Globalization and South Korea - Essay Example

Globalization and South Korea: How an Asian Country makes it among the List of the World's First World Country Introduction Globalization can mean many things. There is the economic component of globalization that is defined as "the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, direct foreign investment, short term capital flows and international flows of workers and humanity in general"i. The other definition of globalization is "the freer movement of goods, services, ideas and people around the world"ii. This definition encompasses the qualitative aspects of globalization in the sense that it goes beyond mere numbers in defining the exchange of information in a borderless world. Ever since the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) came into effect in the 90's and the World Trade Organization was established with a mandate to regulate and intervene in the disputes arising out of globalization, the world economy has been integrated in a way that has surpassed the earlier attempts. This is noteworthy, as contrary to popular belief, trade and commerce between nations has always been the case since the first ships carrying silk, spices and muslin from the east and other exotic stuff from the west has set forth for each other's shores. In fact, the famous voyage of Christopher Columbus is a testament to the ability of nations to seek out markets other than their own for trade. Though the world was integrated in colonial times as well, the process received a setback in the 21st century in the intervening period between the two world wars. It was only after the establishment of the Bretton Woods system that the world economy started regaining some of its interconnectedness. And the demise of alternatives to capitalism and the free market system ensured that all countries with a desire to alleviate poverty and raise the standard of living of the peoples would invariably turn to trade and commerce and utilize the "theory of comparative advantage"iii as proposed by the noted economist David Ricardo. Globalization as a phenomenon cannot be avoided. Despite the setbacks to the process by the events in the aftermath of 9/11, Globalization continues its inexorable march adding new strands to its already well-knit thread. The successes of India and China in this decade and the successes of the so-called "Tiger economies" of South East Asia in the previous decades are proof that globalization works. The Real Issues Covering Globalization Procedures There are numerous studies that pertain to the reasons behind the reality of the actual events of the worldwide events regarding the issue of underdeveloped countries. There have also been numerous theories designed through the said studies to be able to explain the reason behind the issue being discussed herein. For instance, John Degnbol-Martinussen said in his book Aid: Understanding International Development Cooperation, "the foreign relations between many countries worldwide mainly depend upon the economic status of each state. The ability to be n relation with other countries is usually dependent upon the fact that a country is required to have a certain considerable economic status in the world economy" (13). Saying this, Martinussen simply shows how the present society measures a country's status through its economic status. This is mainly the reason behind the fact that there exist three divisions of economic class in the global setting of economic scale. Basing from the dependency theory, it could be identified that among the reason behind the status of underdeveloped countries is the fact that many poor sectors of the global economy remain as suppliers to the developed states. They serve as mere support to the 'bigger or larger sectors' of the human generation. The fact that proves the said theory is its basis upon the actual occurrences today regarding the oppression of the poor. True, to be able to remain wealthy, many developed countries depend upon the underdeveloped ones for raw materials and resources for several economic productions, it turn, when the products are ready, the underdeveloped nations tend to depend upon the produced items of technology or inventions at that produced by the developed countries making up the First World Countries. On the other hand, another author named Robert Chambers in his book "Rural Development: Putting the Last First commented on the issue this way: "it has been obviously noticeable during the history of human civilization that the poor sectors of the society are the ones constantly oppressed. At times, the chance of being developed in some way is already lost simply because of the fact that they are always if not usually neglected in the global economic development" (56). It is indeed true that many underdeveloped countries have the capabilities of being developed. However, because of the lack of support of other developed sectors of the world economy, these underdeveloped nations are most likely set aside and are rather neglected in the process of implementing progressive systems for their economy. The modernization theory on the other hand tries to show how much important developed countries are in the innovation of worldwide society. According to this theory, the capability of the developed sectors of the worldwide society helps the entire humanity to incur development. However, the current issues of worldwide development pertain to other truths, which are contrary to the suggested result of the said theory. Instead of being a sharer of development, the First World Countries tend to have all the benefits making it easier for them to become wealthier and the Third World Countries to grow even poorer. This is proven by a paradigm of developing economies known as the Import Substitution Model. This model shows the possibility of many underdeveloped communities to gain progress even without the assistance of the developed sectors of the society. As seen during the actual connection of the divisions of the countries in the world with each other, the higher sector usually oppresses