Globalisation on Social Policy - Essay Example

GLOBALISATION AND SOCIAL POLICY Globalization is the shift towards an integrated and interdependent world. It signifies the great movement of people and goods resulting to integrated world economy. It has led to mix up of culture in all parts of the world with resulting disintegration of many social values that holds people together in life. Globalization has generally come with the increased interaction of people in the world. This has been brought by improved transport system, which has enables people to travel from one continent to the other. It has helped millions out of poverty and has many positive and negative effects. 1 (Temin, 2006) Globalisation has had great effects on the social economic aspects of many nations in the world. The United Kingdom Policy on Globalisation is contained in their White Paper of 1997, 2000 and 2004, which addresses eliminating world poverty by making globalization work for the poor. The paper addresses the U.K strategies to address the globalization issue by tackling the social issues in globalization based on the following policies. Trade Policies Globalisation seeks to create markets for products from any part of the world. It is evident that countries that have opened their markets to globalization have recorded an average of 2½% compared to those that have not yet opened their markets to global trade. Globalization is pegged on equal distribution of resource. Overtime, it has created billionaires from the improved trade. Companies have extended to reach all parts of the world due to globalization. Improved trade has helped countries like china reduce rural poverty form 250 million people in 1978 to 34 million in 1999. The opening of market to external trade has lowered commodities in the local markets making them accessible to all and reducing monopoly. The market policy of globalisation has been capital driven with the need to provide equal opportunity to all a players through fair trade policies in the international and regional markets. However it has become difficult to achieve fair trade terms due to political issues between developed and developing nations and selfish interest of these nations. On the issue of trade, globalization has come with unfair trade practices where it is feared that world trade policies are oppressive to the developing nations. Although globalisation calls for fair trade, it has threatened young companies in the developing nation, which are faced with stiff competition from the established companies in the developed nations. By the turn of the century, there arose the need to create the European Union of which United Kingdom is a member. Being a member of the European Union the United Kingdom looks to supporting an open and rule based trading system with the rest of the world. It has drafted white paper that emphasizes at promoting fair trade rules and support for developing nation’s trade ambitions. The white paper also creates a promise that United Kingdom will campaign for reduction of trade barriers in developed and developing nations. It also pledges that it will enhance the capacity of developing nations to exploit opportunities arising in the international market. 2 Currently there is a stale mate between the European Union and the African states on revision of trade terms due to the impending expiry of the current trading terms. The African countries have refused to sign the agreement citing unfair trade policies and all are looking at the United Kingdom as a negotiator in changing the trade polices since they associate more than with the rest of the countries making the union. Environmental policies It is just in recent years that the world has come to realization of the climate changes brought about by the environmental pollution. It is feared that the global warming phenomenon is a reality and with the disappearance of ice caps in some mountain and the rising sea level, serious effects are expected if working measures are not taken into consideration. Environmental pollution has turned out to be a serous economic and social issue due to its unprecedented effect on human life. It has captured the attention of both economist and social activists. Waste disposal has become a subject of controversy with environmentalists warning of dangers of waste disposal in rivers or in open places, which is causing serious damages to environmental stability. There is even what is like waste lifting where developed countries are buying dumping spaces in developing countries to dispose their waste. There has been a row in the Democratic Republic of Congo over disposal of lifted waste in its rivers. The disposal of electronic waste in developing countries is seen as a major challenge in maintaining of clean environment. In the white paper, the United Kingdom pledges to work to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide gas, which is seen as the main cause of global warming. It pledges to ratify the Kyoto protocol of 1997, which is seen as the only means of reducing carbon dioxide gas emission to the atmosphere. It pledges to work with the developing nations in their poverty eradication programs by ensuring sustainable environmental resources exploitation. It also pledges the commitment of the United Kingdom to be in the front line to negotiate for improved environmental conservation. To protect the environment, the United Kingdom government has enacted the Clean Neighbourhood and Environmental act of 20053 which contains crimes and disorder reduction strategy, laws on packing of vehicles and reduction of noise pollution, laws and regulation on litter and refuse disposal, transport of waste laws, laws guiding deposit and disposal of waste, and many other regulations which are aimed at protecting the environment. 4 Policies on poverty Although globalization has taken root in our societies, many countries in the developing and even in the developed nations still live below the poverty line. Poverty in the world has been brought by wars and lack of equal opportunities. Although there have been efforts from developed nations to help the developing nations, the result are not easily seen as most countries continue to register negative growth. Globalisation was initially seen as the key element in bringing equality in the world through promoting equitable distribution of recourses but this has not been the case. Still many countries continue to ravage in wars where some are even funded from outside the country. This has brought biting poverty even in countries with abundant mineral resource. The government of the unite kingdom pledges to increase development assistance to 0.33% of its GNP by the year 2004 and henceforth progress to 0.7% United Nation’s target. The paper also promises that United Kingdom will end giving of tied aids and reduce the burdens placed on poor countries receiving the loans in order