specifically from a sociologist's point of view, what is the difference between economic, cultural and political globalization?

No national economy is an island now. To varying degrees,
national economies influence one another. One country which is capital-rich invests in
another country which is poor. One who has better technologies sells these to others who
lack such technologies.

The products of an advanced country
enter the markets of those countries that have demands for these products. Similarly,
the natural resources of developing countries are sold to developed countries that need
them. Thus, globalization is predominantly an economic process involving the transfer of
economic resources form one country to another.

Culture has
increasingly become a commodity. Popular books and films have international markets.
Harry Potter has readers almost all over the world. English movies are seen almost in
all countries. Western pop music has become popular in developing countries. The reverse
flow of culture is insignificant. The flow of culture is mainly from the North to the
South. In the last few years the media owners of the West have shown interest in
entering developing countries.

Since long, efforts have
been on to bring the whole world under one government. The League of Nations and the UN
have been the efforts in that direction. It is believed that the world under one
government will be safer and freer from conflicts: The UN has belied expectations, but a
number of regional organisations like European Union, ASEAN, APEC and SAARC, and
multicultural economic organisations such as WTO have come up.