Global Politics: Globalization and Neo-Liberalism, Colonization, and Global Culture - Case Study Example

Name: Title: Global politics: Globalization and Neo-liberalism, Colonization and Global Culture Title: Tutor: Course: Global politics: Globalization and Neo-liberalism, Colonization and Global Culture This essay will critically analyze the quote “McDonalds in Moscow and Coke in China will do more to create a global culture than military colonization could ever do” by Benjamin Barber in the context of global culture. The two companies Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, are among the most successful companies in the transition from local, to national and finally to globalized international products. They are thus an excellent example of the impact that globalization has on creation of global culture. Globalization is beneficial towards achieving a global culture than colonialism in the sense that the former is free and not an imposition by any party while the latter is imposing particular attributes to people who are not necessarily willing. Globalization is also more relevant in the context of neo-liberalism as opposed to colonization. McDonald’s in Moscow McDonald’s has greatly influenced global culture particularly in Moscow, Russia. McDonald’s has over 75 outlets throughout Russia and is the most influential feature in the local landscape. It has thus influenced the local culture as well. In Moscow, where the majority of restaurants are found, the physical topography of the city streets and pedestrian walkways bear large red signs with huge golden arches and arrows directing people and motorists to the nearest McDonald’s restaurant while the locals use the restaurants as reference points when giving directions to others within the city. Political demonstrators also use the restaurant as points for staging and dispersal points such as when holding anti-government or anti-American meeting. An excellent example is when demonstrators first gathered at the McDonald’s restaurant at Dobryninskaia metro station and were joined by extra demonstrators when the procession passed across the outlet at Tretiakoskaia station. Education institutions used to take their students to areas such as Lenin’s tombs, museums and factories during cultural excursions but have since changed. They now take such groups to McDonald’s restaurants and other lucrative places. McDonald’s has brought a new experience in Russia and is commonly referred to as McDonalization. McDonald’s has been like a home to most of the residence in Moscow (Smith, 2007). This aspect of the firm being like a home to the people has increased the interconnectedness of the peoples and cultures in the world. Coke in China Coca-Cola is an international firm that is found in almost every part of the world. The company has been one of the most successful in expanding from local, to national and finally to international product. This has come as a surprise considering that the firm produces and markets beverages, which are not necessarily basic needs and is basically in the entertainment or recreational sector. The company has however affected and influenced the Chinese culture in several ways. This is because the company offer products that suit both the poor and the rich in their normal ways of life. In China, the situation is not different. Everyone drinks Coca-Cola and is thus influenced by the company at one point in their life. The firm has greatly affected the consumer patterns in China especially in the recreation sector (Smith, 2007). Globalization and global culture Globalization has been in play in global culture dating back to when the Dutch East India and the British East India firms began trading with India. An important and rather justifiable point comes out when globalization is perceived to have a great impact on local culture. It is often assumes that as globalization spreads, it will destroy local culture all over the world by unifying societies across the world. This is the only point argues against globalization by several nations of the world except U.S.A. The royal international clientele existing along all sectors of class, society and population of large companies such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s is key to the spread f global consumer power through the power of corporations. Culture in this context is the indigenous way of life that entails religion, spirituality, means of communication, moral and social norms, family issues and other aspects of a person’s basic life (Daes, 2004). There is reasonable concern that large American Companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s with their intensive advertisement and promotions campaigns are able to establish outlets all over the globe. Some of the obvious benefits of globalization include raising the level of appreciation of the American culture, building a common ground for perceiving issue in the modern world, which is very important in the minimization of conflicts that result from cultural misunderstanding. A better understanding of the modern day culture helps in enhancing confidence and pride in the culture and heritage observed by any particular society. It also allows people to focus on cultural differences or similarities in an effort to create a mutual understanding between different cultures. Global awareness is enhanced through exposure to various ways of lives and the recognition of the unity of the individuals at various levels in the society (Daes, 2004). Globalization also helps in creation of individualism among the population as each person is evaluated according to the achievements made in the society. People normally learn and progress as they interact with the environment and as they strive to make an impact towards promotions and recognition in the society. A practical case is Japan in which group achievement had more impact when compared to individual