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Example research essay topic: Countries In Africa Developing Countries - 1,975 words

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Globalization in Africa Globalization has given rise to the emergence of the global corporation. This has been a natural evolution from the national to the international then multinational or transnational and now global corporation. A global corporation differs from other corporate forms in that it operates with a single global strategy with a worldwide system and plan for products, marketing, manufacturing, logistics, research and development, accounting, and human resource management. The global economy and society define the global corporations competitive environment.

However, in majority of third world countries, especially in Africa, through globalization comes economic exploitation by trans-national corporations, government corruption and nationalistic rebellion. Globalization creates and highlights the plight of vulnerable and marginalized groups who are unable to participate or take full advantage of the opportunities of globalization. Although these groups can be found in every country, developing countries in Africa and transition economies have higher percentages of the excluded population. The typical vulnerable groups include the poorly educated and unskilled; young people with limited education and no previous work experience; displaced, often older, workers; women; people with disabilities; and ethnic and minority groups. Education, training, and skills development provide effective tools against exclusion.

Newly globalizing developing countries and transition economies must develop policies and programs specifically targeted to their vulnerable groups. The case for strict enforcement of labor standards is advanced by the ILO and supported by the WTO with strong backing from the industrialized countries. They argue that by not enforcing labor standards, emerging economies, developing countries, and transition economies are able to produce internationally tradable goods and services below cost and, therefore, gain unfair cost advantage over their competitors who pay to have the standards fully enforced. It is also argued that enforcement of standards protects vulnerable workers from abuse and exploitation from the powerful trans-national corporations. The abuse and exploitation takes many forms, including low wages with no benefits; slave like working conditions; endangering workers health and safety; and depriving workers of their human and civil rights especially in terms of the right to support and belong to a union, the right to collective bargaining, and the right to refuse to work in unhealthy and unsafe environments. Exploitation can also be targeted to vulnerable and voiceless groups such as children, poor, uneducated, and unskilled job seekers.

The history of industrialization is a history of abuse and exploitation of the weak by the powerful. Therefore, governments and the international community have a duty and a responsibility to provide and enforce labor standards to protect workers from abuse and exploitation caused by globalization. Developing countries see it differently. While accepting the need to protect workers from abuse and exploitation from unscrupulous employers, they argue that the current labor standards go too far, cost too much, and are not related to their cultural, social, or economic realities. In terms of international trade, the elaborate and costly labor standards take on the form of non-tariff protectionism by the advanced countries.

African emerging economies are most competitive in labor-intensive industries such as agriculture, textiles, tourism, and other services. Labor standards have direct upward effects on labor costs and, therefore, raise the cost of production for these countries. By insisting on strict observation of labor standards and by threatening boycott if they do not observe them, advanced countries and the international organizations are undermining the developing countries capacity to compete and participate in the global economy. The debate about human and civil rights and social justice is much more complicated because it includes issues related to national political and governance ideology and systems, local cultural values and practices, national sovereignty, and international law. For example, over the years, different industrial relations systems and employment practices have evolved in different countries with varying degrees of effective protection of workers rights. It is also necessary to consider labor standards in the broader context of society's economic realities and political and cultural development.

Especially in Africa poor people are more likely to give up some of their political rights in order to improve their economy and personal standards of living. As well, most traditional societies in developing countries do not have the same history of human and civil rights as practiced in the rich advanced societies. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that as these economies grow and societies advance they will be less willing to continue giving up their political rights and, instead, insist on more strict enforcement of labor standards. In fact, this is already happening in many emerging markets and developing countries where the emergence of a critical mass of educated middle-class citizens has created conditions for the population to demand political reform and respect for human rights.

Since workers and trade unions are always part of this middle-class pressure group, there is a tendency for the reforms to focus on workers rights and improved wages and working conditions. Child labor is a multidimensional and often emotional problem blamed on globalization. It has taken on an international dimension, although its meaning and implications vary across regions, countries, and sectors and between urban and rural settings. Like many other socioeconomic problems, child labor is not entirely caused by the current wave of globalization. Stories of child labor and child abuse in the workplace date back to the early days of the Industrial Revolution, first in England, then in mainland Europe and North America. Globalization has made the problem worse and more visible, and therefore, newly globalizing African countries must respond to the challenge by developing realistic policies, systems, institutional arrangements, programs, and enforcement mechanisms to protect their children from workplace abuses and exploitation.

The international community has put a lot of emphasis and resources in helping the developing countries in Africa to improve governance and democratization as a prerequisite for globalization. This emphasis is based on a widely held belief that clean government and democratization are preconditions to effective participation in the global society. Despite all the attention given to good governance and democratic development, the results for most societies in the periphery are mixed at best. Corruption and poor institutional performance remain serious problems, and in most cases, the international community is almost powerless to stop it. Some actors from the center benefit from the corruption and institutional weaknesses in the periphery.

