Americans secretly admire French style and wine but publicly deride French fries – so its particularly unsettling that a French credit downgrade is affecting Wall Street and millions of Americans' retirement savings. And then you have the London riots where Prime Minbister Cameron is talking about learning how the leadership in Boston (USA) and Belfast (Ireland) fixed their problems. If you think about it organizations of all kinds are becoming global and "boundaryless" but Governments are about geography,boundaries and sovereignty.
Governments are supposed to ensure law and order including defense, help economic growth and promote employment and take care of education and health of their people. Each one of these have a physical component or "bricks" component that cannot be globalized . For example you do need elementary schools that are buildings,have teachers that local students can attend.
On the other hand companies are responsible to their shareholders and move production and find markets wherever there is an opportunity. The stock market with computer controlled automatic trading probably leads company actions at a furious and volatile pace. Similarly non-profits – though spared the vagaries of the stock market are able to take advantage of globalization by raising money and donations globally ( eg. NGO's) or setting up global campuses (eg. universities).
Governments and their leaders- find themselves geographically nailed by rioting social media using mobs – like Prime Minister Cameron. At best they can seek inspiration from other governments while having to deal with the issues that are very much local. In other words while all other organizations can make their organizations,supply chains and markets go global – Governments really cannot. They must deliver locally whether it is law and order ( in London) or jobs (in the USA) and that is more challenging when every other organization can be much more mobile.