Transcript Globalization

YOUR TEXTBOOK DEFINES GLOBALIZATION AS:
“THE REDUCTION AND REMOVAL OF BARRIERS BETWEEN
NATIONAL BORDERS TO FACILITATE THE FLOW OF GOODS,
CAPITAL, SERVICES, AND LABOR.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
-INCREASED GLOBAL TRADE OF CROPS, GOODS,
COMMODITIES, SERVICES, ETC.
-GLOBAL EXPANSION OF FINANCES, INVESTMENTS, &
CAPITAL
-INCREASED INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION OF WORKERS
-INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF GLOBAL CORPORATIONS
-INCREASED INTERDENDENCE AMONG NATIONS
WHAT DOES IT NOT MEAN?
INDUSTRIAL HIERARCHY & A WORLD DIVIDED BY
GLOBALIZATION
I. The Global Economy
A. Developed economies: nations w/organized industrial and
educational systems w/modern technology
1. Examples: United States, Canada, W. European nations
(England, France, etc.), Japan and the Asian or Little Tigers
2. GDP per capita are highest ($16,000 and up)
3. Consumption levels are highest
4. Population growth is limited
5. High literacy rate (80% and up)
6. Strong infrastructure (bridges, canals, airports, plumbing,
electrification, etc.)
7. Strong education system
8. Long life expectancy (74 years and up)
9. More urban than rural population
10. Low birthrate, infant mortality rate, and death rate
11. All industrial levels (especially tertiary and quaternary)
12. Capitalistic, democratic, stable governments
I. The Global Economy
B. Developing Economies: nations w/o organized industrial and
educational systems, with very little technology, with
agriculture as the economic basis
1. Examples: Sub-Saharan African nations, Latin American
nations
2. GDP Per Capita are lowest
3. Consumption levels are lowest
4. Population growth is not limited
5. Low literacy rates (60-80%)
6. GDP Per Capita low ($1,001-$15,999)
7. Shorter life expectancy (55-73 years)
8. Mainly primary and secondary industries
9. Command economies, with dictatorial, unstable
governments
Place
Population (rank)
GDP (rank)
6,700,000,000 (1)
$69,490,000,000,000 (1)
$10,400 (103)
European Union 491,000,000 (4)
$14,820,000,000,000 (2)
$ 33,400 (37)
United States
307,000,000 (5)
$14,290,000,000,000 (3)
$ 47,000 (10)
China
1,300,000,000 (2)
$7,800,000,000,000 (4)
$ 6,000 (133)
Japan
127,000,000 (12)
$4,348, ,000,000,000 (5)
$ 34,200 (36)
India
1,100,000,000 (3)
$ 3,267,000,000,000 (6)
$ 2,800 (169)
Germany
82,000,000 (18)
$ 2,863,000,000,000 (7)
$ 34,800 (34)
United Kingdom 61,000,000 (24)
$ 2,231,000,000,000 (8)
$ 36,600 (31)
Russia
140,000,000 (11)
$ 2,225,000,000,000 (9)
$ 15,800 (74)
France
64,000,000 (23)
$ 2,097,000,000,000 (10) $ 37,700 (38)
Brazil
200,000,000 (7)
$ 1,990,000,000,000 (11) $ 10,100 (104)
Kenya
39,000,000 (35)
$ 61,830,000,000 (85)
$ 1,600 (194)
Nigeria
149,000,000 (10)
$ 338,100,000,000 (36)
$ 2,300 (181)
Indonesia
240,000,000 (6)
$ 915,900,000,000 (17)
$ 3,900 (158)
World
GDP Per
Capita (rank)
Globalization & the Global Divide
In the following slides, consider the varying
perspectives on the effects of the
globalization of economies.
Is globalization a good thing?
Bad thing?
“The population especially of the developing world is growing, and
some people remain fixated on this. They note that populations of
countries like Kenya are growing rapidly, and they say that’s a big
problem. Yes, it is a problem for Kenya’s more than 30 million
people, but it’s not a burden on the whole world…”
-What’s Your Consumption Factor? by Jared Diamond, 2008
Why isn’t it such a burden on the whole world?
“…because Kenyans consume so little. A real problem for the world
is that each of us 300 million Americans consumes as much as 32
Kenyans. With ten times the population, the United States consumes
320 times more resources than Kenya does.”
