A. The idea that the world may be moving toward something like a single, encompassing economic structure is a relatively new one
B. In one sense, it suggests an interdependent economic system in which ALL states can become a partC. Such a system is obviously NOT yet—and may never be—a reality. But today we are going to examine what globalization is as well as whether it is producing prosperity or poverty
A. Globalization (globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function togeth
B. Great Quotes about globalization to get the ball rolling:
1. Robert Samuelson, Economist: “Globalization is a double-edged sword—a powerful vehicle that raises economic growth, spreads new technology, and increases living standards in rich and poor countries alike, but also an immensely controversial process that assaults ntl sovereignty, erodes local culture and tradition, and threatens econ and social stability”
2. Kofi Annan, Sec General UN: “There is a saying that all politics is local. But increasingly, all politics has global consequences. And those global consequences, in turn, affect the quality of local life everywhere.”
3. Tom G. Palmer of the Cato Institute defines globalization as "the diminution or elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result."
4. Thomas L. Friedman (video) "examines the impact of the 'flattening' of the globe", and argues that globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces have changed the world permanently, for both better and worse. He also argues that the pace of globalization is quickening and will continue to have a growing impact on business organization and practice.
5. Noam Chomsky (video) argues that the word globalization is also used, in a doctrinal sense, to describe the neoliberal form of economic globalization.
6. Herman E. Daly argues that sometimes the terms internationalization and globalization are used interchangeably but there is a slight formal difference. The term "internationalization" refers to the importance of international trade, relations, treaties etc. International means between or among nations.
a. According to the K&W text (pp292-293), Globalization is “a hot topic b/c money, goods, people, technology, and ideas are moving across ntl borders at an accelerating pace”
b. In other words, the world is becoming more interconnected into a single, integrated global community that some are calling the global village (“a popular image used to describe the growth of awareness that all people share a common fate, stemming from a holistic perspective that the world is an integrated and interdependent whole”)
c. Some futurists—neoliberal types—even think that b/c of globalization that borders are shrinking and the world is becoming a single community—something to think aboutàscholars were saying similar things about the world just before WWI and look what happened…3. Definitions:
a. Globalization (K&W, p293): “according to the IMF, [globalization] is the increasingly close international integration of markets both for goods and services and for capital”
b. Cyberspace (K&W, p295): “the metaphorical term used to describe the global electronic web of people, ideas, and interactions on the internet, which is unencumbered by the borders of the geopolitical world”4. Discussion: As Thomas Friedman says, Globalization has resulted from “the onrush of economic and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize the world w/fast music, fast computers, and fast food—w/MTV, Macintosh, and McDonald’s, pressing nations into one commercially homogenous global network: one McWorld tied together by technology, ecology, communications and commerce”
5. What is pretty obvious is that communication technologies are driving much of the growth of globalization:
a. cell phones (800M worldwide)
b. Satellite networks (means millions worldwide are watching the same things…breaking barriers down)
c. computers (200M in use worldwide)
d. the internet, where people can download info, buy things, trade things, purchase stocks, sell stocks, upload any info they want, send e-mail, etc (fueled by the growth of PCs in homes and businesses, there are about 150M worldwide online—according to Vital Signs—and by 2001 the # of users should grow to about 700M
e. ALL of the above means that space and time have shrunk, that productivity is higher, that costs have dropped, especially in the developed north and especially for citizens in advanced, democratic modern countries of the 1st world
A. For the North: increasingly integrated, more peaceful, more trade, more productive, more efficient, more wealthy
B. For the South: spread of the internet concentrated in the 1st world, creating what some have called a “digital divide” where 1/3 of the world’s 6B are denied access…USA home to over ½ all internet users