Significance of Globalization to Challenges of Development - Essay Example

? Globalization May 30, Outline: Part (A Globalization, Its Significance to Challenges of Development and Key Debates Introduction………………………………………………………………… 3 Understanding the Globalization…………………………………………… 4 Significance of Globalization to Challenges of Development…..…………. 5 Part (B): Power and Key Debates about Globalization Power as Relevant to Debates on Globalization……………………….…… 5 Key Debates about Globalization…………………………………..………. 7 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………... 8 Part (A): Globalization, Its Significance to Challenges of Development and Key Debates Introduction Globalization and related development were considered as the wave of the future when they first appeared to unite countries into one global economy for the mutual benefits, which presumed global integration and interdependence in the technological, economic, social, cultural, ecological and political spheres. The core intention of promoting globalization and development among countries had positive purposes and tasks to make the world more mature, connected and interdependent. The supporters of globalization influenced many government policy makers, economists, businessmen and journalists into believing that globalization is inevitable and everyone involved should do their best to smooth the process of financial, political and cultural development and integration (Bridges, 2007; Stiglitz, 2006). However, financial and corporate globalization overcame the globalization of production and cultural development. In reality it occurred to be an opportunity for powerful imperialist countries to freely intrude into the economies of other countries and use their financial, natural and labor resources for their own benefits. Despite global economy has grown rapidly due to globalization and development, such international problems like poverty, inequality, illegal immigration and global environment degradation still exist and become even worse year after year. The current paper will determine the meaning of globalization and development in addition to discussing and comparing different approaches to globalization, mainly skeptical and hyper-globalist. It becomes extremely important to explore and critically assess the implications of globalization for patterns of global inequality and the prospects for sustainable development (Allen and Thomas, 2000). By better understanding the map of rhetorical formations in widely-read texts regarding globalization, it might be possible to understand better the concerns and intentions of these opposite viewpoints on globalization and recent global changes. Understanding the Globalization Globalization may be defined as the integration of production and consumption in all markets across the world through uninhibited trade, financial flows, and mutual exchange of technology and knowledge with the free inter-country movement of labor (Jones, 2010; Watkins and Fowler, 2003). Allen and Thomas (2000) refers to globalization as the growing sense of interconnectedness, when “the strong are becoming stronger and the weak weaker” as the benefits of globalization accrue to a relatively small proportion of the world’s population while global poverty and social exclusion continue to increase. Globalization has intensified interdependence and competition between economies in the world market having a favorable impact on the overall growth rate of the economy. The process of globalization presumes opening up of world trade, internationalization of financial markets, development of advanced means of communication, growing importance of MNCs, population migration and the increased mobility of goods, capital, data, ideas and people (Ritzer, 2010). Due to globalization not only the GDP has increased, but the direction of growth in the sectors has also been changed. Earlier the maximum part of the GDP in the economy was generated from the primary sector, but now the service industry is devoting the maximum part of the GDP. There are many debates on whether globalization has positive or negative effects and whether countries should move forward in this direction or make necessary steps to prevent further influence of globalization. Since globalization consists of various aspects that affect the world in different ways, it is rather hard to come into one common conclusion whether globalization is good or bad. One aspect of globalization is quite clear: developments in one region can rapidly come to have significant consequences for the security and well-being of communities in quite distant regions of the globe (Allen and Thomas, 2000). Mainly globalization of the economy was able to succeed due to the emergence of worldwide financial and production markets and better access to financial and manufacturing procedures (Jones, 2010). Integration of financial markets, capital flows, international trade and human migration are the main components of economic globalization to increase economic interdependence of the countries worldwide (Watkins and Fowler, 2003). Significance of Globalization to Challenges of Development As Allen and Thomas (2000) wrote, globalization is characterized by four types of change, including the following: (a) globalization involves a stretching of social, political and economic activities across political frontiers, regions and continents; (b) globalization suggests the intensification of interconnectedness, which are investment, flows of trade, finance, migration and culture; (c) growing extensity and intensity of global interconnectedness can be linked to a speeding up of global interactions and processes; and (d) growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions is associated with their deepening impact. In such a way, the boundaries between domestic matters and global affairs become increasingly blurred. Part (B): Power and Key Debates about Globalization Power as Relevant to Debates on Globalization Power is a measure of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. Whether it is political, economic or social power, it helps to introduce changes within the environment or society as a whole. A successful process of empowerment must also involve changes in power structures both at local