- What’s Your Consumption Factor? by Jared Diamond, 2008
“Per capita consumption rates in China are still about 11 times below
ours, but let’s suppose they rise to our level. Let’s also make things
easy by imagining that nothing else happens to increase world
consumption…China’s catching up alone would roughly double
world consumption rates. Oil consumption would increase by 106%,
for instance, and world metal consumption by 94%...
We Americans may think of China’s growing consumption as a
problem. But the Chinese are only reaching for the consumption rate
we already have. To tell them not to try would be futile.”
-What’s Your Consumption Factor? by Jared Diamond, 2008
Does this mean we’re heading for disaster?
“No, we could have a stable outcome in which all countries
converge on consumption rates considerably below the current
highest levels. Americans might object: there is no way we could
sacrifice our living standards for the benefit of people in the rest of
the world. Nevertheless, whether we get there willingly or not, we
shall soon have lower consumption rates, because our present rates
are unsustainable.”
- What’s Your Consumption Factor? by Jared Diamond, 2008
I. The Global Economy
C. Was Marx right about a history of class struggle and an
international division of labor?
In 1848, Karl Marx said in The Communist Manifesto…
“Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great
hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other:
Bourgeoisie (wealthy) and Proletariat (poor workers)…”
Contemporary authors argue that there is still an existence of
class struggle between the developed and developing worlds.
Some view this struggle as positive, and others view it as
negative…
“Olive trees are important. They represent everything that roots
us, anchors us, identifies us and locates us in this world –
whether it be belonging to a family, a community, a tribe, a
nation, a religion or, most of all, a place called home…
…It [the Lexus] represents an equally fundamental, age-old
human drive – the drive for sustenance, improvement,
prosperity and modernization – as it is played out in today’s
globalization system. The Lexus represents all the
burgeoning global markets, financial institutions and
computer technologies with which we pursue higher living
standards today.”
- Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree
“Of course, for millions of people in developing countries, the
quest for material improvement still involves walking to a
well, subsisting on a dollar a day, plowing a field barefoot
behind an ox or gathering wood and carrying it on their
heads for five miles These people still upload for a living, not
download. But for millions of others in developed countries,
this quest for material betterment and modernization is
increasingly conducted in Nike shoes, shopping in integrated
markets and using the new network technologies. The point
is that while different people have different access to the new
markets and technologies that characterize the globalization
system, and derive highly unequal benefits from them, this
doesn’t change the fact that these markets and technologies
are the defining economic tools of the day and everyone is
either directly or indirectly affected by them.”
- Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree
“…In the world of McWorld, the alternative to dogmatic
traditionalism [Jihad] may be materialist consumerism or
relativistic secularism or merely a profitable corruption...
McWorld is a product of popular culture driven by expansionist
commerce. Its template is American, its form style. Its goods
are as much images as materiel, an aesthetic as well as a
product line. It is about culture as commodity, apparel as
ideology.”
- Benjamin Barber, Jihad Versus McWorld
“In the short run the forces of Jihad, noisier and more obviously
militaristic than those of McWorld, are likely to dominate
the near future, etching small stories of local tragedy and
regional genocide on the face of our times and creating a
climate of instability marked by multi-micro-wars inimical to
global integration…Unless we can offer an alternative to the
struggle between Jihad and McWorld, the epoch on whose
threshold we stand-post-communist, postindustrial, postnational, yet sectarian, fearful, and bigoted – is likely also to
be terminally post-democratic.”
- Benjamin Barber, Jihad Versus McWorld
“Columbus was happy to make the Indians he met his slaves, a pool of
free manual labor, I just wanted to understand why the Indians I met were
taking our work, why they had become such an important pool for the
outsourcing of service and information technology work from America and
other industrialized countries. Columbus had more than one hundred men
on his three ships; I had a small crew from the Discovery Times channel
that fit comfortably into two banged-up vans, with Indian drivers who
drove barefoot. When I set sail, so to speak, I too assumed that the world
was round, but what I encountered in the real India profoundly shook my
faith in that notion. Columbus accidentally ran into America but thought he
had discovered part of India. I actually found India and thought many of
the people I met there were Americans. Some had actually taken American
names, and others were doing great imitations of American accents at call
centers and American business techniques at software labs.”
- Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat
I. The Global Economy
D. Interdependence, Trade blocs, free trade, fair trade
1. Interdependence: a concept that all economies are
dependent on each other (e.g. resources, trade, accessibility, etc.)
