What is Globalization?

The stretching of economic, political and cultural activities and their integration at increasingly broader scales

EconomicPoliticalCulturalEnvironmental

Age of Empire

Economic dimension:i. European metropole

(industrial core)ii. Periphery (primary

commodity production)iii. Migrant labor economiesiv. Colonial trading patternsPolitical dimension:i. Reworking pre-colonial

polities and social ordersCultural dimension:i. Cultural diffusion

(Christianity, education,etc)

Globalization II and Bretton Woods Plan (1944-73)

Goals: (economic and political)

1. Avoid Another Great Depression 2. Rebuild Europe3. Development of national industries and infrastructure4. Overcome inter-state conflict

Age of Development

Globalization II and Bretton Woods Plan (1944-73)

Institutions and features:

Institutions of development (international and locally):1. International Monetary Fund (IMF)2. World Bank's Development Loans 3. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade--GATT (1947)

Uruguay Round (1994 World Trade Organization (WTO)

4. USSR-- Central planning, forced industrialization, forced labor

5. Third World – states and international financial institutions.

Age of Development

Age of development

Features:1. Political arena: cold war tensions2. Economic arena:

- ( Fordism economies of scale, labor-capital compromise)-International role of US Dollar (gold and dollar as stabilizer)

3. Cultural sphere (urbanization, global consumer culture—music, cinema, fashion)

Globalization III- Era of Deregulation

Origins:

1973: US Deficit: More dollars outside US than Gold Reserves Nixon floats dollar

End of Bretton Woods System (1973) of:

-- fixed exchange rates -- national controls on currency

exchange -- ability of state to control economy

Crisis of the Development Model --Crisis of Profit

High production costs -- raw materials, equipment, energy, labor

-Oil crisis Global Recession early 1970s and early

1980s

Age of Deregulation

Sources of Globalization III:1. End of Fordism (New technologies—

production at a distance)

2. End of state led-development

3. De-regulation of markets – privatization “free trade”

Age of Deregulation

--Rise of neo-liberalism both as theory and practice (political and economic)

Examples:

Thatcherism

Reaganism

Age of Deregulation

NEO-LIBERALISM: 1970s Privatization Open Markets Structural Adjustment Foreign Investment

Global Neo-liberalism = Market as Primary Determinant of Development

Age of Deregulation

Political Globalization

Declining power of the nation-state Growth of transnational regulation and

regulatory institutions IMF, WTO

Diffusion of democratic practices Diffusion of a neo-liberal model of regulation

Cultural Globalization

Migration flows International tourism Refugees Permanent migration flows

Global media and communications Traffic in cultural products and practices

Economic Globalization

Increased international trade Growth of multinational corporations

Results: Huge Expansion of Global Industrial Capacity/

Second Industrial Revolution

Capital Unbound: The Global Assembly Line Rise of “off-shore” production and “out-

sourcing”

movement of production/component manufacture facilities from “first world” to “developing world”

Global Assembly Line Power of global capital:Multinational Corporations“Off-Shore” ProductionCheap Labor + Flexible Environment Management located in nation-stateWorkers multi-nationalMobile MNCs or TNCs

Can or should Globalization be managed?