Globalization -, second world country -communist-, and
Globalization a new word that has not been defined by most of the modern dictionaries, maybe because its a new concept that has just been introduced to the world after the fall of the communist regime.
Another reason and the most probable one for this lack of definition to the term globalization is that its a term with so many aspects related to it to the extent that putting a universal meaning to the word will in its self lead to the breakup of the term and will make it lose its essence. Globalization has to its identity social, economic, and political reforms, .however the globalization that we are about to discuss is the term that combines the past socio-economic and political reforms and cross with them to the world where their are no boundaries, restrictions, and immobilization what Mittelman describes as ” cross-border flows of capital, knowledge, and consumer goods “ (Mittelman 1). For the world to become a one or a single entity it has to pass through a process of economic, and technological integration. The consequence of this unification is the aim of this research, positive and negative, although the negative aspects will be the dominating part.The friction’s that arise due to the process of globalization are enormous, the burden of this process falls upon the countries, governments, and the actual citizens. The latter is the hardest to fall or we may say the one that will carry most of the burden no matter how the leaders justify this movement.
The upraise of the global market lead to the division of the world in to three categories: first world country -developed -, second world country -communist-, and thirdly the third world country -developing-. Later this division was shifted to the first and the third divisions only. The attempts by the governments of the third world countries to become uniformly united with the first world countries is what lead them to step over its own sovereignty. How is that threat accompanied with globalization ?Globalization as mentioned before implies no borders especially to the flow of money and information resulting in a decrease in the autonomy of the governmental administration. The economic factors are guidelines for the governmental framework. And in a global market the investment within a country is not limited to its citizens, yet foreign investors do enter the market affecting the governmental policies as much as the citizens do if not to a higher level. The threat imposed by the foreign investors comes in the sense that the government is so dependent on their investment to the extent that if they take their investment else where will lead to the crash of the economy, this will lead the government to comply with all their demands.
A good example of this is the Asian crises last year.Furthermore, the government can not take any action based on its own self-interest it has to cooperate with other countries in decision making. This firstly creates a conflict in needs and wants between the countries, and secondly it shows to what extent other governmental decisions are affected by out side influence, illustrating deeply how week a government can be. ”The importance to most countries of a relatively free flow of international trade has led them to transfer powers over trade restrictions to super national bodies… ‘ (Dunning 93). This cooperation between countries is not limited to simple unsophisticated decision levels, on the contrary nations get so much involved into the framework of other nations especially in the starting phase of globalization. At that period their is a level of intervention dealing with the countries economic development, what is the priorities of the government in socio-political developments. Will they eventually lead to the elimination of the nation identity? Samir Amin argues that this clash of communities, and cultures is what hindering the process of globalization, he adds to that this difference in norms and culture is what limiting us from controlling the future of the human race (Amin 72).
All the above problems are related to the government’s actions after becoming a unified world. Adding to these problems is the question of security, who protects who? And is this protection based on the ability of a certain government to protect or will it stay within the territorial boundaries? By answering these question know we would have became a one world with other problems to that must be dealt with.The ongoing trend of free trade agreements initially started by the GATT and then transformed into the WTO, shows how beneficial free trade could be. Theories had been established and tested whether they comply with the on going globalization trend or not. The question is for whom is the free trade really beneficial? H-O theory argues that free trade is beneficial for both developed and developing countries. However, a more realistic view to the world trade history we will capture that the developing countries will incur the costs of free trade, and by complying to the GATT’s terms on the specified time period means a relatively larger cost (Amin 26). This free trade notion lead to a new division in the world which is the economic blocks.
The first integrated economic block although unrecognized as a block is the United States of America. As it become the only power in the world with out any rivals especially after the collapse of the soviet union, the Europeans started to develop their economic block in order for them to compete with the US as a super power or as an economic power. Leaving the uncivilized and uncoordinated countries out of the blocks so they can always keep trying to catch up with the super powers.To push the developing country to undertake such drastic measures in order to put forward the free trade notion or the globalization trend they have to benefit out of it. This benefit comes from the dream that some day a third world country will become equal to the first world countries, and will have all the benefits that the first world countries are having. That is the aim, yet the developed nations are making it harder and harder, firstly the developed nations put forward the dream of a third level country becoming as a developed country and then giving them the wrong ingredients or methods to accomplish their dreams with.