2. Trade Blocs: entity comprised of numerous nations who
participate in mutual economic practices; typically based in
region (e.g. European Union), ideology (former Soviet Bloc), or
resources (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
OPEC)
3. Free Trade: economic practice of trade between countries
which has significantly reduced political restrictions and taxes
(e.g. WTO, GATT, NAFTA); good and bad?
4. Fair Trade: economic practice of trade between countries
which includes policies prohibiting coerced labor, child labor,
resource depletion, and environmental degradation
Economic Globalization
• Pro???
• Con???
Demonstrations against the WTO in Indonesia, 2008
Demonstrations against the WTO in front of Niketown in Seattle, 1999
Globalization of Politics
• Since World War II, nations have been, in
many ways, forced to cooperate politically
in order to avoid catastrophic problems.
• How have they done this?
• What are the good and the bad that comes
from this?
II. The Globalization of Politics and Culture
A. United Nations
1. Security Council
2. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)
3. World Health Organization (WHO)
4. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security…
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect
for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of
peoples…
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international
problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian
character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human
rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as
to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the
attainment of these common ends.
- Charter of the United Nations, 1945
“Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims
THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all
nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society,
keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by
teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and
freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international,
to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance,
both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among
the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”
- U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
Examples of rights in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
Natural Rights for all humans
No one shall be held in slavery
No one shall be subjected to torture
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest
Everyone has freedom of movement in/out of countries
Everyone has the right to a nationality
Everyone has freedom of expression
Everyone has freedom of thought and religion
Everyone has the right to work and choice of work
Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living
Everyone has the right to an education
“Through its strategies and activities, UNESCO is actively
pursuing the Millennium Development
Goals, especially those aiming to:
• halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in
developing countries by 2015
• achieve universal primary education in all countries by 2015
• eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by
2005
• help countries implement a national strategy for sustainable
development by 2005 to reverse current trends in the loss of
environmental resources by 2015.
• UNESCO and the United Nations Millennium Goals”
- UNESCO’s goals, est. 2000
WHO fulfils its objectives through its core functions:
providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in
partnerships where joint action is needed;
shaping the research agenda and stimulating the generation,
translation and dissemination of valuable knowledge;
setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their
implementation;
articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options;
providing technical support, catalysing change, and building
sustainable institutional capacity; and
monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.
- WHO’s goals, est. 2006
II. The Globalization of Politics and Culture
B. Reactions to Globalization
1. Conformity and absorption (Member nations)
2. Resistance (Terrorist organizations, non-conforming
nations)
a. typically anti-American or anti-Western
b. ignore international treaties, decrees, policies,
etc.
c. prevalence of terrorism through media
3. Criticism
a. Environmentalists (e.g. Club of Rome, Green
Peace)
b. Interest and Activist groups
c. Labor and Trades’ Unions
II. The Globalization of Politics and Culture
B. Reactions to Globalization
3. Criticism
d. Why do groups criticize globalization?
i. it diminishes the sovereignty of nations
ii. it rewards the few and impoverishes the
many
iii. it transfers power to global
corporations (e.g. Beyond Sovereignty)
iv. it enables global institutions (e.g. IMF,
WTO) to manipulate the global economy
v. leads to the destruction of the
environment
II. The Globalization of Politics and Culture
C. Americanization: the act of becoming American in
character; assimilating to the customs and institutions of
the U.S.A.
1. Specifically, what is included in
Americanization?
“Americanization is inclusive in all forms of American culture,
institutional, political, and economic. For example, we can include
under the heading of Americanization the worldwide diffusion of
the American industrial model and the later global proliferation
of the American consumption model; the marketing of
American media including Hollywood films and popular music;
the selling of American sports such as NFL football and NBA
basketball abroad; the transnational marketing of American
commodities including cola, blue jeans, and computer
operating systems; the extensive diplomatic and military
engagement with Europe, Asia, and South America; the
training of the world’s military, political, and scientific elites in
American universities; the expansion of the American model of
democratic politics; and the development and use of the
international labor market and natural resources by American
corporations…”
- George Ritzer, The Globalization of Nothing
II. The Globalization of Politics and Culture
C. Americanization: the act of becoming American in
character; assimilating to the customs and institutions of
the U.S.A.
