Abstract:
The paper endeavours to assess the
political domain of globalization in the third world. Globalization progressed
with ‘neo-liberalism’ in the third world. Neo-liberals
therefore prescribe that globalization should be met with full-scale liberalization,
deregulation, and privatization in the third world. However, the third world
reality of political turmoil and economic laggard, ‘reformism’ have to be the
policy framework to protect labour, the poor, and the environment from the
potential harmful effects of untrammelled globalization.
Key words: Globalization, politics, economy,
culture, third world
Introduction
Globalization is the increasing
interconnectedness of people and places as a result of advances in transport,
communication, and information technologies that cause political, economic, and
cultural convergence (Globalization, 2007). It refers to the process by which the experience of
everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, can foster a
standardization of cultural expressions around the world (Watson, 2007). In addition, it is the
concept that encapsulates the growth of connections between people on
a planetary scale. In fact, globalization involves the reduction of barriers to
trans-world contacts. It makes people more able—physically, legally,
culturally, and psychologically—to engage with each other in “one world”
(Scholte, 2007). Therefore, it is the
worldwide integration of economic, cultural, political, religious and social systems.
Globalization, in the economic term, is the
convergence of prices, products, wages, rates of interests and profits towards developed country norms. Globalization of the economy depends on the role of migration, international trade, capital flow, financial market integration. The International Monetary Fund notes the growing economic
interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of
cross-border transactions, free international capital flows, and more rapid and
widespread technological diffusion. (Levitt, 1983).
An extreme interpretation of this process,
often referred to as globalism, sees advanced capitalism,
boosted by wireless and Internet communications and electronic business
transactions, destroying local traditions and regional distinctions, creating
in their place a homogenized world culture.
According to this view, human experience everywhere is in jeopardy of becoming
essentially the same. This appears, however, to be an overstatement of the
phenomenon. Though homogenizing influences do indeed exist, people are far from
creating a single overarching world culture (Watson, 2006).
Chronology of Globalization
In ancient times, traders carried the most
exotic and valuable goods over long distances. Caravans brought Chinese silk to
the Roman Empire, and during the Middle Ages Arabs sold ivory from East Africa
and spices from Indonesia to the merchants of Venice.
Until about 1500, however, long-distance trade played only a minor economic
role in just a few parts of the world, and nearly all of the world's people
relied on foods and fibres grown within a short distance of their homes (The
World of People, 2006).
The word "globalization" can be
traced back to 1944. The term has been used by economists since 1981; however its
concepts did not permeate popular consciousness until the latter half of the
1990s. Various social scientists have tried to demonstrate continuity between
contemporary trends of globalization and earlier periods (Raskin, 2006). The
first era of globalization (in the fullest sense) during the 19th century was
the rapid growth of international trade between the European imperial powers,
the European colonies, and the United
States. Because of the first era of
globalization, World War I was started. After World War II, globalization was
restarted and was driven by major advances in technology, which led to lower
trading costs. The term "globalization" has often been linked to the
rise of corporate dominance, and is often used synonymously with the term
"corporate giant", first coined by Charles Taze Russell in 1897 (KOF Index of Globalization).
A truly global economy first began to develop
in the 15th century with the Age of Exploration, when political and military
support from emerging nation-states and advances in seafaring technology
enabled European merchants to establish trading networks that spanned the
globe. Europeans established colonies, slave plantations, and trading outposts
in tropical regions to grow or obtain goods unavailable in Europe,
such as sugar, tobacco, coffee, and spices. Europeans also seized parts of
North America and Siberia for their furs and abundant timber.
During the 19th century, industrialization in
Europe and North America dramatically increased the volume and economic
importance of international trade. The industrialized countries imported raw
materials and foods from around the world and exported manufactured goods.
Because business owners in the industrialized world retained the wealth
generated from trade and manufacturing, people in other parts of the world
could not afford the technology necessary to compete with the industries of
Europe and North
America. Without the new technologies, these people had to continue
selling raw materials to obtain manufactured goods. The main exception to this
pattern was Japan,
whose strong government protected local producers from foreign competition and
channelled the country's wealth into industrial facilities. By the 20th century
the world was divided into two unequal parts: the industrialized countries and
the rest of the world, which the industrialized countries dominated
economically and militarily (The World of People, 2006).