This could be clearly shown in the comparison between the European community and what the Arabs have been trying to accomplish. The European common market is a step that has been in progress since the second world war and the European countries have been delaying it until its prerequisites are ripe ”Europeans lefts to make sure that each step of the integration was accompanied by double series of measures “ (Amin 7). After a long period of building and establishment the common market has been established.
The Arabs saw this market and started talking about having one tomorrow, as if the Europeans have established this market over night, and as if the Arabs had set the preconditions for it since a very long time.Employment, labor, and technology are terms that appear to a large extent in the formula for globalization. Technology is supposed to equalized between countries by the time global of a global world. This implies capital intensive products in all nations, again this defies H-O theory which states that trade takes place between countries with different product intensity. This is not the issue, however the problem is if the whole world is turning to capital intensive goods then what are we going to do with all the excess labor? Dunning replies to that question saying ”must wait the departure from the labor of those with obsolete skills who cannot, or will not, retrain, and the entrance of a new generation trained in the newly required skills “ (Dunning 79) . Could this globalization trend over come the ethnicity of people and put labor in to perfect mobility within the country and between different countries? globalization could remove the boundaries for the flow of money, technology, and information, but to realize a level were they could remove the ethnicity of a human being, then we are looking at a world which has fully globalized.
Yet this will create a situation of great interdependence between nations to over come the unemployment problem, this also implies that employment levels are put at risk depending on any shock in the world economy. A great example of that is what happened in the oil of 1970’s ” the result was an acceleration in the rate of inflation. To contain inflation these countries invoked unemployment and recessions “ (Khan 9). To overcome the conflict of how protects who and who has the right to protect? The United Nations and its Security Council was put into the picture.
The UN was initially founded to insure world peace, yet under this category falls under an infinite amount of actions. As said before the political integration lead to a situation where the governmental powers were not limited to the boundaries of it country especially if its a super power. Under this UN world peace talk the talks of development and its sustainability arises ” Reform of the economic institutions would be accompanied by a heightened political role of the United Nations “ (Amin 41). The notion of sustainable development which takes into its consideration the environment, human development, and fight against poverty.
This notion put certain specification to the limits to the environmental, and human exploitation that is being put in the production process. This limits are being used as the new trade tariff and barriers. If a country is not regulating the level of exploitation then no trade or limited trade will take place with this country, and in a global market trade is a main source of wealth. All the arguments for globalization is putting forward the benefits realized for the developing countries, then why are the developed countries pushing forward this global trend and putting their own money in jeopardy for it? The developed countries are playing a role that is very well hidden, they are veiling them selves under the World Bank and the IMF organizations. ” under the continued surveillance, incentives, and sanctions of new international financial institutions ( the IMF and World Bank), which behaved as accessories to U.
S. policies “ ( Mittelman 90). Their actions are based from their after extensive studies. The IMF and World Bank are putting different level of reform plans for different countries all aiming at the rise of the living domestic standards, and the elimination of tariffs and quotas. The elimination of tariffs leaves room for the developed to use it technological advantage to flood the markets with their goods. Which intern yield high profits for their countries. It is only a matter of increasing the first world countries market share, and increasing the consumer’s ability to consume and differentiate between the good and bad goods.
Ultimately, the introduction of globalization with its very short-term history will play a significant role in the economic, political, and social sides. It will increase free trade, competition, and nation profits. But these benefits are going mainly towards the nations who have the highest interests in removing tariffs and trade barriers i.e.
developed nations. On the other hand the developing countries which are the ones that have the greatest needs for progress and growth are the ones that will be hurt in the process of unification. This globalization trend is simply a new developed or we may say a good looking way to keep the exploitation of the third world countries going on. One may argue for the benefits of globalization for the developing countries, yet time will prove that its a new from of economic imperialism the I personally call Neo-Imperialism. B.
Problems with the full meaning of the word.C. Division of the world into three categories.
II. Degree of autonomy under a global market.A. The effect of trade on developing countries.B. The effect of free trade on developed countries.2.
Economic block and European community.VI. First world countries pushing forward globalization.Amin, Samir. Capitalism In The Age Of Globalization.
Zed Books. London,1997. Dunning, John.
Governments, Globalization, and International Business. Oxford University presses. New York, 1997.
Khan, Azizur. Employment Expansion and Macroeconomics Stability Under Increasing Globalization. Macmillan Press.
London,1997.Mittelman, James. Globalization Critical Reflection. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Colorado, 1996.Bibliography:
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