2. Why does Americanization occur?
a. as an economic power it can simply outproduce other forms (e.g. Japanization or
Brazilianization)
b. American financial ability to promote
“American” goods (even if a good’s
components are made in foreign countries)
c. America is a “second culture” to many
people, so it is very adaptable (Donald
Duck v. French Ballet)
II. The Globalization of Politics and Culture
D. Technology and impact
1. Transportation (automobiles, planes)
2. Communications (Internet, cell phones, fax)
3. Space w/human cost
4. Broadcasting (television, radio) and political
control/freedom
5. Nuclear weaponry and biochemical warfare
6. Green Revolution (for greater crop yields)
7. Capacity and controversy of technology in
healthcare and sciences
Iraqi TV showing a gentle Saddam Hussein, 1990
Protests against FCC in
Los Angeles, 2003
III. Globalization’s Social and Environmental Impact
A. Migrations
1. today over 130 million people live outside of
the nation they were born in
2. Why?
a. global reach of corporations
b. refugee migrations
c. economic opportunities (“guest
workers”)
3. Most migration is urbanization
III. Globalization’s Social and Environmental Impact
B. World population
1. Today’s world population: 7 billion
2. Tripled from 1950 (2.5 billion)
3. Consumption increases, which strains resources
4. Increased birthrates of underdeveloped nations
5. Developing nations trying to achieve American
consumption rates
6. Family planning programs and policies
III. Globalization’s Social and Environmental Impact
C. World health threats
1. Global epidemics and pandemics
a. HIV/AIDS
b. SARS
c. West Nile Virus
d. Ebola
e. Mad Cow
f. Swine Flu
III. Globalization’s Social and Environmental Impact
D. Challenges to the environment
1. Deforestation
2. Acid Rain
3. CFCs and Ozone Depletion
4. Global Warming
5. Greenhouse Effect
6. Environmental disasters
a. Bhopal
b. Chernobyl
c. Exxon Valdez
“There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example where had
they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The
feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen
anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not
fly. It was spring without voices. On the mornings that had once
throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays,
wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound;
only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.”
- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962
1. If the present growth trends in world population,
industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion
continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be
reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most
probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline
in both population and industrial capacity.
2. It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a
condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable
far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be
designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth
are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his
individual human potential.
Club of Rome’s conclusions from The Limits of Growth, 1972
Photo of victims who lost their sight after poisonous gas
leakage in Bhopal India, 1984
Photo of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in the Ukraine, 1986
Photo of workers cleaning the shore after the Exxon Valdez disaster,
1989
Photo of a rescued sea otter from the Exxon Valdez disaster, 1989
Patterns of production — particularly the production of toxic
components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste — are
being scrutinized in a systematic manner by the UN and
Governments alike;
Alternative sources of energy are being sought to replace the use
of fossil fuels which are linked to global climate change;
New reliance on public transportation systems is being
emphasized in order to reduce vehicle emissions, congestion in
cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and smog;
There is much greater awareness of and concern over the growing
scarcity of water.
Results of the UN’s Earth Summit, 1992
“It would have been an equal, if more diffuse catastrophe, had the
Exxon Valdez made it safely to port and its cargo burned in car
engines proceeding thence into the atmosphere where its contents
would have contributed to air pollution and global warming. Oil
has reduced our intelligence by dividing us between what we take
to be realistic imperatives of economy and the commands of ethical
stewardship. As a result we have become far less adept at thinking
and acting ethically and far more adept at rationalizing and
denying.”
- David Orr, Earth In Mind, 2004
“An economy that is in sync with the earth’s ecosystem will
contrast profoundly with the polluting, disruptive, and ultimately
self-destructing economy of today – the fossil-fuel-based,
automobile-centered, throwaway economy. One of the attractions
of the western economic model is that it has raised living standards
for one-fifth of humanity to a level that our ancestors could not
have dreamed of, proving a remarkably diverse diet, unprecedented
levels of material consumption, and unimagined physical mobility.
But unfortunately it will not work over the long term even for the
affluent one-fifth, much less for the entire world.”
- Lester Brown, Eco-Economy, 2001
Lester Brown’s Historical Economic Change
Agricultural
Revolution
Industrial
Revolution
Environmental
Revolution?
Lester Brown’s proverbial “Environmental Revolution” is
attainable if…
1. Populations are stabilized (family planning, etc.)
2. The economy is restructured
a. taxes are shifted away from income and wages and
toward usage (e.g. emissions, water, electricity, etc.);
alreadyoccurring in Europe
b. subsidies are shifted away from revenue loss and toward
environmentally-sound practices (already occurring in
US)
3. Changing the role of government
4. Changing the role of the media