The Question is in the Assignment Criteria - Essay Example

The question is in the assignment criteria By [Name of Author] [Student Number] [Course Title and Number] [Name of Instructor] [Date] An analysis of the Globalization process as a form of social development using the theories: Dependency Theory (1967), Modernization Theory (1988) and World-Systems theory (1974) to reveal the underlying assumptions and misconception about cultural identity, justice and ethics and also to explain the why globalization can also be a determinant in sustainable development. Generally, globalization is claimed to the process of development hence it sacrifices our natural resources. It may sound so simple that in due time plants and resources would go back, but what if you take a large amount of natural resources and delay their growth because of the production process. It would not be sustainable anymore since the amount of produced cannot compensate the resources regenerated. This vicious cycle of unequal trade will in return deteriorate our natural resources. Many global politicians are aware of the issue and they have responded with the incoming threats of global warming. This is their statement: “The political world is united and divided, integrated and fragmented, but all of it is organized around complex relations and interactions among people. While it is conventional to think about such relations and interactions as somehow contained within states, drawing national boundaries is only one aspect of the human enterprise.....The human enterprise is social and cultural and economic, but, most of all, it is political.” (Tetreault, M A, Lipschutz, R D, 2005, Global Politics as if People Mattered. Pg. 165) Social Development refers to the process of planned institutional change to bring about a better fit between human needs and aspirations on the one hand and social policies and programs on the other. It is the greater capacity of the social system, social structure, institutions, services, and policy to utilize resources to generate favorable changes in levels of living, interpreted in the broad sense as related to accepted social values and a better distribution of income, wealth and opportunities. This process is accompanied by social change which is a form of institutional change that may not necessarily translate to the amelioration or betterment of the “quality of life” of people in a society. There are other processes of achieving societal development and one this processes is what commonly known as globalization. Globalization is a continuous process of interaction among the institutions of the society that is driven by international market and relies on information technology. The globalization process has evident effects on the environment, culture, political systems, economic development and human's physical well-being in the world. Since institutions are concerned, one of them has the greatest involvement which is the government. The process of globalization involves international trade and investment. With this the government has control of the goods coming in and out of the country because of the barriers of trade or the borders that they established, this are called tariffs. The government can manipulate the amount of tariffs since it is in percentage of every good that is being traded to a country, the concept follow the “ad valorem tariff”. Tariffs are primarily designed to raise money for the government in accordance to the other goods that other countries do not have. There was an agreement made by countries to lower and balance the tariff rates based on the amount of goods that are being traded. But still other capitalist countries tends avoid tariffs and establish a factory to their target market country so that they can receive the revenues without even bothering of paying the tariffs since the company is privately owned by a foreign investor. There is no way of making foreign investors pay their tariffs since they bought a piece of land and set-up an operational facility. Issues of extorting them are punishable by the law. Another aspect of what contributes in the globalization process is technology. It is believed that technology is the root cause of globalization. It creates and makes new advancements in the tools that are used for production and also it improves information dissemination. Also advancement in technology would entail faster transactions and better analysis of the economic trends that are constantly changing. There are many factors that may be attributed to the flourishing of globalization hence some them are undeterminable. Globalization is an abstraction since it has many causes. To better explain the globalization as the process of social development, the “Modernization Theory” was formulated. Modernization theory states the underdeveloped societies should follow the developed countries (Arat 1988). This is considered to the “formula of progress” or the Western model of development, citing the successful modernization experiences of the Four Tiger Economies of Asia: South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. This modernization theory entails the following: stable and efficient government, responsive educational system, proper economic policies, effective birth control program, proper modernized cultural values, and create institutions of capitalism with free enterprise, privatization and markets (Arat 1988). Obviously, all of the aims of the modernization theory are in accordance to the development of the society as an economically-driven individuals hence there is no act of developing resources such as projects to preserve natural resources. There is no effort of making a sustainable development wherein the progress desired is being established at the same time the natural resources are being preserved. Here are trends under explained by the modernization theory: First, people lack favorable orientation to change and have shifted to a generally positive attitude towards change. Second, the low level of literacy, education and understanding of the scientific method has been improved to a high value on education and science. Third, from social reinforcement of the status quo in the social system facilitated by the effective personal relationships such as friendliness and hospitability has been transformed into rational and business like social relationships rather than emotional and affective. Fourth, from little communication between members of the social system and outside due to lack of transportation