performance as a result of stiff competition from U.S.A. based and other international companies (Glyn, 2006). Individual performances as well as achievement have taken center stage in promotion and recognition in the modern world. Globalization further enhances the level of interaction and adaption among cultures. Similar to interpersonal relationships, people normally learn from interactions between the societies and cultures in various ways such as observation and interaction. The Japanese culture was for instance, enhanced and developed through the interaction with the Chinese culture (Triandis, 2006). Globalization is also attributed to growth of the plural society. One feature common in all developing countries is the colossal state structure that affects significance control over most factors of the people’s daily lives. Improved economic activity in developing nations normally leads to emergence of cluster of institutions, interested agencies, industry groups, non-governmental agencies and civil society groups interesting in safeguarding the interest of the populations and consequently assisting in establishment of pluralistic society. Effect of colonization on global culture Military colonization too had significant effects on global culture. Colonialism by Spanish, British and France greatly affected the economy and religion of the particular areas where it prevailed. Spanish, British and French colonized many nations of the world with the intention of gaining power and strength. They affected the areas that they colonized in terms of culture, economy and religion. Spanish culture is for instance prevalent in Spanish colonies such as Latin America while British and French cultures are common in U.S.A and Canada. One main effect of colonialism is an alteration in the culture of the colonized area. In many cases, an area was colonized by force through a military action (Triandis, 2006). An example is the \Spanish colonization of the Americas. This they did through powerful forces aided by superior weapons, gunpowder and cavalry. The Spanish forces captured \Inca and Aztec empires in the 16th century and consequently led to adaptation of their culture in the regions. Spanish culture which is still prevalent in the regions span from Mexico to South America. The French and the British invaded the North American region, which was not densely popultated. Europe, which was much, advanced at that, time had a great and long lasting significance in the regions that were colonized. The major driving force for colonialism at that time was trade. The British were interested in establishing trade ties with Asia while the French were interested in trading with Canada. The Spanish colonies in the Americas were mainly concerned with precious metals. British, French and Spanish colonization had great impact in global culture. These countries interacted with America, Asia, Africa and Australia and had great impact on their culture. Colonization was mainly driven by desire to gain an economic advantage, to spread religion or to extend geographical boundaries. The religions experienced significant changed in terms of culture and religion. Colonization thus had some effect on the overall global culture. The lebanonization of the world Some of the multinational corporations that reflect globalization in the modern context include OPEC, the World Bank, the United Nations and the international Red Cross. These often appear as initiators to the real world actors such as national states and to some extent sub national factions in constant rebellion against uniformity and integration even that controlled by universal and justice. These sub-national factions often raise the aspect of colonization as they obviously oppose such initiatives. The headlines normally feature them not as countries but as cultures and not as wholes but as sects (Smith, 2007). They are not religious factions but rebellious factions and dissenting minorities in conflict with globalization but with the traditional nation-state. Nationalism is viewed as a force of integration and unification and a movement intended to unify clans, tribes and cultural sects. Benefits of globalization in achieving a global culture Globalization has significant impact towards achievement of global culture. The main objective of neoliberal economic globalization is to reduce all barriers to trade and the privatization of all accessible resources and services. Economic globalization is a significant aspect, which is profitable to companies in the modern era. The neoliberal policies are initiated through recognized agencies such as IMF, World Bank and WTO. Enterprises helped towards the creation of a society with huge political influenced after the end of the Second World War. Neoliberalism economic globalization structures promoted market forces and commercial activity as the best strategies for manufacturing and distributing goods and services. The structures also ignored the role of the government in controlling trade and avoided government control in economic, financial and social operations (Neumann & Ole, 2010). The process of economic globalization is fuelled by the criteria in these structures and is intended at minimizing borders and barriers between countries to enable the market forces to drive the economy. The structures were readily accepted by the authorities and have been common in the modern economy. The structures were mostly implemented in the U.S and Europe where the authorities believed that enlarging the free market and privatization of businesses would instill great economic prospects and social well-being. The resulting deregulation, privatization and the reduction of border limitations offered an ample ground for enterprise activity and consequently saw a rapid increase in the growth and influence of companies. Companies are at present the most productive entities in the world. They have continued