The First Era of Globalization was in 19th Century, a period characterized by rapid growth in international
trade and investment, between the European imperial powers, their colonies,
and, later, the United States. It is important to note
that liberalization and globalization are distinct. The repeal of the British Corn Laws initiated a period of liberalization which
accelerated globalization. However, as economic historian Jeffrey G. Williamson
has shown, the transatlantic trade altered factor prices in both Europe and the Americas,
threatening the interests of politically significant factions. New trade restrictions
began to rise again. Obstacles to trade among the developed nations gave a
fresh impetus to the search for markets for raw materials and finished goods
overseas, and a new era of imperial expansion occurred. It was in this period
that areas of sub-Saharan Africa and the Island Pacific were incorporated into the world system. The
Asian nations were unable to match the industrialized warfare of Europe and were made into colonies.
The "First Era of Globalization"
began to break down at the beginning with the First World War, and later
collapsed during the gold standard crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Austria Hungary,
without access to the oceans as the basis for an overseas empire, expanded into
the Baltics. The assassination of the archduke by a Serbian nationalist was the
trigger that released many of the tensions built into the international
economic and political system. Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) provided a seminal critique
of this period as being characterized by the exploitation of the third world by
those in the first (Globalization,2007).
Globalization in the Third World Country
Globalization was there in the third world
country since the civilization began. Different
social theories offer different interpretations of how and why trans-world
connections have grown. For example, liberal economics stresses the role of
unfettered market forces in a context of technological change and deregulation.
In contrast, Marxist political economy highlights the dynamics of the
international capitalist system as the engine of globalization. For many
sociologists, meanwhile, globalization is a product of modern rationalism.
Others find their explanation of globalization in a combination of these
causes. However following consequences quickened the pace of globalization and
strengthened the economic links among the third world countries.
1.
Transport Extension: The vigorous developments in transport mechanisms that made the
movements of people, goods and culture in the neighbouring third world
countries. One of the most important changes was the drop in transport costs,
made possible by the availability of inexpensive oil.
2.
Multinationals: Another key development was the emergence of more and more
multinationals, or large companies with operations in more than one country
especially in the developing one using the cheap labour for production.
3.
International Economic Institutions: Factor that promoted globalization
was the creation of international economic institutions—such as the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO)—to
help regulate the flow of trade and money among nations.
4.
Information Communication Technology (ICT): Advances in
telecommunications and computer technology made it much easier for managers to
coordinate economic activity among corporate divisions, clients, and vendors in
different parts of the world.
Approaches of Globalization
Globalization had been in political domain for
long and become a matter of hot debate especially about its trend, course of
policy and approaches. Four general political positions can be distinguished,
although in practice many people draw on a mixture of these views or vacillate
between them. These political domains of globalization are as under:
Neo-liberal:
Many commentators advocate what is widely called a “neo-liberal”
approach to globalization. Neo-liberalism builds on the tradition of laissez-faire economics and holds that globalization
will yield maximum gains when its course is left to uninhibited market forces.
Neo-liberals therefore prescribe that globalization should be met with
full-scale liberalization, deregulation, and privatization. According to the
neo-liberal creed, official measures should be used only to enable—and never to
constrain—global market forces. The unbound global economy will then in time
generate prosperity, democracy, community, and peace for all.
Reformism:
A second general policy framework for globalization can be
termed reformism, or global social democracy. Reformists agree with
neo-liberals that market capitalism can be a major force for social good;
however, they argue that these benefits can only be secured with proactive
public policies that steer—and where necessary restrict—global flows. For
example, many reformists advocate official measures to protect labour, the
poor, and the environment from the potential harmful effects of untrammelled
globalization. Some reformists also promote the principle of global
redistributive taxes, for example, on foreign-exchange transactions or the
profits of global companies. Reformist programmes generally envision a
considerable expansion of supra-state governance through regional and
trans-world institutions, and many reformists are concerned to enhance the
democratic credentials of these regimes.