and communication facilities has turned into cosmopolitan perspectives wherein members of the social system interact with outsiders, facilitating the entrance of new ideas into the social system. Lastly, from lack of ability to empathize or to see oneself in other’s role, particularly the roles of outsiders has turned into emphatic ability on the part of the system’s members who are able to see themselves in roles quite different from their own. It has been a positive assessment of the society under modernization theory. In reaction to the Modernization theory, Andre Gunder Frank (1967) has introduced the “Dependency Theory”. It claims that all the Third World Countries will remain poor as long as they remain tied to capitalist nation (Frank 1967). Third World countries are economically underdeveloped countries. The Dependency Theory objects the Modernization Theory under the assumption that developing societies could follow the path of development already pursued by the developed societies, claiming that underdeveloped societies may not necessarily develop using their model of development. The Dependency Theory made an assumption that underdeveloped countries could not develop on their own without the help of the developed countries (Frank 1967). In some instances, this is true because developing takes great amount of resources hence it is deteriorates the countries natural resources development still pushes through. These two theories gave birth to the “World-System Theory”, stating that world is divided into three parts (Wallerstein 1974). These parts are called Core States, Semi-periphery areas, and periphery areas operationally defined in the theory (Wallerstein 1974). Core states are composed of highly industrialized countries. The Semi-periphery areas those countries are relatively less developed countries residing near the core state. And lastly, the periphery areas are comprised of the economically depressed countries. These are the countries who cannot survive without the help of the semi-periphery or the core state. The relationship among these three areas is characterized as: “There is domination of the core state on the semi-periphery areas and the semi-periphery areas over the peripheral areas” (Wallerstein 1974). It is believed that there is always hegemony and hierarchy over those who do not have the means of production. This theory is discriminatory in the sense that all of those in the periphery areas have no chance of developing until the semi-periphery has not yet developed. Metaphorically relating it to the “Domino effect”, what happens to the periphery areas if the semi-periphery areas were stagnant? Since the semi-periphery areas are stagnant from development the periphery areas will follow hence the root cause of the semi-periphery areas being stagnant is because the core state. Ironically, there is no political center that governs the other lower strata hence the modes of production dictates the one who will be in control (Wallerstein 1974). Though it is evident that the core state has the power over the lower strata, it subconsciously realized because their dominance is also based on how the semi-periphery and periphery may perform. These are the characteristics of the three main components of the world-system theory: the core is state is the capitalist of among the components; they assume that both periphery and semi-periphery will adhere to them; and peripheral areas are dependent to the core state (Wallerstein 1974). The core state is the air support of the periphery areas. Semi-peripheral are not too dependent with the core state since they have a diversified economy and acts as a mediator between the core state and the periphery areas. Issues on cultural identity, ethics and justice are the negative implications of globalization (Hammond 2007). In cultural identity, an individual would be obfuscated with having two existing popular culture hence the native culture is overthrown by the foreign culture. The foreign culture could be the main stream culture. In application of the World-System theory (Wallerstein 1974), the periphery areas would most likely adhere to the culture of the core state. With this, they believe that embracing the culture of a develop country would entail their own development. Cultural relativism is evident in almost all of the existing cultures hence people still try to seek what culture best represents his or her personality (Hammond 2007).. In the case of the periphery areas, they have no choice but to adhere with the culture of the core state since they desire social development. Cultural identity is important to all countries since it tells the history and way of life the natives of certain country have lived (Hammond 2007). Social development is also important since it entails that betterment of lifestyle a society will have but not to the extent the society would jeopardize its own cultural identity. Ethics is interrelated with cultural identity since ethics is the values and customs of a society. This ethics are the societal laws which people abide with. Morality is one example of ethics. Ethics is in a way violated in the process of globalization because globalization exposes how xenocentric people are when it comes to foreign culture. Xenocentrism is the peoples’ adherence to foreign culture or objects while disregarding their own (Hammond 2007). This implies that the people in the periphery countries would think that their culture is inferior to the foreign culture instead of reinforcing their own. The acquisition of the means of production is important thus it predicts how the people would act if they do not have it. The justice system on the other hand is one of the many concerns of globalization hence it is made flexible for social development. Justice is created to make limitations for the foreign investment and to preserve equality among the free market. The justice system should deal with strengthening the public institution and civil society, the eradication of the corruption, the maintenance of the labor standards, to improve global governance, and to eliminate gender discrimination against women. “Only after one understands how freedom and rights are being suppressed by the managers of imperial states — even as they preach peace, freedom, justice, rights, and majority rule to their citizens to maintain their beliefs in the morality of their society, and thus assure the continued support of the masses for inflicting such violence upon the world — can one write honest