and at broader, national and international, levels (Allen and Thomas, 2000). Empowerment implies redistributing power and transforming institutions. The text by Allen and Thomas (2000) provides another explanation of empowerment, which is a desired process by which individuals, typically including the “poorest of the poor”, are to take direct control over their lives. Once “empowered” to do so, poor people will then (hopefully) be able to be the agents of their own development. The main challenge today is ensure equality-led transformation of institutions and values to restore community, redistribute power, and reallocate earth's natural wealth to uses that contribute to sustainable improvements in human well-being. Another important aspect of the alternative development vision is cultural diversity. If people and communities are empowered to develop themselves, it follows that they will do so in distinctively different ways, which will be affected by a whole variety of cultural variables. The aim of empowerment is to help people to become their own development agents, which can be accomplished if to imply radical changes to power structures and institutional arrangements. Allen and Thomas (2000) continued discussing the issue of labor power, which is important in case of globalization, especially while employing labor forces for international projects or production abroad. Coca-Cola, British American Tobacco, McDonalds, Nikon, BMW, BP and Nokia are among numerous MNCs working today. It was logical to address the wealthy elite top of the economic pyramid in the emerging markets as the first main target for MNCs products and services. However, recently large corporations realized that there is a huge untapped market potential at the base of the economic pyramid (Goodman, 2005). By presenting the fastest-growing segment of the world’s population, merely four billion people in those markets present both large opportunities and unique challenges for MNCs. The emerging economies of such countries as China, Argentina, India, Mexico, Egypt, Ukraine and others are the key locations for the future development and growth of MNCs. Poor people who possess no means of production excepting their own labor power, which they try to sell for a wage in order to buy enough food, are particularly vulnerable to labor market conditions. Key Debates about Globalization There are numerous debates about globalization, including whether it is a process or a project; whether it presents a new era or nothing new; whether it has positive or negative effect on the society development; whether it is civilizing, destructive or feeble; and so on. There are additional approaches to globalization, including skeptics, globalists, hyper-globalists, neo-liberals, radicals and transformationalists. The main difference between these approaches is their perception of the world rather than perception of the facts. Hyper-globalists view globalization as causal historically developed a new epoch of human history characterized by global economy, integration and open free trade. They perceive politics as global governance or neo-liberalism with the decline of nation-state and loss of national sovereignty and homogenized culture. According to hyper-globalists, economic globalization leads to “denationalization” of economies through the establishment of transnational networks of production, trade and finance (Ritzer, 2010). As an opposition to hyper-globalist approach to globalization, there occurred a more sober set of accounts with skepticism arguing that globalization is not new and that probably the processes being described by hyper-globalists are not very global either. For skeptics, globalization is a discourse and internationalization is effect of other causes (Held et al, 2005). Their empirical approach to globalization views international economy as triadic, regional and unequal because there is always state intervention and protectionism. On the contrary to hyper-globalists, skeptics do not view globalization as something new. They are confident that nation-states with regional blocks are those to keep power and control all fields of the society (Held et al, 2005). Conclusion Globalization is a process fueled by, and resulting in, increasing cross-border flow of goods, services, money, people, information and culture. Due to globalization, people are no longer live in a “closed” community without influencing or being influenced by other nations (Allen and Thomas, 2000). Problems, disasters and events that happen on a long distance have an important and immediate impact and appropriate reaction. People can no longer stay indifferent to the increased number of crimes and diseases in another country, emergence of uncontrolled migration and terrorism, usage of drugs and worsened environmental situation. The two opposite approaches to globalization discussed in the current paper provided different perspectives and views on the influence of global economy and globalization toward the economic, political, social, cultural, technological, and ecological issues around the world. Identifying the critical issues in the debate between hyper-globalists and skeptics creates an intellectual foundation for thinking about how globalization might best be conceptualized. References: Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (2000). Poverty and Development into the 21st century. Oxford University Press. Bridges, E. (2007). Transforming a Globalized World. WorldView Journal, New York: August 3. Goodman, E. (2005). Globalization and Globalism. New York Press. Held, D. et al. (2005). Debating Globalization. Polity. Jones, A. (2010). Globalization: Key Thinkers. Polity. Martell, L. (2010). The Sociology of Globalization. Murray, W. E. (2006). Geographies of Globalization. Routledge. Plane, P. (2005). Privatization and Economic Growth. An Empirical Investigation from a Sample of Developing Market Economies, Applied Economics, p. 29. Ritzer, G. (2010). Globalization: A Basic Text. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Stiglitz, J. (2006). Making Globalization Work: The Next Steps to Global Justice. Allen Lane. Watkins, K. and Fowler, P. (2003). Rigged Rules and Double Standards: Trade, Globalization and the Fight against Poverty. Oxfam. Read More