to achieve their financial, economic and political ambitions through the implementation of the structures. Neoliberal policies have been key towards the generation of wealth to some people. Although the policies have been unable to create wealth for individuals living in extreme poverty, they have been critical towards the reduction of the general poverty in those areas (Neumann & Ole, 2010). Economic growth and globalization Economic growth, which is evaluated in terms of GDP, is the center of economic globalization and is the main focus of multinationals and many nations. The commercial activity of the multinational companies is responsible for economic growth in developed countries. About two hundred companies are responsible for a third of the world economic growth. Company trade is responsible for over 50% of the world economic growth while it accounts for three quarter of the GDP in European countries (Neumann & Ole, 2010). As the percentage of trade to GDP continues to increase, it reveals the notion that economic growth is the only proper way to develop a nation and reduce poverty. In contrast, the model for progressive financial growth is not viable. Companies have to work extra hard in order to record reasonable growth trends in their books. This often leads to misuse of resources and assumption of the environmental consequences. Economic growth is widely used by the World Bank and economists to evaluate the progress in developing nations (Neumann & Ole, 2010). Although economic growth has noteworthy benefits, it is not significant to close to a billion people living in extreme poverty. Globalization can thus be attributed to the significant economic development associated with the developing nations in the modern world. Liberalization Agencies such as World Bank, IMF and WTO have been in the front line towards the implementation of neoliberal protocols at the international level. These agencies are normally over-funded and progressively lobbied by companies and are politically and financially controlled by Washington, Wall Street, firms and their agencies (Dunklin, 2005). Consequently, the main control frameworks of the global economy have been tailored to sere the interests of these institutions. Neoliberal concept requires that markets be open to competition and under the control of market forces for free international trade to prevail. In contrast, the ultimate consequence of open and free market is definitely market dominance by strong companies. The level of operation of all companies is not the same while the developing nations are at a compromised competing position due to huge financial and economic disadvantages. Liberalization via structural adjustment strategies compels poorer nations to accommodate foreign products at the expenses of local products and manufacturers. It establishes a dependency upon products that have artificially low prices because of substantial subsidization by powerful countries. Financial liberalization eliminates obstructions to cash speculation from abroad. The consequent rapid inflow and outflow of cash is often attributed to severe financial and economic crisis some of the developing nations. A liberalized global market offers the companies with new resources to utilize ad new markets to exploit (Dunklin, 2005). Conclusion Globalization has great impact on global culture when compared to colonization. The three major colonial powers Spanish, Britain and France acquired colonies with the objective of extending their boundaries, spreading religion or gaining an economic advantage over other countries. The consequences were that such nations left some aspects of their culture in the colonies that they held. These aspects of culture are still present years after the events of colonization. The impact of the events of colonization are however not great because the colonies absolved the trends of their colonial masters only (Lachapelle, 2005). This is different from globalization whereby particular trends are prevalent in several countries of the world. The effects of free trade have been uniform in the developing countries and the economically powerful nations alike. Free trade has for instance led to huge financial crisis due to product dependency on poor countries while the same has been beneficial to developed nations. The consequences of liberalization through agencies such as World Bank, IMF and WTO still have been uniform for the developing nations and uniform for the developed nations. The developed nations have been benefiting at the expense of the poorer developing countries (Smith, 2007). Bibliography Daes, E. 2004. The impact of globalization on Indigenous intellectual property and cultures. Retrieved April 16, 2011, from Dunklin, A. 2005. Globalisation: A portrait of exploitation, inequality, and limits. Retrieved April 16, 2011, from Fu, J. H., & Chiu, C. (2007). Local culture's responses to globalization: Exemplary persons and their attendant values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(5), 636-653. Glyn, A. 2006. Capitalism Unleashed: Finance, Globalization, and Welfare. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jameson, F. 1998. Globalization as a philosophical issue. In F. Jameson, M. Miyoshi (Eds.), The Cultures of Globalization (pp. 54-77). London: Duke University Press. Lachapelle, G. 2005. Globalization and governance: Aspiring to a fairer globalization. Development, 48(1), 52-60 Neumann, I. B. & Ole J. S. 2010. Governing the Global Polity: Practice, Mentality, Rationality. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Smith, C. 2007. International Trade and Globalisation, 3rd edition. Stocksfield: Anforme. Tausch, A. 2008. Multicultural Europe: Effects of the Global Lisbon Process. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers. Triandis, H. C. 2006. Cultural aspects of globalization. Journal of International Management, 12(2), 208-217. Read More