history. If one does not understand that process, one is almost certain to write a history in which, unbeknownst to the author, the background and documentation have been carefully created to give Managers of State the freedom to suppress other people’s rights and transfer their wealth to the imperial center through unequal trades.” (Shah 2006) The essence of the statement tells that there are unequal trades occurring between countries that’s why poor countries become poorer and the rich richer. As stated justice is one agents of societal maintenance hence they tolerate the act of globalization by exploiting the tariff rate and making illegal transactions in the free market. The process is driven by greed and the desire to have a better life but not realizing the common good. The Globalization process is like an invisible hand that manipulates the core state, semi-periphery and periphery areas to act upon the needs of each other hence their relationship could be equal. Justice should have provided equality since they adhere to the rights and laws but what they do is that they tolerate these unequal trade in exchange for better living conditions. In reaction to the Globalization process, the concept of sustainable development was introduced (Shah 2006). Sustainable development simply means that social development will continuously push through hence it would not jeopardize the natural resources meaning it would be preserved for future use (Shah 2006). Efforts have been made through the justice system. One is that they now assess a certain bill or law if it would have negative implications on economy, society and the environment. Environmental preservation is not the only focus of sustainable development hence it was given emphasis because of the threats of the deterioration of the natural resources that we are actually experiencing now. For all the negative effects of globalization there is a way it could help sustainable development. As imposed by the European Union (EU), globalization can be a strategy to achieve sustainable development (Shah 2006). There also has been a formed Commission to facilitate the parameters of achieving sustainable development (Shah 2006). Here are some of the parameters based on their respective institutions: first the economy, economic activities must follow the framework of the World Trade Organization to improve the integration of developing countries, the global trading system must be more accessible and beneficial to the developing countries, sustainable development must be included in the list of priorities of regional agreements, and to promote cooperation with World Trade Organization and other international organizations. Second is for social development, poverty reduction, relinquishing hunger, improving health and education policies, avoidance of gender discrimination, generate more funding for education and health, and to promote a comprehensive research for sustainable development. And lastly the environment, to launch an initiative to conserve energy, to promote application of international environmental agreements, to eradicate illegal logging, to improve and create a sustainable means of transportation, to fight dynamite fishing, and to act in prevention of foreseen natural calamities. In sum, there have been efforts to remedy the process of globalization hence for better understanding the situation, negative aspects must be evident. This is an endless cycle of making mistakes as a learning process. Globalization per se is not purely negative. Carefully breaking it down, it deals with advancement of technology, improvement of living conditions, more access to the global market and also interaction with foreign sphere. But all of these positive aspects have an equivalent trade off which is eradication of resources. One should be able to realize that humanity has to choose between sustaining and globalizing. Sustaining would mean having all that we have right now at a constant rate while globalizing is to make everything standard for all countries disregarding cultural relativism and differences. The act to push through globalization would be better yet it makes the world fragmented in a sense that the breakdown the natural interconnectedness of man. Divided, in the sense, the nations are stratified based on their economic status and capabilities but still adheres to a complex system, as stated in the World-Systems Theory of Immanuel Wallerstein (1974). The future is made based on what we did on the past. Now that we recognize the flaws, we must help each other out to adjust and modify these flaws and make them useful. Awareness is what the world needs. Let us not be passive to the things that we see. We all can make a change for the betterment of humanity maybe not to reliant on globalization. List of References Wallerstein, I. (1974) ‘The Rise and Future Demise of the World-Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis’ Comparative Studies in Society and History. Frank, Andre Gunder (1967) Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil. New York: Monthly Review Press. Arat, Z. (1988) Democracy and Economic Development: Modernization Theory Revisited Comparative Politics, Vol. 21, No.,1 pp. 21-36 Hammond, P. (1997) Cultural Identity and Ideology[Internet] Available from: http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/philip-hammond/1999b.html [Accessed on October 18, 2007] Scheuerman, W. (2006) Globalization. Stanford Encyclopedia of History. [Internet] Available from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization [Accessed on October 17,2007] Lechner, F. (2000) World-Systems Theory. The Globalization Website[Internet] Available from: http://www.sociology.emory.edu/globalization/theories01.html [Accessed on October 17,2007] Global Partnership for Sustainable Development (2007) Europa: Activities f the European Union[Internet] Available from: http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/s15001.htm [Accessed on October 17,2007] Shah, A. (2006) Geopolitics. Global Issues [Internet] Available from: http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Development.asp [Accessed on October 18,2007] Cultural Identity (2000) NCELA & NCBE Publications [Internet] Available from: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/classics/culture/identity.htm [Accessed on October 18, 2007] What Is Globalization? Globalization101.org[Internet] Available from: http://www.globalization101.org/What_is_Globalization.html [Accessed on October 18,2007] Read More