the lower sector. In this regard, it has even been proven that in many ways, First World Countries are even more dependent to the Third World countries in many ways. The only edge that the First World countries have against the other sectors is wealth, and this wealth could have never been attained without the existence of the sources and the raw materials provided by the Third World nations. In an actual setting, Fantu Cheru in the book "African Renaissance: Roadmaps to the Challenge of Globalization, commented that "Africa, as a part of the Third World group of the economic scale in the world, it has been one of the most vital supplier of raw materials to the American regions. It could be concluded then that without the existence of African resources, the American regions would have a hard time dealing with their needs required for them to become a highly developed society" (15). This is mainly supported by the description carried out by the World Systems theory regarding the domination of the wealthy over the poor. In many ways, if the underdeveloped countries resist supplying the developed nations with what they need, the wealthy nations would naturally loose their power and the capability to remain in authority over other nations. Indeed, it is obvious that the possibility of the nations to become equal is rather large. Only that the existing economic systems in the world today is rather shifted to support the wealthier sectors of the society. The widening gap is also producing serious consequences for the richer nations. This is because of their growing dependence on the raw materials of the nations of the "Third World." But now these nations have changed their attitudes about how their resources will be used, and paid for. An example of this was the action taken by the oil-producing underdeveloped nations, sending shock waves throughout the industrial lands. For many decades, the poorer oil-producing nations had to sell their oil at a relatively cheap price. Recently, these nations banded together and agreed to quadruple their prices. The shah of Iran voiced the changed attitude of such nations by saying: "The era of cheap oil is finished. We must add that the era of exploitation is finished" (James, 45). After observing what happened to oil prices, Chancellor Schmidt of West Germany stated: "The struggle over oil prices may be followed tomorrow by a similar struggle over the prices of other important raw materials." That view was reinforced by the prime minister of Jamaica, which land is rich in the bauxite ore that produces aluminum. He declared: "The underdeveloped nations can no longer continue to supply raw materials to developed countries on the old basis and, in an inflationary world, it is important to link the value of raw materials to the value of finished products" (Atlantic Magazine, 12). The poor nations have laid down a clear challenge to the rich nations. They will no longer passively accept what the industrial nations have assumed for more than two centuries. That assumption was that there would always be cheap raw materials available from the poor nations. No longer is this the case. However, the dilemma of the poor nations is that most of them are not blessed with abundant raw materials. Most of them lack abundant mineral and oil resources. They are largely agricultural lands, and in bad years, they have nothing to fall back on to sell to other nations. Therefore, they will not have the money to buy the food and other things they need to help them in bad years. That is just what is happening now to various countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. How South Korea Fares in the field of Global Competition (Background) The definition of globalization is essentially that because of technology, people around the world can now interact faster and less expensively than ever before. It is not the actual phenomenon of globalization that causes conflict; rather, it is the organizations and treaties set up to regulate and promote it. In the late 1980s, South Korea got its first taste of globalization. The country accepted recommendations from the Uruguay Round (which later became the WTO) to open their economy to free trade. These recommendations required South Korea to gradually reduce subsidies to its rice farmers. In return, the Uruguay Round promised South Korea aid and, even more importantly, entrance to the new world economy. The South Korean government believed it had put its country on the fast track towardsdevelopmentand prosperity and, in many ways, it had. But, the reforms were devastating to South Korea's rice farmers. Other countries, such as the United States, had continued to subsidize their farmers and the Korean farmers could not compete. In twelve years, the number of farmers in South Korea dropped from 6.6 million to 3.6 million. In 2003, U.S. subsidized rice exports to Korea were four times cheaper than the rice produced by Korean farmers. An Adjustment on the Economic System of the Country Many analysts would argue that South Korea's rice industry is inefficient and that it should be replaced with more profitable ventures. This may be true, but rice also has deep roots in South Koreanculture. Mexican journalist Luis Hernandez Navarro writes: Korean culture is based on rice. In Mesoamerica we say we are the "people of maize" - thus we can say that Koreans are the "people of rice." Rice is much more than a commodity for the rural people of Korea: it is an ancestral way of life. The Korean word "bap" is used both for cooked rice as well as for food in general. If you ask a Korean child what they see on the Moon, they will tell you they see rabbits milling rice in a giant mortar. A large proportion of the total labor force in Korea is dedicated to the cultivation of rice. Because of rice, rural villages are located in the midst of the very rice paddies where villagers work. Rice represents 52% of agricultural production. For many Koreans, rice is part of theiridentityand thus, very difficult to give up. Unfortunately for Korean citizens, the robust economic growth that had been