The globalist perspective is generally in two camps positive and pessimistic. They regard globalisation as the increasing integration of the national economies of the majority of states in the world. This integration is driven by interrelated and growing areas like international trade, financial flows and investment, increased communications, technological advances and increased labour mobility between countries. They regard the process as inevitable with cultural and political factors being fundamentally driven by the economic sector (Held, p92-93).
Foreign Direct investment as increased vastly. Overall International trade as expanded from $84 billion dollars in 1953 to $8907 billion dollars in 2004 (World Trade Organization, BBC News, Africa in depth, 7/7/08).
Positive Globalists and Economic Liberals argue that globalization is a long term positive trend which benefits consumers through greater competition. This process is accelerated by deregulation and the lowering of trade barriers. This as led to greater revenue streams and investment from richer to poorer countries. This as also allowed poorer countries to benefit from technological transfers (Delong,1999,p5 in a globalising world ? culture, economics, politics, p99).
Pessimistic Globalists take a different approach. They regard globalization as having many negative effects. They see poorer less economically developed countries particularly in the southern hemisphere as being exploited by there richer northern counter parts. They write from differing perspectives and ideologies including socialism and feminism.
Socialist writers have pointed to numerous indicators of growing disparity between rich and poor countries. In 1980 the median income of the richest 10% of countries was 77 times that of the poorest 10%. By 1999 the difference was 122 times. (Weller et al, 2002,p1 in a globalising world ? culture, economics, politics, p98).
Other negative outcomes which the pessimists point to are financial crisis’s like the devaluation of currency in Thailand in 1997 and the current credit crunch in the USA.
Investment loses now have ramifications for economies across the planet as stock markets, interest rates and pension funds are all inter connected by financial flows.
Sasika Sassens writing from a feminist perspective argues that there are three sectors of the international economy where women and children from third world countries are exploited. Firstly she sees that international export-oriented commercial cash crop agriculture is carried out mainly by women through subsistence farming methods like tea leaf collection. This she argues that this subsidizes the wages of men. Secondly under pressure to produce low cost imports low paid women and children are involved in sweat shop labour in factories.(Sassens1998) ‘Clothes sold in Britain by some of fashion's biggest names are made in sweatshops where female workers are tricked into bonded labour and banned from becoming pregnant. Some have been forced to have abortions if they do’. (Fran Abrams, The Independent, 24/09/99).
The third area that Sassens recognizes is the increased migration from rural to expanding urban industrialised areas. Here young women can be forced into subservient low paid low skill work or even prostitution. (Sassens,1998 p115, in ‘a globalising world ? culture, economics, politics’, p101).
The transformationalist view of economic globalization process is that it is happening but it can be controlled and the political and cultural consequences of the process are not predetermined. Countries and cultures retain agency and are able to resist, welcome or encourage change.
They recognize the importance of the networks that the internet provides. They also agree that these networks undermine border controls of states and point to the massive growth of NGO’s. However they still believe that governments have sufficient controls. They point to successful development of trading groupings like the European Union, NAFTA and East Asia. Most of the world’s trade takes place within these groups rather than between. In 1995 only 10 per cent of these groups output was actually exported. (Thompson, 2000 in ‘a globalising world ? culture, economics, politics’, p107). Also individual states regain the ability to address concerns with trading and financial patterns. The USA as previously placed tariffs on imports such as steel that it believes are undercutting and harming domestic industries this is despite the World Trade Organization ruling them illegal. France maintains subsidies for its farmers.
The Inter-Nationalist ideology rejects many of the arguments put forward by both globalist’s and transformationalist’s. They believe that globalization argument as been exaggerated. They argue that international economies have been trading with each other for centuries and globalization is not a new phenomenon heading towards a single global economy. International financial flows are the same value now as they were a century ago. (Held, p110, 2002).
To Internationalist’s, globalization is a debate rather than a self-evident reality. ‘Globalization is not an inexorable, unified and irreversible process, but is constructed by globalists and transformationalists as an explanation of certain economic effects’.
( Brah et al.,1999 p8 in ‘a globalising world? culture, economics, politics’, p111).
One area that the internationalists believe has been misunderstood is the concept of multi-national corporations. Although MNC’s spread production across many countries they usually maintain a clear national base. Honda regarded as a major international company still sells two thirds of its cars in Japan. True international companies maybe more accurately described as trans-national corporations and there may only be a handful e.g. News Corporation (Thompson, 2000 in a globalising world? culture, economics, politics’, p117)
Internationalists share the concerns of many pessimistic globalists that current developments favour the rich northern countries particularly G8 countries. Moves towards liberalization of international trade are only accepted by wealthy countries if it is in there national interests to do so. In 1999 almost all developing countries imports increased faster than their exports (UNCTAD, 2002, Chapter 3 in a globalising world? culture, economics, politics’, p119).
So far I have demonstrated that there are both negative and positive aspects to globalization. However some perspectives even question the whole concept of globalisation as a new entity. The question of whether it is a good thing will always be a subjective depending upon your ideological perspective or interests.
Political changes like the fall of the iron curtain and China’s recent capitalist boom have increased global business opportunities. However the argument that global corporations are becoming more powerful than nation states still needs more evidence. ‘Property rights are the most fundamental institution required for economic growth. Without them people will have little incentive to make investments because the fruit of their labours can be taken away’.(Mishkin,p19, 2006) Recently BP one of the largest corporations in the world had some of its Russian and Venezuelan oil fields seized by the governing states and this trend may continue as oil fields increase in value (Associated Press, May 2006).
Some writers are now predicting vast increases in world oil prices will lead to a regionalization of trade and a reversal of globalization. Financial investment in foreign countries will decrease as labour and natural resources become relatively more expensive as transportation costs increase . (Mortished, The Times, 11 June 2008).
From an environmental perspective the evidence that increased energy consumption is having on the planet appears increasingly damning although there is still some debate. Droughts, floods and global warming are blamed upon increased Co2 emissions from the industrialized countries. Natural habitats are also being destroyed as land and natural resources like timber and minerals increase in value. Pollution incidents occur more in developing countries where regularity controls are less strict.
On balance for globalization to be considered more a virtue than a vice it ‘will need to help more than hinder’ and be sustainable (Speth, p86, 2003). Only then can it be truly considered a good thing.
Word Count Excluding References. 1492
References
(Levin Institute, , 15/07/08)
(David Held, ‘a globalising world ? culture, economics, politics’, The Open University, 2004 ).
(Fran Abrams, Behind the designer labels, a world of exploitation and abuse, The Independent, 24 September 1999)
(The troubling trend of nationalization, Associated Press, May 2006)
(Frederic.S.Miskin, The Next Great Globalization: How Disadvantaged Nations Can Harness Their Financial Systems to Get Rich, Princeton University Press,2006)
(Carl Mortished, The Times, 11/06/08, http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4107268.ece)
(Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment, James Gustave Speth, Island Press, 2003)