Progressive Radicalism:
A third broad political response to globalization might be
described as progressive radicalism. These critics reject the structural
foundations of contemporary globalization and seek to reconstruct the process
on a different basis. For example, global socialists regard capitalism as an
evil that no amount of reform can correct; hence they seek to rebuild
globalization with a different, post-capitalist mode of production. From
another radical perspective, global postmodernists treat rationalism as
incorrigibly flawed and promote an alternative globalization based on different
kinds of knowledge and identity politics.
Traditionalism:
A fourth approach to globalization can be dubbed
traditionalism. This viewpoint regards trans-world connections as being
inherently violent: globalization intrinsically undermines cultural heritage,
democracy, ecological health, economic well-being, and social cohesion. In the
eyes of traditionalists, globalization has nothing salvageable and must
therefore be reversed. Traditionalist calls for “de-globalization” have come in
a number of forms, including ultra-nationalism, religious revivalism, and
certain strains of environmentalism.
Broadly speaking, neo-liberalism was
the prevailing and largely unchallenged policy framework for globalization in
the 1980s and early 1990s. Since the mid-1990s both traditionalist and
reformist reactions against neo-liberal globalization have gathered force,
though laissez-faire tendencies remain very strong at the
beginning of the 21st century. Meanwhile, progressive radical approaches to
globalization have to date attracted little mass following, although they may
prove important in the longer term.
Third World Consequences
The consequences of globalization are
prominent in the third world society which has changed the contours of social
geography. However, since geography is intertwined with other dimensions of
social relations, it is not surprising that globalization also has wider
implications among economics, politics, culture, environment, labour rights,
health and inequality issues especially in third world.
a. Economics:
Globalization substantially alters the
organization of production, exchange, and consumption. Many firms “go global”
by setting up affiliates across the planet. Questions of competition and
monopoly can arise as a result. Relocation of production facilities across the
developing world reduces transport and communication costs. Globalization also
expands the “virtual economy” of information and finance, sometimes at the
expense of the “real economy” of extraction and manufacturing. This global
economic restructuring raises the issues of employment, labour condition and
poverty in the developing world.
The differential global economies are a serious
political problem in an era of globalization. Some third world countries have
been unable to function at even a minimum standard of basic competence in the
globalized economy. The only profitable economic activity in some of these countries
is linked to criminal behaviour, such as the trade in illegal drugs, smuggling,
and extortion of various kinds.
b. Culture:
Globalization replaces the local culture with
global trends of English language, attire, accent and lifestyle. It also
disrupts traditional relationships between territory and collective identity.
The growth of trans-world connections encourages the rise of non-territorial
cultures. Thus people living more globalized life become less fixed on
territory and only associated with the society by loose ethnic bond. Moreover,
inasmuch as multiple cultures become densely intertwined in supra-territorial
flows, globalization encourages more hybridity, where individuals develop and
express a mix of identities. The globally broad casting satellite television
operas try to bend the local culture than their own entity of society.
c. Inequality
In 1960 the top 20 percent had 30 times the
income of the poorest 20 percent. This grew to 32 times in 1970, 45 times in
1980, and 60 times in 1990. By the end of the 20th century the top 20 percent
received 75 times the income of the bottom 20 percent.
By the late 1990s the 20
percent of the world’s people living in the highest-income countries had 86
percent of the world’s income; the bottom 20 percent had only 1 percent of the
world’s income. An estimated 1.3 billion people, or about one-sixth
of the world’s population, have incomes of less than a dollar a day. Inequality
is growing worse, rather than better. More than 80 countries had lower per capita income (income per person) at the end of the
1990s than they had at the end of the 1980s.
Africa, for example,
where diamonds and other valuable resources attract criminal despots, mercenary
armies have been engaged in mass killing to terrorize local populations into
giving them what they want. The international arms trade and easy importation
of weapons, which allows such behaviour, is a serious problem.
d. Labour Rights
To stimulate economic development
many developing countries have established free-trade zones where investors are
given special benefits, such as low or no taxes, and labour unions are
discouraged or not allowed. These benefits have led to violations of human
rights. There are violations of child labour laws, intimidation of workers
seeking to have their grievances addressed, and sexual harassment. Because only
1 percent of the projected growth in the world’s labour force is expected to be
in the high-income countries in coming decades, what happens to the world’s
lower-income workers in the developing countries takes on added importance. It
may well determine whether there will be an overall rise in living standards as
productivity gains are widely shared or an overall decline if developing
countries compete for jobs by holding down wages and allowing harsher working
conditions to attract investment and job creation.
e. Health Issues
Life-threatening diseases represent
another facet of globalization. Improvements in transportation that helped
usher in globalization also made it possible for infectious diseases to spread
rapidly around the globe. In 2003, for example, a deadly form of pneumonia
known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) originated in China and quickly posed a worldwide health
threat as airline passengers infected with the virus spread the illness.
