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HIST 207 MODERN HISTORY KOÇ UNIVERSITY PROF. ZAFER TOPRAK www.ata .boun.edu.tr. G lobalisation is international integration. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society .
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HIST 207 MODERN HISTORY KOÇ UNIVERSITY PROF. ZAFER TOPRAK www.ata.boun.edu.tr
Globalisation is international integration. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies & exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant.
Globalization is an uneven process, meaning that people living in various parts of the world are affected very differently by this gigantic transformation of social structures and cultural zones.
One defining characteristic of the process: Movement towards greater interdependence & integration. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces.
“Globalization compresses the time and space aspects of social relations.” James Mittelman “Globalization can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” Anthony Giddens
Scholars not only hold different views with regard to proper definitions of globalization, they also disagree on its scale, causation, chronology, impact, trajectories, and policy outcomes. The word "globalization" has been used by economists since 1981; however, its concepts did not permeate popular consciousness until the later half of the 1990s.
Various social scientists have tried to demonstrate continuity between contemporary trends of globalization and earlier periods. Globalization is viewed as a centuries long process, tracking the expansion of human population and the growth of civilization, that has accelerated dramatically in the past 50 years.
The global integration of humankind had its beginnings under Portugueseauspices in the 15th century. The process of globalization had its origins in Europe, through the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English territorial and maritime expansion into all habitable continents, and included the discovery and colonization of the New World.
Proto-globalization Early forms of globalization existed during the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, and the Han Dynasty, when the silk road started in China, reached the boundaries of the Parthian Empire and continued onwards towardsRome.
The Islamic Golden Ageis also an example, when Muslim tradersand explorersestablished an early global economyacross the Old Worldresulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology; and later during the Mongol Empire, when there was greater integration along the Silk Road.
Globalization became a business phenomenon in the 17th century when was established. The Dutch East India Companyis described as the first multinational corporation,
An important driver forglobalization: Sharing risk through joint ownership Because of the high risks involved with international trade, The Dutch East India Company became the first company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership through the issuing of shares.
Liberalization in the 19th centuryis sometimes called "The First Era of Globalization", a period characterized by rapid growth in international trade and investment, between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and, later, the United States. An Era of Colonization - Imperialism It was in this period that areas of sub-saharan Africa and the Island Pacific were incorporated into the world system.
The decades preceding the outbreak of World War I witnessed an era of extensive globalization. The first era of globalization during the 19th century was the rapid growth of international trade between the European imperial powers, the European colonies, and the United States.
Belief in the superiority of their own nation [nationalism] has supplied the mental enery required for large-scale warfare. The enormous productive capacities of the modern state [nation state] have provided the material means necessary to fight the ‘total wars’ of the last century.
The "First Era of Globalization" began to break down at the beginning with the first World War, and later collapsed during the gold standard crisisin the late 1920sand early 1930s. The Dark Age for humanity due to world wars. After World War II, globalization was restarted and was driven by major advances in technology, which led to lower trading costs.
Globalization in the era since World War II was first the result of planning by economists, business interests, and politicians who recognized the costs associated with protectionism and declining international economic integration.
Their work led to the Bretton Woodsconference (1944) and the founding of several international institutions intended to oversee the renewed processes of globalization, promoting growth and managing adverse consequences. These were the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It has been facilitated by advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led to a series of agreements to removerestrictions on free trade.
Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - (GATT). The Uruguayround (1984 to 1995) led to a treaty to create the World Trade Organization(WTO), to mediate trade disputes and set up a uniform platform of trading.
Other bi- and multilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treatyand the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade.
The dramatic creation, expansion, and acceleration of worldwide interdependencies&global exchanges that have occurred since the early 1970s represent another quantum leap in the history of globalization.
* * * Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World Trade Organisation(WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included:
Promotion of free trade: a) Reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zoneswith small or no tariffs, b) Reduced transportation costs, especially from developmentof containerizationfor ocean shipping, c) Reduction or elimination of capital controls, d) Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidiesfor local businesses,
Restriction of free trade: a)Harmonization ofintellectual propertylaws across the majority of states, with more restrictions. b) Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patentsgranted by Chinawould be recognized in the United States)
The nature of these developments has been criticized by many including Noam Chomsky who states “... That enhances what's called "globalization," a term of propaganda used conventionally to refer to a certain particular form of international integration that is (not surprisingly) beneficial to its designers: Multinational corporations and the powerful states to which they are closely linked.”
