Globalization and Modernization Theories

• Faces of Globalization GARC 2002

Theories of Globalization

• International communication, ties, and dependencies can be explained by modernization theory, dependency theory, and world-system theory

Recap

• Globalization is expressed as:
  • Internationalization leading to interdependence
  • Liberalization leading to removing restrictions
  • Universalization leading to similarities
  • Westernization leading to Western culture

Modernization Theory

• Modernization is either Europeanization or Americanization
• Modernization is an irreversible process
• Once it starts, it cannot be stopped
• When third world countries come into contact with the West, they cannot resist modernization
• Modernization is a progressive process
• In the long run, it is both inevitable and desirable
• Modernization is a lengthy process with evolutionary rather than revolutionary change, taking generations or centuries to complete.
• Development happens through a uniform evolutionary route
• From agricultural to rural and traditional societies before reaching post-industrial, urban, and modern societies.
• Modernization theory views the elimination of traditional values as necessary for progression
• Key aspects of modernization:
  • Decline of small, traditional communities
  • Society becoming more bureaucratized
  • Decline in the importance of religious institutions
• Walt Rostow describes modernization as a linear process in which all societies must progress through five stages to achieve development.
  • The "traditional society" is at the beginning and "high mass consumption" is at the end
  • Traditional societies lack modern science, technological innovation, and rational economic activity
  • Progress begins when societies adopt the values and practices of advanced Western nations
• Daniel Lerner argues modernity is synonymous with Westernization and associates it with adopting specific behaviors and institutions found in Western societies.
• Modernization of a society is measured by the extent to which its members have adopted modern attitudes, such as empathy and rationality

Dependency Theory

• Dependency theory rejects the idea that imitating the West brings prosperity and liberty to developing nations
• The developed world's wealth comes from the utilization of resources from underdeveloped places
• Poor economic growth in developing nations stems from unequal trade with advanced countries
• Poor economic nations supply raw materials and cheap labor to developed nations
• Developed nations provide assistance in the form of substantial debts that are left to be paid off over years
• Colonizing nations had no intention of helping the colonies develop
• Colonizing nations wanted to continue reaping benefits from their poverty
• Andre Gunder Frank critiques modernization theory and argues underdevelopment is a product of exploitative global relationships.

World-System Theory

• The current world-system has a power hierarchy between core and periphery, powerful and wealthy "core" societies dominate and exploit weak and poor peripheral societies
• Core countries are wealthy and militarily strong, holding social and colonial power
• Peripheral countries are poor, have exploitable resources, and lack social stability or government
• Semi-peripheral countries share characteristics of core and peripheral countries
• Technology positions a region in the core or the periphery
• Countries' status in world systems theory always fluctuates
• Changes result from military actions, geographic expansion, and shifts in industrial production levels
• Immaneul Wallerstein, in The Modern World-System (1974) articulates the structural inequalities in the global economy. -The capitalist world-economy drives wealth accumulation and economic development in some areas, while causing poverty and stagnation in others.
• This inequality is not incidental but intrinsic to the system
• There are 3 Core Areas of the World: Eastern Asia-EAC, Western Europe-EU, North America-NAFTA

Comparison of Theories

• Modernization Theory:

  • Core Idea: Development is linear, societies evolve to resemble Western economies
  • View on Development: Universal as industrialization and democracy modeled on the West.
  • Historical Context: Post-WWII, during decolonization with modernization as a path to progress.
  • Key Focus: Internal factors like culture, technology, and institutions within nations.
  • Role of the West: Modeled for development and progress.
  • Stages of Development: Rostow's "five stages of growth”. -Policy Implications: Promote Western-style institutions, technology transfer, and industrialization.

• Dependency Theory:

  • Core Idea: Development and underdevelopment are the results of exploitative relationships between developed and developing economies
  • View on Development: Hindered by exploitative global capitalism
  • Historical Context: Emerged in the 1960s to critique modernization theory
  • Key Focus: Colonialism and trade dependency, causes of underdevelopment in poorer nations.
  • Role of the West: Exploiters maintaining inequality through capital and trade flows.
  • Stages of Development: No stages. Focuses on structural inequality
  • Policy Implication: Reduce dependency through import substitution industrialization (ISI)
  • Key Theorists: Andre Gunder Frank, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Samir Amin.

• World-Systems Theory:

  • Core Idea: Global economic inequality is rooted in the structure of the capitalist world-system divided by economic status as peripheral, semi-peripheral, and core.
  • View on Development: Shaped by a global economic and political system that is maintained by capitalist economies.
  • Historical Context: Developed in the 1970s, combining dependency theory insights with historical analysis
  • Key Focus: Global systemic relations and division of labor in the capitalist economy.
  • Role of the West: As the dominant core, they exploit the periphery and semi-periphery.
  • Stages of Development: No stages of development, focuses on systemic dynamics

• Policy Implications: Emphasize systemic changes such as redistributing power in the global economy

• Key Theorists: Immanuel Wallerstein, Samir Amin, Giovanni Arrighi,

Hyperglobalism

• Hyperglobalists see the world economy as one single unit
• Hyperglobalists suggest that if governments allow organizations the freedom to do business, it generates wealth that trickles down to everyone
• National governments have much less socio-political influence or even none at all
• The world economy is controlled more by the current marketplace than governments
• Countries need to band together to succeed in the globalized world
• Countries that don't unite get left behind in the new globalized world
• Globalization is a unique, legal, and progressive unification process
• Globalization is a 'leveler' that helps to produces social and economics opportunities that would not exist otherwise

Skepticism

• Skeptics disagree with cultural globalization, which they suggest is more like the overwhelming dominance of one culture
• Claims that globalization does not affect all areas of the world evenly or cause the same responses.
• The globalization process looks more separated and regionalized
• The world is globalizing, but different regions are globalizing together
• Each region is affected by globalization differently
• More prominent countries will regulate trade between developing nations without a sound government system
• The expansion of economic sectors and cooperation of trade has made markets between countries rather than single markets.
• The world has seen greater nationalism in many places in response to real and created global threats

Transformationalism

• The outcome of the process of Globalization in not pre-determined
• The range of factors influencing the process of Globalization is great
• Outcomes are also very uncertain
• Globalization exists but without sweeping away what has already happened
• Cultural exchange is not a single way from the West to the east
• Culture exchanges go both ways and can be impacted from any culture not just the West's.
• The assessment and claims of globalization need to be both critical an recognize a complex picture
• Process Globalization is not a certain or even process it's a multi-dimensional process.

Explore globalization perspectives, modernization theories, and their criticisms. Understand Rostow's stages of growth, dependency theory, and the dynamics of development and underdevelopment. Analyze the impact of globalization on societies.