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Globalization Today more and more places around the world are being connected in more and more ways. Contemporary researches called this process globalization. The majority of researchers state that the term globalization is the term used to describe the increasing links in economy, policy and culture between human beings around the world. They think that globalization is a phenomenon of technological, economic, political and cultural exchanges produced by modern communication, transportation and legal infrastructure.
It was also produced by political choice to open cross-border links in the international trade and finance. So, globalization has such aspects as economic, political, cultural and technological. Contemporary researches state that the first era of globalization began in the 19 th century. During that time the countries of Europe, America and Oceania that engaged in that era, flourished. Inequality between those states fell. Goods, capital and labor flew freely between the nations of these countries.
The process of globalization and its after-effects were studied by a great number of theorists. There were three main conceptions that provide their points of view as for understanding globalization. These theories are realism, liberalism, and Marxism. Han Morgethau, Kenneth Waltz, and Edward Carr are the most famous representatives of the realist school. Their theory was based on three fundamental assumptions, states are the most important actors, that they seek power, and that they pursue their policies in an essentially rational manner, calculating costs and estimating benefits, typically in a logical fashion. (Image, 2003) The next approach is liberalism. The writings of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and W.
W. Rostov played the most important role in the developing of the theory. They had another view of the process. They thought globalization was a natural outgrowth of capitalist development. They pointed that a state was not a dominant player. The main power and the primary stimulus was trade.
Liberals considered that trade helps to increase productivity and raise income levels in developing countries. The process stimulates growth of new technologies, generate investments, and transform traditional social-cultural practices. The third approach was the Marxist one. According to the theory globalization was regarded as a process of absorption of the industrialized nations of the North and the underdeveloped nations of the South.
Marxist scholars viewed globalization as synonymous with imperialism, the latest stage in the development of international capitalism. Talcott Parsons a primary theorist points social processes as the main ones of modernization on a global scale. In his theory, structural functionalism, Parsons emphasized that economists tend to take social order for granted. Talcott Parsons notices that in some circumstances social order does not affect economic reasoning. Economists' attention should be directed toward geographic areas and spheres of human activity.
Since World War II some agreements on free trade have been signed. But interest in globalization as a concept began to develop quickly during the 1990 s. According to the Social Sciences Index the term globalization appeared in the 1980 s, but only in 1992 it started to be used frequently. Nowadays, it is one of the dominant new theoretical concepts of the social sciences in the last years.
The effects of globalization on developed and developing societies are being studied by a lot of researches. The opinions of some of them differ from the others. Critics of the economic aspect of globalization content that globalization of free trade will lead to the destruction of a countries native industry, environment and a loss of jobs. They pointed to empirical evidence weak economies (witness by Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil) overwhelmed by easy money and vulnerable to volatile shifts in capital flows, of jobs less secure than the livelihoods abolished by globalization, Critics state that by introducing the financial scheme of international investment a country will lose its economic independence and may be forced to conduct policies that are contrary to its citizens interests. They consider that multinational companies may obtain much political and economic power in a relation to citizens of any country. Opponents see globalization as the promotion of corporatist agenda.
The aim of which is to reduce the freedom of individuals in the name of profit. They say that free trade will benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. The opponents considered that the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, and the orthodox model of development is being held up for closer scrutiny, as we become more aware of the risks as well as the opportunities which globalization and Washington consensus bring in their wake. (Image, 2003) Some ague that globalization will provoke the growth of debt and debt crises in the countries with debt-ridden economy. They take for example financial crises in 1997 in the South-East Asia. It began in Thailand and then quickly spread to Malaysia, Indonesia, and South Korea and eventually the crisis was felt all around the world. It showed the new risk in rapidly changing globalize markets.
Opponents emphasize that quasi-governments such as The International Monetary Fund and The World Bank are not responsible to the population they govern. They support the interests of corporations mostly. Proponents of globalization see the extension of market forces as being positive for society. Bruce Scott notes, that poor countries should grow faster than rich ones in a free global market. Capital from rich nations in search of cheaper labor should flow to poorer economies, and labor should migrate from low-income areas toward those with higher wages. As a result, labor and capital cortland eventually income rich and poor areas should eventually converge. (Image, 2003) The U.