In this respect globalization has not only resulted in a narrowing of policy options for developing countries, but a diminution of their national sovereignty. This is most especially apparent in relation to the emergence of global environmental management and its application to resolving social-ecological problems in Africa, in which the moral imperative to ensure biospheric integrity justifies the creation of a new global regulatory order. Examples of greenfield investments include exploitation of natural resources such as oil and gas, mineral production, and manufacturing export platforms. For the vast majority of developing countries, the current strategy for maximizing economic growth is strongly associated with activities that result in high levels of pollution and resource depletion.

This is because under contemporary processes of global restructuring and flexible specialization governments are in strong competition to enhance their perceived comparative advantage to attract foreign investment and stimulate growth. This often means relaxing environmental standards and working conditions while maintaining strong downward pressure on wages. Africa depends heavily on exports of non-renewable resources, goods manufactured by polluting industries, and the production of agricultural commodities using unsustainable farming systems. The exploitation of Kongos native old-growth forests, the massive expansion of lobster aquaculture in Namibia with the resulting destruction of mangrove ecosystems, and mineral extraction are all examples of renewable and non-renewable resource exploitation to generate export earnings. Yet, arguably, it is with the expansion of the industrial sector that Africa's environmental crisis most clearly demonstrates the logic of globalization under the dominance of transnational capital with the benefits ultimately reaped in the rich industrialized countries and trans-national corporations. Experience shows that the first wave of foreigners who come to do business with previously closed economies includes many with questionable business ethics.

For example, Nigerians have always complained that foreign business representatives are largely to blame for the countrys corrupt image because of their willingness to offer irresistibly big bribes to public officials. A recent World Bank report on corruption in Uganda found that in 1987 more than 1, 200 birds were smuggled out of the country, more than 280 tons of ivory were illegally exported, and 550 crocodile skins were sent overseas, mainly to Italy and France. (Stapenhurst) For many years, the problem of corruption was of concern for international corporations. A variety of forces have put corruption back on the international policy agenda. The globalization and growing competitiveness of the world economy, and a resulting awareness within international corporations, suffer of the costs of corruption. Corrupt governments misuse funds which are paid as taxes by international corporations, which makes people in Africa to believe that corporations exploit natural resources only. Leaders in many developing countries continued to misuse funds, while instituting absurd regulatory regimes of permits and licenses that squashed local entrepreneurs while lining the pockets of bureaucrats.

One of the most disturbing examples of such corruption was in the former Zaire, where President Mobutu was said to have stashed away in personal foreign accounts assets equal to his countrys entire external debt. (Bolt, Dasgupta, Pandey, Wheeler) As we know, socialism has failed in Africa, however, capitalism and globalization has worsened the situation in many African countries, rather than advanced, the prospects for development in Africa. There is absolutely no evidence that globalization has in the past or will in the future improve the standard of living of the majority of Africans. This suggests that if Africa is to ever get out of its total peripheralization there must be a rebirth of thought and action that pose radical alternatives to the devastation of the continent that is occurring by trans-national corporations, which causes unrest among people in developing countries. African governments need to advance democratic rights and the mobilization of popular power to ensure that the process of globalization is geared to really improve the life of the majority of people. If this will not happen, people will rebel because global civil society has been the arena of social and political protest particularly by human rights, animal rights, environmental, trade union and peace movements. It is now clear why globalization is a hard sell.

Many politically and economically powerful interest groups see themselves as losers, potential losers, or victims of globalization, and they let their political representatives know of their fears and anxieties. Many world leaders give credibility and moral support to the widely publicized opposition and protests. The protest movements, lead by rich nongovernmental organizations and organized labor, are well organized, savvy, and competent. As well, international organizations such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Federation as well as regional and national environmental organizations based in advanced countries can make a more effective contribution by working closely, on a one-to-one basis, to help these poor countries build the capacity they need for effective environmental management. They must go beyond advocacy and protest and focus on the long-term solutions for these countries and their communities. As stated previously, global corporations are part of the problem and, thus, must be part of the solution.

Bibliography: Petter Lang seth, Rick Stapenhurst, and Jeremy Pape. National Integrity System: Country Studies, EDI Working Paper. World Bank, Regulatory Reform and Private Enterprise Division, 1997. Katherine Bolt, Submit Dasgupta, Kiran Pandey, David Wheeler. Minute Particles, Major Problems: New Policies Show Promise for Saving Millions of Lives by Clearing the Air in the Developing World, Journal article. Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, Vol. 16, 2001.

King, K. , and S. McGrath. Enterprise in Africa: Between Poverty and Growth. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999. Micklethwait, J. , and A. Wooldridge.

A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalization. New York: Random House, 2000.


Free research essays on topics related to: developing countries, countries in africa, industrialized countries, child labor, labor standards

Research essay sample on Countries In Africa Developing Countries

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