experienced in the second half of the 20th century was not accompanied by adequate political and social development to permit Korean society and the state to deal with the global environment that would have to be confronted as the 20th century came to a close. It can be argued that the Korean developmental state discountedglobalization, its complexities and the value of governance and development as understood in political science. Instead the state relied on the nave economic forecast -- continued measured economic growth accompanied by full employment. Development as understood in political science was not really on the radar screen. Criteria such as social class development (working and middle classes, labor movement organization) political culture (liberalism or individualism versus planning) and political outcomes (democracy or authoritarianism) were choices not satisfactorily addressed at the political level until only a decade prior to the crisis. This was hardly enough time for socialization to ensure democratic consolidation and the establishment of enduring supportive institutions. The "rights and responsibilities of citizenship, the relationships between citizenship and the welfare statetheir ideas concerning the desirability of interregional sharingand their sense of responsibility to the rest of the world," were unclear. While scholars will disagree on the factors comprising a social contract, inKorea, whatever the social contract was before the crisis, it had been changed subsequent to the crisis by the unfolding economic conjuncture. This situation was exacerbated byKorea's integration into the global economy. The social contract was and still is less than transparent - but the discussion to follow will focus will on the generally agreed upon components of the contract and not try to define "one" for Korea. One of the factors that distracted Koreans from a focus of building a cohesive society, one based on shared values, national purpose and identity and political participation were the regional cleavages that marked the country's history and economic progress. These cleavages, reinforced by the political elites, resulted in uneven economic development and a wide dispersion of incomes. Furthermore, levels of trust are relatively low in Korea. This distorted both the policy choices and progress that the individual regions could achieve. In addition the social safety net was relegated to the shadows of public policy as the practice of employment for life -- in the chaebols - was a substitute for state supplied social policy broadly defined. The collapse of the Korean economy in 1997 was a manifestation of the weaknesses in the developmental state's underpinnings - particularly the capacity to deal with the social and particularistic consequences of the economic calamity, to say nothing of the absence of the governance infrastructure to address issues that gave rise to the calamity in the first instance. Thus, the purpose of this project is to explore the transformation of SouthKoreafrom a developmental state to what KDJ has characterized as a productivist welfare state. The project will explore the state-society-business relationship in order to assess the degree of symmetry between the precepts of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and welfare capitalism inSouthKorea. To reiterate, we will want to shed some light on the extent to which the earlier social compromise among the tripartite actors has been restored to the pre-crisis levels. Business and Trade System with Other Countries Amy Chua in her book, The World on Fire, points to how exporting markets to the eastern countries without determining the suitability of the recipient countries to adapt to the system of free markets and laissez faire capitalismiv. She argues that "exporting markets" to the East without a well thought out strategy breeds ethnic hatred and rise of crony capitalism in those countries. These two forces feed on each other with the rise of a relatively small ethnic minority controlling large parts of the economy leading to the majority detesting the success of this minority. This in turn leads to a situation where unscrupulous elements are able to prey upon the fears of the less privileged and make the countries prone to violence and instability. This leads to a backlash against markets that is defeating to the promise of globalization and international trade. She calls upon world leaders to devise strategies in such a way so as to ensure that globalization produces more winners than losers. On Social Change and Culture Adjustment Social change is the termed used to describe a concept or an issue that affects the general society or the group of individuals sharing the same culture or values. Social change is often viewed in two aspects namely, its significant effect to the mentality and social concept and the range of the society it affects implying its sort of measurement nature. The application and actual nature of this term is variable determined by the characteristics of the change it promotes in the society namely whether beneficial or detrimental to the condition and state of the social group. In the actual perspective, social change are varies in nature where manifesting as an act of advocacy, a sort of event or action, a social behavior, and others which all promote a change in the present or the normative state of the social condition. In the history of the development of the society, several social changes have already transformed the development of the social structure and their development course. In the past, some examples of social changes in the past are the use of contraception particularly birth control pills as related to the population and marital realm in the society, the electoral system development incorporating women as the result of the female suffragist's action for equality, and the acceptance of the concept of homosexuality in the social structure. These social changes have caused the development of the present social community to their contemporary state in the modern period. In the present, several social