What is Globalization

							         What is Globalization?
  Connections among states, societies, and
               economies.
  Results: challenges long-standing institutions, assumptions,
                          and norms
  Batter over freedom and equality becomes internationalized
History:

Humans dispersed around the world: they maintained and developed long-distance
connections between one another through migration and trade. Help spur development
through the dissemination of knowledge and new innovations. (ie. Written language)
These relationships were thin and involved a small number of individuals. Extensive but
not intensive.

21st century:

People are directly participating in a cast and complex international network through
travel, communication, business, and education. We are no longer part of isolated
communities. We are directly “plugged in.” (ie: global warming, AIDS epidemic)
Result: political isolation becomes difficult or even impossible, and domestic and foreign
policy become blurred.

Globalization can amplify politics, international connections, local events, even small
ones, can have a ripple effect throughout the world. (ie: Computer viruses, Stock
market) Internet allows for rapid dissemination of news and ideas from every corner of
the globe.

The world lives increasingly in the same moment-what happens in one place affects
others around the world soon thereafter.

All institutions at the state, economic, and the societal levels are subject to dramatic
change as participation, power, and policy rapidly shift. Globalization may make
politics more unpredictable.

Political Globalization:

Globalization could be the very force that will bring about political change, but is
this change welcomed?
How might Globalization weaken the state?
GB is associated with the growing power of a host of non-state entities that boost many
of the powers of states themselves.

Multi-national corporations: firms that produce, distribute, and market in more than one
country (ie: Microsoft)

Nongovernmental organizations (NGO): national and international groups, independent
of any state, that pursue policy objectives and foster public participation (ie: Greenpeace:
able to shape domestic and international politics by mobilizing public support across the
globe) These groups have no sovereign power over territory, nor do they command
armies. This may be there advantage.

Internet: originally created to decentralize communication in case of a nuclear. But there
are no limitations and it lacks one physical location.

What do these changes mean for state autonomy and capacity?
The state will be eclipsed by new international actors and institutions. i.e.: A wed of
organizations, public and private, domestic and international, would shape politics and
policy, set standards, and enforce ruls on a wide range of issues. The rule of law would
become less a preserve of individual states and more of global institutions created for and
enforced by a variety of actors.

Political globalization may bring bout a more peaceful world order, constraining the
tendencies toward violent conflict by constraining the capacity and autonomy of states.

Globalization is fostering the creation of new kinds of violent international actors that in
many ways are the exact opposite of the modern state. Groups are decentralized and hold
no territory and exercise no sovereignty and are able to draw financial and other support
from across the globe. The groups provide resources and guidance but allow a great deal
of individual initiative and responsibility among operators. (ie: Globalized technology)

   1. The state will become more irrelevant as power shifts to the global level,
      international cooperation increases, and these developments undermine the logic
      of war.
   2. The very nature of deepening international connections will help foster new
      violent organizations that wield the capacity to use force yet lack the liabilities of
      a state.


Sept. 11 may indicate that both may come true: states may be weakened by their
dependence on globalization, losing their capacity and autonomy, while simultaneously
threatened by new actors who can turn the very benefits of globalization against them.
Economic Globalization:

Economics generates the most controversy and debate. Over the past few decades the
world has seen a rapidly developing system of international trade and economic relations,
fostered by technological change and dramatic shifts in world politics (i.e. collapse of
communism and the spread of liberalism) Trade increase: 1992-2001 $4.7 trillion to $8
trillion.

Increased trade just part of the picture. Foreign direct investment: purchase of assets in
one country by a foreign firm, increased from $58 billion in 1982 to $1.2 trillion in 2000.

Globalization is associated with the emergence of a number of large corporations that
dominate global markets. (i.e. IBM, Honda, McDonald’s, and Johnson and Johnson)
These corporations profits often rival the GDP’s of many countries.

Economic developments are compounded by expanding global communications:
transforming the was in which markets, firms, and individuals interact. Markets are open
and face greater competition.

Internet v. Railroads in the 19th century: transformed the way in which foods could be
produced, marketed, and delivered.

