The Contemporary World Reviewer PDF

**THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD REVIEWER** **UNIT 1: Introduction to Globalization** **Globalization-** process in which people, ideas and goods spread throughout the world, spurring more interaction and integration between the world's cultures, governments and economies - It is a process of interacti...

**THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD REVIEWER** **UNIT 1: Introduction to Globalization** **Globalization-** process in which people, ideas and goods spread throughout the world, spurring more interaction and integration between the world's cultures, governments and economies - It is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies and government of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology - One principal driver of globalization is technology - It is considered a multi-dimensional process involving economic, political, technological, cultural, religious and ecological dimensions - According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) globalization is the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows and also through the more rapid and wide diffusion of technology - An expansion, and intensification of social relations and consciousness across the world time and world space. It is about growing worldwide connectivity according to Steger **Attributes, Qualities or Characteristics of Globalization** 1. Involves both the creation of new social networks and multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional, political, economic, cultural, and geographical boundaries. 2. Reflected in the expansion and the stretching of social relations, activities and connections 3. Involves intensification and acceleration of social exchanges and activities 4. Do not occur merely or an objective, material level but they also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness - Globalization involves both macro-structures of a global community and the micro-structures of global personhood **Historical Periods of Globalization** 1. **The Prehistoric Period (10000 BCE-3500 BCE)** 1. **Economic-** extensive development of economic relations across the globe as a result of technology and enormous flow of capital that has stimulated trade in both sources and goods 1. Property rights 2. Regulatory institutions 3. Institutions for macro-economics 4. Stabilization 5. Institutions for social influence 6. Institutions for conflict management 2. **Political-** enlargement and strengthening of political interrelations across the globe 1. Principle of state sovereignty 2. Increasing impact of various intergovernmental organization 3. Future shapes of regional and global governance **Roman Catholic Teaching of Globalization** 1\. Commitment to universal human rights 2. Commitment to the social nature of the human person 3\. Commitment to the common good 4\. Solidarity (The principle of Solidarity affirms that membership in the human family means that all bear responsibility for one another.) 5\. Preferential option of the poor 6\. Subsidiary (The Catholic Church teaches that decisions should be made at the lowest level in order to achieve the common good. 7\. Justice 8\. Integral Humanism- is concerned with whole person **Justice is divided in three (3) categories:** 1\. **Commutative justice**- aims at fulfilling the terms of contracts and other promises on both personal and social level. 2\. **Distributive justice**- ensures a basic equity in how both the burden and the goods of society are distributed and that ensures that every person enjoys a basically equal moral and legal standing apart from differences in wealth, privilege, talent and achievements 3\. **Social justice-** refers to the creation of the conditions in which the first two categories of justice can be realized and the common good identified and defended **5. Ideological Dimensions-** Ideology is a system of widely shared ideas, beliefs, norms and values among a group of people. **It is often used to legitimize certain political interests or to defend dominant power structures** \- Globalization is a social process of intensifying global interdependence while globalism is an ideology that gives the concept of neo-liberal values and meanings to globalization. **Major Ideological Claims of Advocates of Globalism** 1. Globalization is about the liberalization and global integration of markets 2. Globalization is inevitable and irreversible 3. Nobody is in charge of globalization 4. Globalization benefits everyone 5. Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the world **Unit 2: The Structures of Globalization** **THE GLOBAL ECONOMY** **Economic Globalization** - The increasing interdependence of world economies as a result of the growing scale of cross-border trade of commodities and services, flow of international capital and wide and rapid spread of technologies - According to IMF, it is a historical process, the result of human innovation and technological progress - Increasing integration of economies around the world through the movement of goods, services and capital across borders - In economic terms, it is 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 **Two Major Driving Forces for Economic Globalization** 1. Rapid growth of information in all types of productive activities 2. Marketization (a restructuring process that enables state enterprises to operate as market-oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate) - Rapid development of science and technologies served as basis for immediate globalization of the world economies which in turn provided an environment where there is a swift spreading of market economic system all over the world **Dimensions of Economic Globalization** 1. Globalization of trade of goods and services 2. Globalization of financial and capital markets 3. Globalization of technology and communication 4. Globalization of production **Difference between Economic Globalization from Internationalization** **Economic Globalization-** functional integration between internationally dispersed activities which means that it is qualitative transformation rather than a quantitative change **Internationalization-** an extension of economic activities between internationally dispersed activities - Economic globalization produces its own major players in the form of transnational corporations (TNCs), the main driving forces of economic globalization of the last 100 years or roughly two-thirds of world export - **Transnational corporation-** known as multi-national corporation is a corporation that has a home base, but is registered, operates and has assets or other facilities in at least one other country at one time **Origin of Economic Globalization** **16^th^ Century-** world system analysts identify the origin of modernity and globalization through long distance trade in the 16^th^ century. - This best-known example of archaic globalization is the Silk Road which started in western China, reached the boundaries of Parthian empire and continued towards Rome and connected Asia, Africa and Europe **17^th^ and 18^th^ century-** global economy exists