Unit 1 PDF

The Contemporary World Globalization Definitions, synonymous with the birth and spread of World Capitalism. Theories, and Ideology (Wallerstein) DEFINITIONS FROM DIFFERENT 2. Global Capi...

The Contemporary World Globalization Definitions, synonymous with the birth and spread of World Capitalism. Theories, and Ideology (Wallerstein) DEFINITIONS FROM DIFFERENT 2. Global Capitalism - tend to see PERSPECTIVES globalization as a novel stage in the evolving system of World Is the word used to describe the Capitalism - “Capitalist growing interdependence of the Globalization”. world’s economies, cultures, and populations, brought about 3. The Network Society of School by cross-border trade in goods and of Thought - capitalism does not services, technology, and flows of fuel globalization but technology investment, people, and and technological change as the information. underlying cause of globalization. (https://www.piie.com/microsites/gl (Castell) obalization/what-is-globalization) 4. Space, Time and Globalization - The interconnectedness of the conceptual essence of human beings, brought about by globalization is “time-space technological changes, modern distanciation”- which Giddens transportation and defines as the “intensification of communication technology worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way A concept that “refers both to the that local happenings are shaped compression of the world and the by events occurring many miles intensification of consciousness of away and vice-versa. the world as a whole”. (Robertson, 1992) 5. Transnationality and Transnationalism The compression of time and Transnational processes space and the annihilation of and practices are defined distance (Harvey, 1989) broadly as the multiple ties and interactions- economic, A process of interaction and political, social and cultural- integration among people, that link people, companies and governments of communities and different nations, a process institutions across the driven by international trade and borders of nation-states. investment and aided by information technology. (Sunny Transnationalism is an Levin Institute) umbrella concept encompassing a wide Theoretical Paradigms of Globalization variety of transformative processes, practices and 1. World Systems - views developments that take globalization not as a recent place simultaneously at a phenomenon but as virtually local and global level.  6. Global Culture - emphasize the Degree of uniqueness and rapid growth of the mass media morphological sophistication and resultant global cultural flows ○ The distinctiveness and and images in recent decades complexity of the concepts evoking the image famously put Context-bound responsiveness forth by Marshal McLuhan of the to broad range of political “the global village”. issues ○ Relevance of the concept COMMON GROUND to political issues In the absence of a generally accepted Produce effective conceptual definition, Steger explains that DECONTESTATION CHAINS GLOBALIZATION has been commonly understood either as a PROCESS, a Ability to Produce Effective CONDITION or an IDEOLOGY. (Steger, Conceptual Decontestation Chains Ideologies of Globalization) Freeden considers AS A PROCESS ‘decontestation’ a crucial process As a process, Globalization is in the formation of thought systems viewed as a multidimensional set of social because it specifies the meanings processes that create, multiply, stretch, of the core concepts by arranging and intensify worldwide social them in a ‘pattern’ or ‘configuration’ interdependencies and exchanges while that links them with other concepts at the same time fostering in people a in a meaningful way. growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the According to Steger, “effective distant. (Steger, 2005: 13) decontestation structures can thus be pictured as simple semantic AS A CONDITION chains whose conceptual links Steger used the term convey authoritative meanings that “GLOBALITY” to signify a future social facilitate collective condition characterized by thick decision-making.” economic, political, and cultural interconnections and global flows that Steger refers to them as make currently existing political borders ‘ideological claims’ (also called and economic barriers irrelevant. ‘Core Claims’)- endow thought systems with specific meanings AS AN IDEOLOGY that benefit particular social In support of his view that groups. globalization is a political belief system that benefits a certain class, Steger used Steger’s 6 Core Claims (Decontestation the line of reasoning of another Chains): globalization scholar, Michael Freeden, by following the latter’s 3 Criteria in Globalization is about the determining an ideology, namely: Liberalization and Global Integration of Markets Globalization is Inevitable and Irreversible  Nobody is in Charge of Globalization Globalization Benefits Everyone in the Long Run Globalization further the Spread of Democracy Globalization requires a Global War on Terror THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Globalization in Economics Trade and Transactions Capital and Investment Movements Migration and Movement of People Dissemination of Knowledge Globalization and its Impact on Economic Growth Benefits Economics of Scale Fruitful international trade in Technological Innovation goods, services, and capital, where Foreign Direct Investment exports balance imports and the nation has a stable exchange rate RIsks against foreign currencies. Interdependence Threat to Sovereignty International Trade Inequitable Distribution International Trade is the process by which nations export and import goods, services and financial Major goals of Macroeconomics capital High levels and rapid growth of International trade is vital to output and consumption; economic growth because it High employment, with an expands a nation’s consumption ample supply of good jobs; possibilities. Price-level stability (or low Economic Basis of Trade inflation), through prices and 1. Different nations are endowed with wages set in free markets; various kinds and amount of natural resources 2. The production of varied goods and services require different combinations of economic  resources and also particular When did globalization start? technology. 