strategies of social inclusion. One of the foundations of this process is mobilizing the endogenous potential of the territory, the strengths of each of the local environment, to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. In this scenario, the focus in the locality and the articulation between institutions of different natures imply recognizing a stage more or less delimited where different actors play power games and thus the notion of local power.
The locale defines the space of articulation and implementation of actions aimed at the development, but you can't confine him because the issue of sustainability of social inclusion represents the challenge of global-local paradox. Face it, depends on the ability of individuals, groups and organizations to articulate the point of modern global society the identities and local needs. For Junqueira (2000), the enhancement of social development pattern based site emerges because it is at the location that the social and economic relations. Thus, more than discovering vocations, resources and potential sites, part of the development strategy is to build a local autonomous system, but more integrated into the global networks. Mohan and Stokke (2000) also call attention to the risks of the tendency to romanticize the place, underestimating social inequalities and power relations; and ignoring your context, disregarding political and economic forces national and transnational. To control these risks, you should pay more attention to the policies of the site, i.e. the production and hegemonic and anti-hegemonic representation of collective mobilization. Furthermore, these policies cannot be confined at the local level, it is necessary to break analytically the boundaries between the local, national and global scales.
The site is thus viable space "building projects national, regional and local politicians, within an economic and political framework handled by actors who work at different levels" (DOWBOR, 1999:15). Space operation of social sustainability, the site consists of power relations between individual and collective actors, seeking to articulate an ability to act in the plural. Configure, the inter-organizations whose main feature is the hybridization or complexity. The inter-organization consist of different organizations connected or integrated by common purposes, (FISCHER, 2002).

From Globalization to Local Authorities
The planet we inhabit and characterized by geography of inequality, intensified and magnified by global capitalism, which shows the existence of a significant set of territories marked by poverty and high levels of social exclusion, which are both as entire countries, as well as regional and local fractions of countries. Although hit by flows of globalization, the positioning of these countries in the new world (DIS) order is predominantly as suppliers of commodities and importers of manufactured goods, with a low consumption power and enormous restrictions on the Scientific and technological development.
Considering, among other factors, the process of devaluation that commodities experience already for a few decades in the international market, it appears the situation of great fragility of these countries in the international economic environment. The deterioration of terms of trade, operates as a force of marginalization of those countries into the world economy.
Can be identified, particularly in Africa (in particular the region of sub-Saharan Africa, where there are, among other cases, Somalia, Rwanda, and Mozambique), in Latin America (portions of southern Mexico, Central and South American territories) and Asia (extensions mainly in the South, such as Bangladesh and India; and in the Southeast, Cambodia, Viet Nam, etc), where live and reproduce real socio-spatial enclaves, characterized by the lack or even non-existence of social infrastructure for providing basic services, by generalization of poverty and misery, as well as for high levels of socio-spatial exclusion. Such conditions make these territories progressively marginalized in the global economy, increasingly concentrated and centralized. Relational universe, the exception can be attributed to economic elites of these States-poor nations, practically the only segments of their respective social structures that enable forms of insertion into the global economy. The other social segments, for your time, by living on a daily basis all sorts of shortcomings and hardship are, for the most part, marginalized by the logic concentrations, selective and exclusionary of globalization.
The globalization, dominated by the fact of growing interconnection of national economies under the devastating influence of a financial market free of any normative regulation, carries many commercial and social injustices. The global phenomenon we call globalization, however, is much larger than that. This is the emergence of new conditions, without which it would be impossible for the interactive flow of information and knowledge that has allowed, inclusive, that the powerful financial and commercial complexes to internationalize and dominate the world. The fact is that the process of globalization does not lead to new order some predictable, although your occurrence, call into question the old order, unlock the future, allowing the interaction of social actors construct, in fact, new development alternatives.

Conclusion
The process of globalization since their Genesis had gallows driver technological innovation; in this sense and we must recognize that when Adam Smith (division of labor) or Marx (productive forces) put the evolution of techniques such as motor of social transformations, were strictly certain.
Today we live a deep technological revolution. In the last twenty years, accumulated more technological expertise than in the entire history of humanity. This has an upside, no doubt, by increasing productivity that we can, through advances in health information and many others. But the truth is that the exponential technological advancement, with a linear advance in institutional terms, created a gap that becomes explosive and dangerous for mankind.
These technologies that redefine our times are redefining our spaces. The planet has shrunk from awesome way; Telematics enables today any neighborhood library you can access databases from anywhere in the world, cost effectively, creating an integrated scientific space II. International financial markets transfer daily over a billion dollars without any control of central banks, which have a sphere of national action. A shoe or sneaker manufactured in an Asian country can close businesses in France or any other part of the world.
The capitalism Nations with strong social redistribution instruments à la Keynes, reached a precarious balance between business efficiency and social justice. Global capitalism is not accountable to anyone. The overall dynamics are increasingly present in our daily lives, and the modern State does not have the corresponding government tools.
In the face of these huge "social facts", we can identify and prioritize five trends that seem to us to be the trends "framing" of our future: technology, globalization, economic polarization, urbanization and transformation work. And each of these trends brings you inside a central contradiction.
The technologies are advancing rapidly while the corresponding institutions are advancing slowly, and this mixture is explosive. The economy globalizes while government systems remain nationwide, generating a general loss of governability. The distance between rich and poor increases dramatically, as the planet shrinks and urbanization joins the extremes of society, leading to conflicting relationships less and less sustainable.
The urbanization has shifted the space of our daily management to the local sphere, while the Government systems remain centralized logic from the first half of the century. Finally, the same system that promotes the technical modernity generates social exclusion, turning the world into a vast majority of viewers liabilities that should be performed with the new technologies that have emerged.
The conclusion we draw from this overview, these five axes or contradictory, is the humanity urgently needs to pull the reins on your development, and establish institutional instruments able to effectively capitalize on scientific advances to human development.
We need a development socially just, economically viable and environmentally sustainable. Share these objectives between the State that runs social policies, companies that produce, and the nongovernmental or community organizations battling environmental objectives, each pulling for your side, brings us to the mind that drawing of the donkeys who try each achieve your pile of grass, pulling in opposite directions instead of eating together each bunch.
There's a general fatigue about the "Christmas trees" ideological, that promise us on one side, with nationalization and planning, social tranquility, and of another, with privatization and invisible hand, prosperity. The first gave us a huge bureaucratic stranding, the second took us to the most dramatic accumulation of social injustices that humanity has ever known and a permanent feeling of insecurity. There are no losers or winners. For now, the runner-up is humanity itself. This is to achieve a social reproduction process socially just, environmentally sustainable and economically viable. The axis of attention should shift to the "how", to the political-institutional organization that allows us to act on complex trends of a society in the throes of globalization.