only in trade and exchange rather than production as the world export to World GDP didn't reach 1-2 percent **19^th^ Century-** advent of globalization approaching its modern form is witnessed - Short period before World War 2 is referred to as golden age of globalization characterized by relative peace, free trade, financial and economic stability - Global economy in 19^th^ and 20^th^ centuries grew by an average of nearly 4% which is twice as high as growth in national incomes of the developed economies since the late 19^th^ century **International Monetary Systems and Gold Standard** **International Monetary System (IMS)-** system that forms rules and standards for facilitating international trade among nations. - Global network of government and financial institutions that determine the exchange rate of different currencies for international trade - Governing body that sets rules and regulations by which different nations exchange currencies with each other - **Evolution of the International Monetary System** **1870-1914 --** with the help of gold and silver, trade was carried without any institutional support - Monetary system was decentralized while market based, and money played a minor role in international trade in contrast to gold - Gold was believed to guarantee a non-inflationary, stable economic environment, a means for accelerating international trade. Gold standard functioned as a fixed exchange rate, with gold as the only international reserve - **Gold standard-** system of backing a country's currency with its gold reserves - After WW1, use of gold declined due to increased expenditure and inflation caused by war. Major economic powers were on gold standards but couldn't maintain and failed because of the Great depression in 1931 **1944-** 730 representatives of 44 nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States to create a new international monetary system called as **Bretton Woods system** which aims to create a stabilized international monetary currency system and ensure a monetary stability for all the nations **1971-** Bretton Woods system ended as the trade deficit and growing inflation undermined the value of dollar in the world **1973-** floating exchange rate system known as **flexible exchange rate system** was developed that was market based **MARKET INTEGRATION** - refers to how easily two or mor markets can trade with each other. It occurs when prices among different locations or related goods follow similar patterns over a long period of time. - The term is further used in identifying related phenomenon of market of goods and services experiencing similar patterns of increase or decrease in prices of products - Market integration exists when there are exerted effects that prompt similar changes or shifts in other markets that focus on related goods on events occurring within two or more markets **Types of Related Markets where Market Integration Occurs** **Stock Market Integration-** a condition in which stock markets in different countries trend together and depict same expected risk adjusted returns. **Financial Market Integration-** an open market economy between countries facilitated by a common currency and the elimination of technical, regulatory and tax differences to encourage free flow of capital and investment across borders. It occurs when lending rates in several different markets begin to move in tandem with one another. **Global Corporation-** a business that operates in two or more countries. It also goes by the name \"multinational company\" **THE GLOBAL AND THE NATION-STATES** - Globalization in the early years of the21st century has not displaced the state. - Max Weber, a German social theorist define state as a compulsory political organization with a centralized government that maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a certain territory - Hedley Bull, a 20^th^ century international philosopher stated that states are independent political communities each of which possesses a government and asserts sovereignty in relation to a particular portion of the earth's surface and a particular segment of the human population - Nation on the other hand is an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign - It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow- members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion - The terms nation and states are used interchangeably. The term nation-state has a dual concept, with the modern state going back to the Peace of Westphalia, and nationalism tracing back to Protestantism, the Enlightenment, the rise of the vernacular, with both concepts of nation and state fused in the French Revolution. - Nation--states are territorial organizations characterized by the monopolization of legitimate violence (qua states) while nation--states are membership associations with a collective identity and a democratic pretension to rule (qua nation) **UNIT 3: THE WORLD OF REGIONS** **Global Divides: The North and the South (focus: Latin America)** **Global South-** the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania mostly low- income and often politically or culturally marginalized. It may also be called the \"developing World\" such as Africa, Latin America, and the developing countries in Asia, \"developing countries,\" \"less developed countries,\" and \"less developed regions" including poorer \"southern\" regions of wealthy \"northern\" countries - refers to these countries\' \"interconnected histories of colonialism, neo-imperialism, and differential economic and social change through which large inequalities in living standards, life expectancy, and access to resources are maintained **Three Primary Concepts of Global South** 1. It refers to economically disadvantaged nation-states and as a post-cold war alternative to "Third World". - Third World\" is a phrase frequently used to describe a developing nation - The phrase \"Third World\" arose during the Cold War to identify countries whose views did not align with NATO and capitalism or the Soviet Union and communism. - The First World described countries whose views aligned with NATO and capitalism, and the Second World referred to countries that supported communism and the Soviet Union 2. The Global South captures a deterritorialized geography of capitalism's externalities and means to account for subjugated peoples within the borders of wealthier countries, such that there are economic Souths in the geographic North and Norths in the geographic South 3. It refers to the resistant imaginary of a transnational political subject that results from a shared experience of subjugation under contemporary global capitalism. - The global South is not a directional designation or a point due south from a fixed north. It is a symbolic designation meant to capture the semblance of cohesion that emerged when former colonial entities engaged in political projects of decolonization and moved toward the realization of a post- colonial international order - The strongest vehicle for social redistribution and the main mechanism for social transfer is the state. The redistributive function of the state