Liberals: globalization is the true internationalization of liberal values with emphasis on
open markets and competition for goods and Labor. (what was the goal of open
markets?...what was the result?) Countries are able to export that they produce best,
encouraging innovation, specialization, and lower cost. Globalization is viewed as a
positive trend….lifting billions out of poverty by allowing them to be apart of global
market.

Increased trade with increased dependence: trade creates conditions whereby some
countries will gain monopoly control over particular goods vital in the international
economy, such as software, energy, biotechnology, or pharmaceutical products.

Firms invest in countries with cheap labor and weak labor regulations in order to increase
profits; these moves eliminate manufacturing jobs in the advanced democracies.
Globalized businesses are increasingly able to avoid government oversight and public
accountability.

NAFTA: led some U.S. firms to move their manufacturing plants and jobs across the
border to Mexico. FDI by advance democracies is being targeted at countries with weak
regulatory systems, allowing the investing companies to avoid having to comply with
strict regulations at home. (poverty has declined and life expectancy has risen.)

Deepening interconnections between economies around the world increase the likelihood
that local events will ripple throughout the system. Prosperity may be built on global
connections, but also on basic goods and regulations that manage and minimize risk.
Societal Globalization:

How societies themselves are transformed by globalization? How globalization might
affect societal institutions remains uncertain and a matter debate.

Societal globalization challenge state sovereignty and power, traditional societal
institutions are weakened, creating new identities that do not belong to any one
community or nation.

Rise of the state led to national identities in a way that individuals began to see
themselves tied to a much larger community of millions, strangers bound together by
complex myths and symbols-flags, legends, symbols, anthems, culture.

Sovereignty: citizenship reinforced the notion of national identity-one people, one state

1, Globalization leads to the erosion of the individual and collective identity. New
technologies, trade, and communication link people across vast distances, forging
relationships between people on the basis of common interest and ideas rather than
shared national symbols. People may develop virtual interconnections stronger than the
physical ones on which they have historically.

How might this process shape societal institutions and identities?

Emergence of a global society built on shared values and ideals. Broadens their exposure
to new information, choices, options, people will expand their understanding of what is
possible and seek to advance and promote their preferences from this widened palette of
choices. (i.e. Global environmental awareness)

Intellectual horizons expand new ideas and values may take shape that respond to the
unique concerns of a globallized world. (i.e. ICBL: International Campaign to Ban
Landmines: a coalition of 1000 of NGO’s whose activities were coordinated primarily
through the internet.) Development of shared information, choices, ideas, and values
may create not just a global society but a truly global culture.

Some contend that the onslaught of globalization will not generate shared worldview but
instead overwhelm people with innumerable choices, values, ideas, and information that
they are unable to understand, evaluate, or escape. Find it alien and hostile to their own
way of life. (Sept. 11th)

Represent a cultural and intellectual race to the bottom. Societies will trade their own
cultures for a bland culture shaped primarily by consumption.

“McWorld:” a process in which what is most attractive in each society is sterilized,
repackaged, and sold to the rest of the planet. Those things that lack mass appeal are
thrown away of driven out and replaced by what satisfies the widest public and the lowest
common denominator. May promise greater properity and cooperation, it may also
weaken the foundations of democratic society.

Globalization: Reality or Hype?

Some believe it will destroy old institution creating a world more unequal and less
democratic, at worse chaotic and violent.

New sources of prosperity and progress and predict that humans will look and act beyond
the local context to see themselves as part of a single community with a shared
commitment to Freedom and equality.

Globalization: A major turning point in History????

The worldwide economic boom of the early 20th century ended in global depression.

International connections are not isolated to the 19th or 20th century: conquest of the
Americas. The lessons of past waves of globalization only underscore what a powerful
effect current changes are likely to have. Globalization could be limited and stopped:
financial collapse led to isolationism, protectionism, and nationalism.

Stymied by public opposition: Might effect things such as the environment, labor
standards, and democratic practices around the world are being translated into
antiglobalization activism: ironically aided by new technology…Internet.


Freedom or Equality in a Globalized World?
Struggle between freedom and equality, between the individual and collective good

No one has been able to find the solution that can satisfy everyone. Does one country’s
freedom or equality come at the expense of another’s?




  By understanding these forces we arm ourselves with
 the ability to shape the future and define the course of
                     human progress.