to improve their effectiveness. It also pledges to replace the old Overseas Development and Co-operation Act of 1980 in order to draft one which is poverty focused. It also pledges to provide debt relief as a means of poverty reduction. This is seen as an effort to help reduce the world poverty level, which is a mark of inequality that exists in the world. Labour policies With the advent of industrialization in response to increased global trade, there has been great labour demand in many countries of the world and especially in developed countries. “More competition in product markets, as a result of globalisation, implies greater demand for labour at a given real wage. And increase exposure of jobs to competition reduces wage pressure at a given employment level,” (Boulhol et al., 2006)5. This has a great effect in reducing unemployment. This effect has given a 1% reduction in unemployment level in the European Union. Globalization has caused movement of labour. The effect of immigrant workers displacing the native workers is very small. However it has been established that immigrant workers tend to lower the bargaining power in the job market since most of them are willing to work for low wages.6 (Jean et al., 2007) But globalisation must be attributed to lowering the level of unemployment or moving jobs to other countries to outsource for cheap labour. The United Kingdom has witnessed flow of labour in its labour market. It is to be understood that globalisation has helped the United Kingdom to cope with high levels of unemployment. According to the 7Economic Survey (2007), the rate of unemployment reduced form 8% in 1996 to 41/2% in 2004. It is in this period that the United Kingdom opened its doors to external labourers from other countries especially from European Union. The negative effect of this labour movement is already being felt since the unemployment rate has increased again to 51/2% in 2007, which is partly attributed to the stock of immigrant labourers flooding the market. To address this issue of labour market, the United Kingdom has enacted the Employment Act of 2002 which among other things addresses the issues of maternity leaves, formation of employment tribunals and the appeal tribunals to settle employment disputes, statutory on leave and pay, dispute resolution statutory procedures, and other issues affecting the labour market. There are remarkable changes that are taking place in the labour market due the globally introduced concept of outsourcing and outshoring. It is only the skilled workers that are reaping the benefits of globalisation, since they are in a position to get hired in these jobs. This has left the unskilled worker with low payment rate as compared to skilled workers. The unskilled worker pay has been decreasing since 1991 in the United Kingdom. To counter this effect the government has been making legislation aiming at tax cut to the unskilled workers. To protect female workers the government has enacted the 8Work And Family Act of 2006, which define the maternity period that women are given and which is payable to 26 weeks. This is in realization of women contribution in the economy and globally consulted campaign on gender issues. Tax policies Globalisation has improved tax collection in many countries. Due to movement of labour and capital and with the advent of new businesses, it has led to greater tax competition. It has encouraged the pursuit of efficiency gains in the tax systems. However liberalised markets and open trades has denied some countries tax revenues and has henceforth reduced their tax collection and the ability of these governments to provide basic needs to the people. The rate of tax collection has risen in the United Kingdom since 1996 and the corporation tax has become broader based. Globalisation often brings tension between the desire to spend on social issues and the need to spend on maintaining tax competitiveness that often reduces revenues. To counter this effect, the United Kingdom government has introduced an efficient tax system by cutting corporate tax revenue and broadening the tax collection base. Taxation is a major issue all over the world with cries of equal taxation among the high-income earners and low-income earners especially in the United Kingdom. 9 With the income difference between the skilled and unskilled workers widening in the United Kingdom, there have been calls from social activist for enactment by the government of possible countermeasures before it result to a great social issues. The government has responded by drafting a Welfare Legislation Act, which comes to effect in late 2008. It will enhance financial incentives and financial security for those who are sick and disabled, besides bringing equality in the labour market. There have also been calls for the government to extend tax credits for the low-skilled workers who are taking classes to up-skill themselves. Communication policies We have already asserted that globalisation has been enabled by improved communication technology. It started with the end of Morse code and the beginning of space communication technology using the satellite technology. This has led to development of mobile phones using satellite technologies and most recent the Internet. Use of Internet as a mode of communication was invented in the Great Britain. However, the more the world becomes advanced in communication technology, the more problems are arising each and every day. In the early days of using Internet, there arose issues about the lack of security of individual information, which could break all codes of secret communication. There were many activists who campaigned against what was seen as government’s effort to access all information passing through the Internet. Then there arose Internet frauds. This led to the enactment of the 10Computer Act of 1990, which governs use of computer. Many people have been conned through the Internet and many people are starting to develop a phobia about using the Internet. The United Kingdom has been in the forefront to promote communcaiton and has in effect put legal procedures concerning the use of the Internet. To ensure that it accessible to all people in the country, it has drafted and enacted appropriate laws and regulation that govern communication and use of electronic communication equipments. According to 11World Law Guide (2006), the communication Act of 2003 governs broadcasting and electronic communication network and services, and solving of dispute cases in communication. It also enacted the Electronic Communication Act of 2000, which governs cryptography services, facilitates electronic commerce and data storage, and other statutory in the acts that govern communication process. Education policies Globalisation has increased the demand for skilled labour. This issue has been politicized and brain drain from developing nations continues. The