The earliest forms of governments have been with us for a long time, ever since the first small city-states emerged, around 5000 years ago. So, it's not wrong to think of politics as one of the oldest professions in the world.
The modern governments - as we know them today - started to spread out in the 17th century, as republics became more prevalent.
If we check the definition of government, according to Wikipedia, Columbia Encyclopedia says it's "a system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society". Actually, this is the full definition.
Governments - Bounded in the Physical World
Most often, we talk about government at the national level or its regional/local subdivisions.
Sometimes, governments do take a form above the national level, like in the case of the EU.
In all cases though, they are limited geographically. to a country or a group of countries, at most.
And governments were quite effective in exerting "social control" when all they had to do was to apply it within physical borders.
Of course, super-powers somehow feel within their rights to export control outside their borders.
Physical Borders Become Obsolete
The world moved way past those days though.
We now have:
- internet
- globalization
- digital assets with real value
- inexpensive and quick traveling / digital nomads
- immigration
How do you contain those? How do you control them? How do you build physical borders in the digital realm? How do you control a corporation or a bank that does business around the globe?
The answer is you can't. Not effectively. And the war is lost long time ago, it's just a matter of time until the conclusion is reached.
Immigration
Let's take immigration, for example. What are the current solutions on the table?
In the US, Trump wanted to build a wall. A physical wall, much like the Romans or the Chinese built thousands of years ago! Ok... After the democrats mocked that idea during the elections, now I read somewhere they aren't so much against it.
Guess what the EU is doing? Right! Building a wall. Or at least there were talks that the EU should help Bulgaria build a wall to stop immigration coming via Turkey.
One problem though... Walls can't be moved. People can. Anyone care to guess how did Chinese get to America? They didn't cross the Rio Grande. They used ships. Just an example, that works perfectly fine for Europe too.
Here's a real solution: let them live in good conditions in their own countries and they won't need to immigrate! Here's where cryptocurrency can help much more than banks can.
Internet
The internet is global by nature. Other than having assigned some national extensions for businesses that want to have a domain name with a national flavor, there's nothing national about the internet. Yes, some major ISPs can be controlled, same with hosting companies, but in the end, there are too many ways to have access to the internet at least in the western world, and for some of them the physical borders are nonexistent.
Globalization
I remember cases when governments used the antitrust law against corporations because they were becoming too dominant. Microsoft was accused using this law, rightfully. In the end, they settled. And that hasn't stopped Microsoft from remaining one of the top tech companies in the world.
A more recent case where government backlash succeeded in killing a project of a mega-tech company, is the Diem (initially Libra) project proposed by Facebook.
In both cases, the government(s) reactions were able to influence the outcome, but corporations will continue to throw things against the wall. Some will stick, others won't. As long as their net result is positive and they keep growing, they don't care some of them get terminated or are complete failures.
As the globalization became prevalent throughout the world, multinational corporations use that to their advantage. Using the cheapest qualified labor, accessing the best/cheapest raw materials in the world, having strong lobby, "exporting" profits, promoting a unified culture, they are all techniques used to increase profit or to have the upper hand compared to local producers. That type of behavior also generates tensions and anti-globalization movements.
But. when we talk about politics, while there are politicians with an anti-globalization discourse, in reality there's little they can do, except maybe in a dictatorship.
Consumers on the other hand... they hold the true power - if they are united - because there's nothing a corporation loves more than profit.
Digital Assets with Real Value
Digital assets (among them, cryptocurrencies) have a life of their own now, expanding even further the power of the internet.
Maybe this is the nightmare of many politicians, but people can now earn something with real value from anywhere in the world, collaborating with others from different corners of the world, and they don't even need to meet.
There are businesses started by people who never met in the real world, only by their online interaction, and which go on for years. Many of these businesses are not and will never be registered in any country because they don't need to. They transcend that world. It's the world of nations that needs to catch up with times, if it can.
Inexpensive and Quick Traveling / Digital Nomads
Low-cost airlines and speed trains have made long distance traveling affordable and preferable when you don't want to waste time (maybe less so recently). But, overall, people are moving around much more than before, unconfined by borders or lack of means.
It is more difficult to "socially control" a population with such a great capacity of movement and of coming in contact with other cultures.
Let's keep in mind not even Putin in his autocracy, hasn't closed down the borders (as far as I know). Once people experience the freedom of movement, it is very difficult to take it back.
Even more, when people start working and earning their living online via digital assets and cryptocurrencies, they can and some do become digital nomads. Traveling the world and earning their living with a laptop, a smartphone, a camera, a microphone or any other small gadget they need.
Can Politicians Still Influence the World as It Is Or As It Will Be?
They still can!
Wars - oftentimes started and fueled at the influence of industries that profit from them - are a way to change a local, regional, sometimes even global status quo drastically. Threat of war too, if the threat is credible.
You saw they did have their way with Facebook's Diem. They convinced Microsoft to take it easy with their monopoly practices some decades ago.
And, if we want to take it to the extreme, when they arrogate more rights then they are given by Constitutions, something like Covid lockdowns can happen. During which everything we talked about above was suspended, except the internet and digital assets / cryptocurrencies. That's something we should keep reflecting on...