3. Various nations have different specializations that make their products highly differentiated. Economic Globalization Economic globalization is a historical process, the result of human innovation and technological progress. It refers to the increasing integration of Gills And Thompson (2006) economies around the world, particularly ongoing ever since Homo sapiens through the movement of goods, services, began migrating from the African continent and capital across borders. The term ultimately to populate the rest of the world sometimes also refers to the movement of people (labor) and knowledge (technology) across international borders. (IMF, 2008] Frank and Gills (1993) ‘the existence of the same world system in which we live stretches back at least 5,000 years’. The best known example of archaic globalization is the Silk Road, which connected Asia, Africa and Europe. ‘In economic terms globalization is nothing but a process making the world economy an “organic system” by extending transnational economic processes and economic relations to more and more countries and by deepening the economic interdependencies among them.’ (Szentes. 2003: 69) Fernand Braudel (1973) Fernand Braudel’s innovative concept of ‘long duration’, i.e. a slow-moving, ‘almost imperceptible’ (1973: 22) framework for historical analysis,  world-systems analysts identify the and, indeed, within an origins of modernity and international, global context as globalization with the birth of well. sixteenth century long- distance “Social system” - the trade interdependent relationships between economic and noneconomic factors. ○ Economic development ○ Stable prices Money in motion Goods and services produced ○ Inflation ○ Unemployment ○ Poverty ○ Debt ○ HDI (Human Development Index) Development Amartya Sen (1998 Nobel laureate in economics) argues that the “capability function” is what The real break-through came only in the really matters for status as a nineteenth century. (Held et al., 1999) poor/non-poor person. By 1913, trade equalled to 16–17 “Economic growth cannot be percent of world income, thanks to sensibly treated as an end in itself. the transport revolution: Development has to be more steamships and railroads reduced concerned with enhancing the lives transaction costs and bolstered we lead and the freedoms we both internal and international enjoy.” exchange (Held et al., 1999). Contemporary globalization is, Golden Age of Globalization however, considered to be a myth The relatively short period before (Bairoch, 1993) not just because it World War I (that is, 1870 to 1913) is often is not without precedents. More referred to as the ‘golden age’ of concerns have been raised with globalization, characterized by relative regard to its impact on the peace, free trade and financial and worldwide distribution of economic stability (O’Rourke and income. Williamson, 1999). According to Wallerstein, Going beyond simple economics…. capitalism, ‘a historical social system’ (1983: 13), created the Economic systems must be dramatically diverging historical analyzed within the context of the level of wages in the economic overall social system of a country arena of the world system. Thus,  growing inequality, along with cultural homogeneity is to be economic and political expected or found in a dependence, are not independent world-economy at all from economic globalization. Relationship between US and ○ The best known critical Central America approach to the prevailing Europe and social division of labor and India/Pakistan/Indonesia global inequalities is offered Neo-colonies by world- systems analysis, which claims that capitalism Capitalism fuels World Economy under globalization Old concept: Capitalism is the reinforces the structural existence of persons or firms patterns of unequal producing for sale on the market change. with the intention of obtaining a profit. World Economy: Defined Large geographic zone within Capitalism today: a system gives which there is a division of labor priority to the endless and hence significant internal accumulation of capital: it means exchange of basic or essential that people and firms are goods as well as flows of capital accumulating capital in order to and labor. A defining feature of a accumulate still more capital, a world-economy is that it is not process that is continual and bounded by a unitary political endless. structure. Rather, there are many political units inside the ○ Ex. Henry Sy and SM world-economy, loosely tied Holdings (Malls, Banking, together in our modern world education, real estate, etc) system in an interstate system ○ G8 controls 50% of world economy (CA, FR, DE, IT, Examples: JP, RU*, UK, US, EU) ○ EU as a trading block ○ North Korea is supposed to The capitalist system therefore be isolated but it has ensures that the economic status continued to be a player in quo is maintained the global economy trading with China, India, France and the Philippines What unifies the global economic system most is the division of labor. Although the economic global system has some common cultural patterns, called geoculture. (eg.US-Central America; Australia-Pacific Islands) It does mean that neither political nor  Capitalist system requires a very special relationship between economic producers and the holders of political power. Capitalists need a large market and need a multiplicity of states, so that they can gain the advantages of working with states but also can circumvent states hostile to their interests in favor of states friendly to their interests. Only the existence of a multiplicity of states within the overall division of labor assures this possibility. contemporary globalization is equated primarily with TNCs (Transnational corporations & Multinational corporations) ○ Ex: MNCs/TNCs based in countries that are bastions of democracy like US and Western European states continue to work with China and other states even with a poor human rights record to maintain the capitalist system – it ensures that the division of labor is undisturbed