United Nations has drafted achievement of quality and free primary education as one of the millennium development goals to be achieved in the few coming years. Although there is free primary education in most part of the world, the United Kingdom government has been in the forefront in funding free primary education in other developing countries. This is in line with their white paper on globalisation. In the United Kingdom, there has been great demand for higher education among the low-skilled workers who want to upgrade their education and take advantage of globalisation of the labour market. The government has with effect to that increased spending on education by expanding the capacity and access to basic primary education and secondary education. The government has also created policies that look into funding formulas to inject addition resource to areas which have high proportion of pupil form deprived background. There is proposition of introduction of voucher funding where pupil from deprived background receives vouchers valued more highly than others. There have been calls to help upgrade the skill of worker in the United Kingdom in order to boost productivity of the work force. Due to high demand of education in the 90s, the government enacted the 12Education Act of 1996 which governs the education system, local and international education polices and the funding of education by the state, among other laws. Health policies Globalisation has had major effects on health sectors of all countries of the world. Gone are the days when we used herbal concoctions for treatment. It has been enabled by globalisation, which has led to sharing of new inventions in the medical field. This has brought consulted effort by medical professionals on many health matters that are arising. The phenomenon of global warming has brought with it new diseases due to increased disease vectors as was earlier predicted. There has been worldwide research to try and find cure for many modern disease, which has become a threat to human species like HIV/Aids, cancer and others. Communicable diseases like SARS has requested for coordination of global effort in containing them. Healths issues have also brought about the need to improve security of citizens since the September 11 attack in the United States. This is because, many of the new diseases that are surfacing are feared to be biological weapons and hence they are always given immediate attention internationally. This has clearly stated the need to improve and check on international health regulations. Another subject of controversy in the globalisation issue is the use of human subjects in the research field. It is feared that developed countries are taking advantage of the developing countries and are using their population as subjects of research without their consent. This has been a bitter case from those countries whose population nurses have used as subjects and in some case infecting them e.g. the infection of Libyan children with HIV virus. There have been tight rules set for people travelling from one country to another. There are mandatory tests that one must undergo before one is allowed to visit a certain country. Before one is given permission to enter into the United Kingdom, one must undergo tests to prove that they are medically fit. Globalisation has also brought frauds in the medical field. There has been circulation of low quality drugs by scrupulous companies out to exploit the citizens. To protect its citizens, the united kingdom has enacted the 13Health Act of 2006 which contain among others laws on smoking, laws on sale of tobacco, laws on prevention and control of health care associated infections in order to protect the heath care providers, laws governing sale of drugs, medicine and pharmacies, law on the national health scheme, and other laws which are aimed at protecting its citizens. This act is in line with the world wide consulted effort to resolve many medical issues that continue to be problems affecting the world. In line with the efforts of world health organisation, the act enacts tobacco laws. Social security policies With the great movement of people from one region to another and with racial and tribal intermarriages, family life is currently faced by many problems. This has been complicated by enactment of rules and regulation that are legalizing what was before seen as wrong and unethical. Countries have passed laws legalizing abortions, divorces, gay marriage, and many other social issues, which up to now evoke a heated debate. The debate on these issues is centred on moral, ethical, cultural and religious grounds. There has been erosion of many cultures in the world due to mix up of people with different cultural background, which has created a lot of problems in marriages. To protect marriages, the United Kingdom government have enacted the marriage act of 1994, and Family Law of 1996, which defines marriage, solemnization of marriage and the registration of marriage. It is being revised to become more relevant in modern marriages. The issue of social security compounded with religious and political issue has given rise to terrorism. This has created worries of possible nuclear war and its consequences. The world is still recovering from the shock of September 11 attack and other attacks claiming lives in other part of the world. The United Kingdom has not been sparred as it has been recently under terrorist attack due to deteriorating social security and international terrorism due to religious issue. To protect the citizens, the government has enacted the 14Terrorism Act Of 2006, which defines the terrorism and underlines penalties for those convicted of terrorism acts. This policy is important due to political heat existing currently between the western government and the Middle East governments. In conclusion, it is very clear that the United Kingdom government has been waking up to issues arising from globalisation, which affects it directly or indirectly. This is very critical considering the place it occupies in the world and with the need to create a safe and prosperous world. References Boulhol, H., Dobbelaere, S., and Maioli, S. (2006). Globalisation product and labour market Discipline, IZA Discussion paper series, no. 2178, Bonn Brook, M. A., Johansson, A., Vujanovic, P. and Sollie, M (2007): Economic Survey of the United Kingdom 2007: Improving work prospects for the least skilled. OECD countries economic survey report, 2007 Jean, S., Causa, O., Jimenez, M., and Wanner, I. (2007): Migration in OECD countries. NBER working paper series, No. 12484, Cambridge MA Temin, P. (2006). The Economy of the Early Roman Empire; Journal of Economic perspective, Vol. 20, No. 1 The World Law Guide (2006): Legislation United Kingdom. Retrieved from, http://www.lexandin.nl/wlg/legi/nofr/eur/lxweil.htm/human%20Right .on 26th November 2007. Read More