In the decades following World War II, even the most conservative political parties in Europe and the United States rejected the laissez-faire ideas and instead embraced an extensive version of state interventionism propagated by British economist John Maynard Keynes, the architect of the Bretton Woods system. By the 1980s, however, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan led the neoliberal revolution against Keynesianism, consciously linking the notion of globalization to the ‘liberation’ of economies around the world.
Concrete neoliberal measures include: 1. Privatization of public enterprises 2. Deregulation of the economy 3. Liberalization of trade and industry 4. Massive tax cuts 5. ‘Monetarist’ measures to keep inflation in check, even at the risk of increasing unemployment 6. Strict control on organized labour 7. The reduction of public expenditures, particularly social spending 8. The down-sizing of government 9. The expansion of international markets 10. The removeal of controls on global financial flows
The new neoliberal economic order received further legitimation with the 1989-91 collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Since then, the three most significant developments related to economic globalization have been: The internationalization of trade and finance The increasing power of transnational corporations c) The enhanced role of international economic institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO.
Effects of globalization Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as: a) Industrial b) Financial c) Economic
Industrial (alias trans nationalization) - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies
Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for corporate, national and subnational borrowers.
Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital.
However, the following problems are noted: Poorer countries are sometimes at disadvantage: While it is true that globalization encourages free trade among countries on an international level, there are also negative consequences because some countries try to save their national markets.
The main export of poorer countries is usually agricultural goods. It is difficult for these countries to compete with stronger countries that subsidize their own farmers. Because the farmers in the poorer countries cannot compete, they are forced to sell their crops at much lower price than what the market is paying.
Exploitation of foreign impoverished workers: The deterioration of protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labor. Due to the lack of protections, companies from powerful industrialized nations are able to force workers to endure extremely long hours, unsafe working conditions, and just enough salary to keep them working.
The abundance of cheap labor is giving the countries in power incentive not to rectify the inequality between nations. If these nations developed into industrialized nations, the army of cheap labor would slowly disappear alongside development.
With the world in this current state, it is impossible for the exploited workers to escape poverty. It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in many poorer countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and possible even his/her family.
Shift from manufacturing to service work: The low cost of offshore workers have enticed corporations to move production to foreign countries. The laid off unskilled workers are forced into the service sector where wages and benefits are low, but turnover is high. This has contributed to the wideningeconomic gap between skilled and unskilled workers.
The loss of these jobs has also contributed greatly to the slow decline of the middle class which is a major factor in the increasing economic inequality in the United States. Families that were once part of the middle class are forced into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to another country.
This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a stepping stone.
The rise of contingent work: As globalization causes more and more jobs to be shipped overseas, and the middle class declines, there is less need for corporations to hire full time employees. Companies are less inclined to offer benefits (health insurance, bonuses, vacation time, shares in the company, and pensions), or reduce benefits, to part time workers.
Most companies don’t offer any benefits at all. Even though most of the middle class workers still have their jobs, the reality is that their buying power has decreased due to decreased benefits. Job security is also a major issue with contingent work.
Weakening of labor unions: The surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever growing number of companies in transition has caused a weakening of labor unions in the United States. Unions loss their effectiveness when their membership begins to decline.
As a result, unions hold less power over corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for lower wages, and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore.
Political Globalization Political globalization refers to the intensification and expansion of political interrelations across the globe. These processes raise an important set of political issues pertaining to the principle of state sovereignty, the growing impact of intergovernmental organization, and the future prospects for regional&global governance.
Humans have organized their political differences along territorial lines that generate a sense of ‘belonging’ to a particular nation-state in the last few centuries.
This artificial division of planetary social space into ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ spheres corresponds to people’s collective identities based on the creation of a common’us’ & unfamiliar ‘them’. [demonizing the images of the ‘other’. ] The modern nation-state system has rested on psycological foundadions & cultural assumptions that convey a sense of existential security and historical continuity.
The origins of the modern nation-system can be traced back to 17th-century political developments in Europe. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 concluded a series of religious wars among the main European powers following the protestant Reformation.
Based on the newly formulated principles of sovereignty & territoriality, the new model of self-contained, impersonal states challenged the medieval mosaic of small polities. [with local and personal political power but still subordinated to a larger imperial authority.] [transnational character of vast imperial domains]