change issues are still influence the social behavior of the population namely the information technology structure which it now integrating their influence in the respective lives of the people. This in turn, has caused their presence to become a significant factor in the present state of modernity of the present social culture transforming the present society to become dependent upon the technology for their daily needs and activities. Modernization is mainly the concept in the field of social sciences describing the process of social development occurring through the system of urbanization, industrialization and other social changes that transform the lifestyles of the people. Often this concept is viewed as the product of the evolutionary pattern of the society in their development towards achieving a better approach towards their needs. Progress is the main determinant of the nature of this concept as observable in the life conditions of the people. Indeed, modernization can be observed in most critical social aspects and structure relevant to the daily activities of the population. The present state of modernization is primarily product the different stages of development that occurred in the previous periods. Each development stage produces a new standard of progress in the society wherein this respective level manifests as a better approach than the previous one in terms of the betterment of the condition of the population. Examples of the dominant modernization changes in the society are the development in the communication field in terms of contracting the regional gaps of the population, the progress in media developing the mean of transference of news and information, and the progress in the computing field as influenced by the rapid industrialization of the technology industry. On actual social structure, the concept of modernization is also dominant affecting the normative processes and approaches in each significant social system. An example of this is the modernity in the processes in the criminal justice field wherein their critical investigation has been further developed with the advancement of their facilities and technological development. Indeed, modernization brings forth the general influence of development as part of the continuous pursuit of the population towards progress. The Culture of Social Modernization and Technological Advancement James Burke is an author and a TV host known for his undeniably humorous process of presenting the different progressive advancements of the human society. His past writings talked about the different procedures by which human society and its ingenuity actually managed to produce different inventions as well as discoveries in the different fields of human interest including science and technology as well as the different developments in engineering and other building procedures. In his book, the Pinball Effect, he strongly points out how a particular opinion as well as act of a certain person affects the society as a whole. It could not be denied that even from the minds of the most common people who are plainly curious about the systems that control the human society, different developmental breakthroughs arise. This bouncing effect shall then be discussed within this report, as to how James Burke intended to show the difference of the human society before with regards the situation that it has to deal with now, especially in connection with engineering based developments. Although there are different ways by which humans develop through affecting each others, there are also different flaws that human innovations particularly have and how they were all given attention to by several curious human inventors themselves. The changes were indeed excellent, giving humans a sense of a higher level of security upon entering and utilizing the different built infrastructures in the different human communities. James Burke particularly pointed out that humans should never forget that these developments could not have happened if the past occurrences in the human history never came into existence. Again, he has proven that the acts of humans all around the globe affects others interest as well as profession in a direct impact. Through the years, the different fields of human endeavor have then been given a great focus on how they all flourished from simply being affected by the pinball interaction of events within the human global community. The South Korean community has naturally given way to the idea of being westernized as well as technology-based in terms of development. Social progress based on globalization approaches has caused the South Korean community to follow through the trend of their fellow first world countries in terms of economic scale. It could be observed that through this the traditional ways of the said society is now mixed with western culture including their entertainment preferences. Although a percentage of their tradition remains pure, a percentage among these traditions is now accustomed to being mixed up with westernized culture. Conclusion The main idea of studying the way people live in the society is to see how far they have faired in making their way to progress. However, contrary to the aimed unified progress, development is usually shifted only to the "haves". Yes, the world may be seemingly unfair, equality may even seem too impossible to be achieved, but through a unified effort, having an equal community could still be worked upon by the entire human civilization. With regards the South Korean community, the population of the said country now faces an entire society's adjustment to the issues of global understanding of globalization. It could be observed that through the study presented herein, all the aspects of their social interests are now undergoing a massive point of progression as the world tries to penetrate the country. Yes, in their case, the developments are highly supplemental making the people of the country face a lot of challenges thus accepting the process of advancement and progression in all aspects of their lives. Read More