S. economy demonstrates how this theory can work in a free market. Global markets offer greater opportunity for people to use more and larger markets around the world. It means people will have access to more capital flows, technology, cheaper imports and larger export markets.
Supporters point out that free trade will lead to lower prices more employment and higher output. As for globalization in policy governments have created international rules and institutions such as The World Trade Organization (WTO), The Euro Currency, and The North American Free Trade Agreement and so on. All of them deal with trade human rights and the environment. The World Trade Organization watches negotiations and implementations of trade agreements on a global or near-global level. The WTO agreements are signed by world's trading nations and should be ratified in their parliaments.
Though WTO was established to promote free trade and stimulate economic growth but some experts states that in practice it does not manage the global economy; and globally free trade results in the rich (both people and countries) becoming richer, while the poor are getting poorer. Developing countries do not benefit from the WTO Agreements because they have less negotiation power. Most of the WTO's current work comes from the 1986 - 94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round, and earlier negotiations under the GATT. Nowadays world is fully absorbed with the process of globalization. It is difficult to find a country that has avoided it. Globalization has a lot of positive and negative effects.
First of all it is connected with the development of opportunities, but in the other side it may cause the growth of poverty and cultural and economic decay. It is because some countries are involved with the process quicker than others. Many developed countries have great benefits from it while developing countries suffer from the results of globalization. Africa is one of such countries. During the period from 1970 to 1980 its economy had been declined constantly entailing the growth of poverty and inflation. So, it is evident that the gap between the rich and poor countries is increasing.
Bed living conditions in Africa, which were caused at a great rate by the spread of globalization, have provoked the spread of infectious diseases. Africa has a low level of health system thats why diseases like AIDS extend very quickly. Almost 40 million people are infected with HIV in the world and almost three-fourths of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. It means that more than one in five adults is infected. In seven African countries almost 20 per cent of their population suffers from AIDS. Globalization has destroyed borders and nowadays people can travel freely.
But it arisen another problem: it has increased the amount of infected people and the disease spreads quickly. Except problems with health Africa has to decide socio-economic problems, food shortages and civil strife and conflicts. It is necessary to say about the westernization of the world today. It means that western countries are those that were involved in the process of globalization quicker than eastern ones, and thats why they have great benefits from the process and influence greatly the eastern countries. The countries of the 3 d world feel the impact of westernization almost in all spheres of their life: political, social, cultural, and economic. Globalization gave an opportunity to western countries to control almost every sphere of life.
It has lead to cultural hegemony or a cultural imperialism of western countries and ruined native cultural traditions such as family, community, respect for life, hospitality. The process of globalization in India has had positive as well as negative results. Since 1990 GNP has grown high as well as the rate of export. But invested capital is not satisfactory thats why the level of technologies is low and the level of unemployment is high. India has no opportunity to produce new highly-developed technologies as well as the country is not provided with them. But nowadays advanced technologies are the main source to increase living standards.
In conclusion, it should be pointed that the gap between high-income and low-income countries becomes larger and it is a vexed question if globalization's after-effects play more positive or negative role for developing countries. Bibliography: Chris, South cott. Globalization, Culture, and Northern Identities: Some Considerations for a Northern Dimension Foreign Policy. Canada. Lakehead University, Department of Sociology, 2005.
Globalization: Threat or Opportunity? By IMF Staff, April 12, 2000. web Lucky, O. Image.
The Two Faces of Globalization: Impoverishment or Prosperity? Shaw University International Studies Center, 2003. web Talcott, Parsons. The Social system. The Action Frame of Reference and the General Theory of Action Systems: Culture, Personality and the Place of Social Systems. New York: Free Press, ch. 1, 1951.
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Research essay sample on World Trade Organization Process Of Globalization