becomes crucial in the context of economic globalization where the goal of neo-liberal economists and institutions is precisely to dismantle local state oversight - The global south is not relevant for those who live in countries traditionally associated with it but also signifies that the south continues to be globalized. It also represents emergent forms of progressive cosmopolitanism. It is an always emergent and provisional internationalism. **New Internationalism in the Global South** - The ills of the global south are being globalized - Underdeveloped states of the global south are ravaged by merciless IMF policies in the 1980's - The global south has provided model of resistance for the world like Gandhi's non-violence that initially directed at colonial authority in India is now part pf global protest culture, as well as benefits of critiques of international financial institutions from the experiences and writings of intellectuals and activists from the global south. - Global south is not only relevant for those who live in countries traditionally associated with it. - The global in global south does not only mean that the south is the globe but also signifies that the south continues to be globalized - Global south represents emergent forms of progressive cosmopolitanism. It is always emergent and provisional internationalism **Asian Regionalism** **Regionalism** -- decentralization of political powers or competencies from a higher towards a lower political level - It distinguishes between top-down from bottom-up regionalism where **top-down regionalism** describes the decentralization of competencies or the establishment of regional institutions by the state while **bottom-up regionalism** includes all patterns of endeavors toward political decentralization from within the particular region - Globalization is the intensification of economic, political, social, and cultural relations across borders and a consciousness of that intensification, with a concomitant diminution in the significance of territorial boundaries **Views of Globalization in the Asia Pacific and South Asia** - globalization can be understood as a process that transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia. It is a force for good bringing economic development, political progress, and social and cultural diversity to the region. **Asia Pacific and South Asia --** refers to the regions of East (or North) Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia - has emerged over the past decade as a new political force in the world. - **Pacific pivot-** foreign policy shift implemented by US to commit more resources and attention to the region - Asia Pacific become a key driver of global politics. It is the home to several key allies and important emerging powers like China, India and Indonesia - Globalization in this context is a process that transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia. It can be viewed as a force for good, bringing economic development, political progress, and social and cultural diversity. **Asia Pacific and South Asia's Impact on Globalization** - Asia was the central global force in the early modern world economy. It was the site of the most important trade routes and in some places more advanced in technology than West such as science and medicine. Colonies in the Asia pacific and South Asia influenced the West and vice versa. They were often "laboratories of modernity" (133). Colonialism was not simply a practice of Western Domination but a product of what one thinks of as Western and modern **BASAHIN MO YUNG NASA BOX SA PAGE 64** **Open Regionalism --** one distinguishing feature of regional institutions in Asia Pacific and South Asia - Aims to develop and maintain cooperation with outside actors. Meant to resolve the tension between the rise of regional trade agreements and the push for global trade as embodied by World Trade Organization (WTO), the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations - **Open** refers to the principle of non-discrimination, more specifically an openness in membership and openness in terms of economic flows **The Region-Making in Southeast Asia and Middle-Class Formation:** **The Third Wave** - Regionalization entails complex and dynamic interactions between and among governmental and nongovernmental actors which resulted to hybrid East Asia - The product of regional economic development in the post war era are the middle classes in east Asia. Regional economic development took place within the context of the American informal empire in "Free Asia", with the US-led regional security system and the triangular trade system as its two major pillars. - The first wave of regional economic development took place in Japan from mid 1950's to the early 1970s and led to the emergence of a middle-class by the early 1970s. The second wave took place between the 1960s and 1980s in South Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong and Singapore and led to the formation of middle-class societies in these countries by the 1980s. **Two salient points in the history of east Asian middle-class formation** 1\. Middle class formation in Southeast Asia was driven by global and regional transnational capitalism working in alliance with national states while middle class in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were created by developmental states and national capitalism. 2\. New urban middle classes in East Asia, whether in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or Southeast Asia, with their middle-class jobs, education, and income, have in turn created their own new lifestyles commensurate with their middle-class income and status **Middle Classes in the Philippines** - New urban middle classes emerged in the post 1986 Philippines. They were created through growth in retail trade, manufacture, banking, real estate development, and an expanding range of specialist services such as accounting, advertising, computing, and market research **Regional Implications of Middle-Class Formation in East Asia** - Complex historical forces shaped new urban middle classes. They are product of regional economic development, which has taken place in waves under the U.S. informal empire over a half century, first in Japan, then in South Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong, and Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines, and now in China. - The political consequences of the rise of East Asia middle classes vary. The cultural and political hegemony of the South Korean middle classes is embodied by single generation, while that of the Taiwanese middle classes manifest itself in the political assertiveness of an ethnic majority. Southeast Asian middle classes also exemplify the diversity and complexity of class formation. Thai middle classes are coherent socially, hegemonic culturally, and ascend politically; their counterparts in Malaysia and Indonesia are socially divided, dependent on the state, politically assertive and vulnerable; and the Philippine middle classes are socially coherent, less dependent on the state, culturally ascendant, but politically vacillating