"Globalization"

"Globalization"

1. Meaning:

   • It is a process that involves interconnected changes in the different spheres of society.
     • Spheres: cultural, economical and political.

2. Spheres of globalization:

   • Cultural: integration of ideas, values, and norms.
     • The ongoing process of globalization would reflect the values of the world’s majority.
   • Political: forms of governance on a global scale.
   • Economic: The money invested in different countries.
   • Globalization usually becomes a mixture of economic, philanthropic, entrepreneurial, and cultural efforts.
     • EX: (NAFTA) a treaty that allows much freer trade opportunities without the kind of tariffs.
       • Trade can increase or decrease job opportunities.

3. History of our global economy:

   • William I. Robinson said globalization started with the creation of the capitalist economy, which formed connections.
     • A globalized economy is the inevitable result of capitalism.
       • In the mid-20th century, the world economy was actually a compilation of competing and cooperating national economies.
         • Later on, the process of globalization intensified as national trade, production, and finance regulations were dismantled.

4. Global forms of Governance:

   • The political culture was led by wealthy, powerful nations. These include the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
     • This process involved the diffusion of ideologies that provided legitimacy for economic and political globalization.
       • The process of cultural globalization happens through the distribution and consumption of media, consumer goods, and the Western consumer lifestyle.

5. Aspects of Globalization:

   • In the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution led to even more trade. The advance of technology, especially communications, after World War II and the Cold War accelerated in this process.
     • One way to look at the similarities and differences that exist among the economies is to compare their standards of living.
       • There are benefits and drawbacks to globalization. Benefits: development, the creation of international awareness and empowerment, and wealth. However, some worry about the growing influence of enormous international financial and industrial corporations that benefit the most from free trade and unrestricted markets.

6. Corporations and institutions of Globalization:

   • Corporations often engage in white-collar crime that costs hundreds of billions of dollars annually and results in tens of thousands of deaths.
   • They are a formal organization that has a legal existence, including the right to sign contracts, that is separate from that of its members.
     • A multinational corporation is a corporation with headquarters in one nation, but with factories and other operations in many other nations.
       • Corporations are the dominant actors in today’s economy. They provide most of our products and many of our services, and employ millions of people.
       • Many multinational corporations operate in poor nations, where they often pay substandard wages and run sweatshops.
     • Globalization led to the development of global commodity chains, where economic links connect workers and corporations for manufacture and marketing.
       • Globalization also brings an international division of labor, in which comparatively wealthy workers compete with the low-wage labor pool of peripheral and semi-peripheral nations.