There are other killer diseases
found mostly in poorer countries. Although tuberculosis (TB) affects a small
percentage of the population in rich countries, more than one-third of the
world’s population was infected with tuberculosis in 2000. There are 8 million
new cases of TB and 2 million deaths a year from this disease, and these
numbers are climbing. More than 1.5 million people die each year from malaria,
another disease that mainly impacts developing countries. Diseases spread by
differential availability of clean drinking water and tainted food kill nearly
2 million people a year, mostly infants and small children and mostly among the
1.5 billion people in the world who do not have access to clean water (
Tabb,2008).
f. Environmental Issues
The global warming is due to the burning of
fossil fuels, which occurs mainly in the developed, industrialized world, and
the destruction of rain forests, which occurs mainly in the developing world.
At least since the discovery of the ozone hole above Antarctica in the early 1980s, there has been
growing awareness that air pollutants can cross borders and affect everyone
living on the planet. If global warming continues, experts
expect deserts to advance, particularly across West Africa, and sea level to
rise, flooding coastal areas and submerging a number of Pacific Ocean island states. One-third of the
world’s most populous countries would be flooded by even a small rise in sea
level. While developed countries
such as The Netherlands can cope, developing countries such as Bangladesh cannot afford to pay for the kind of
dike system that currently protects The Netherlands.
The similar effect of climate change is evident
by deglaciation taking place in most of glaciers of Nepal:
the reported rates of glacial retreat range from several meters to 20 m/year.
On the Tibetan Plateau, the glacial area decreased by 4.5% over the past 20
years and by 7% over the past 40 years (CNCCC, 2007).
The free flow of genetically modified animals
and plants also proves to deteriorate third world ecology if introduced without
proper study and planning.
Political Globalization
Political globalization is the creation of a
world government which regulates the relationships among nations and guarantees
the rights arising from social and economic globalization (Stipo, 2007). Globalization has significant
implications for the conduct of governance. Territorially based laws and
institutions through local, provincial, and national governments are not
sufficient by themselves to regulate contacts and networks that operate in
trans-world spaces. Globalization, therefore, stimulates greater multilateral
collaboration between states as well as the growth of regional and trans-world
governance arrangements like the European Union and the United Nations. In
addition, private-sector bodies may step in to regulate areas of global
relations for which official arrangements are lacking, as has occurred
regarding certain aspects of the Internet and trans-world finance, for
instance. The resultant situation of multi-layered and diffuse governance
raises far-reaching questions about the nature of sovereignty and democracy in
a globalizing world.
a. Challenges to National Identity
Anti-globalism activists often depict the
McDonald's, Disney, and Coca-Cola corporations as agents of globalism or
cultural imperialism—a new form of economic and political domination. Critics
of globalism argue that any business enterprise capable of manipulating
personal tastes will thrive, whereas state authorities everywhere will lose
control over the distribution of goods and services. According to this view of
world power, military force is perceived as hopelessly out of step or even
powerless; the control of culture (and its production) is seen as far more
important than the control of political and geographic borders.
The idea of a borderless world is reflected in
theories of the “virtual state,” a new system of world
politics that is said to reflect the essential chaos of 21st-century
capitalism. In Out of Control (1994),
author Kevin
Kelly predicted that the Internet would gradually erode the power of
governments to control citizens; advances in digital technology would instead
allow people to follow their own interests and form trans-state coalitions.
Similarly, Richard
Rosecrance, in The Rise of the Virtual State (1999), wrote that military conflicts
and territorial disputes would be superseded by the flow of information,
capital, technology, and manpower between states. Many scholars disagreed,
insisting that the state was unlikely to disappear and could continue to be an
essential and effective basis of governance.
The permeable international borders, the
cocktail of culture and the prevalence of virtual state have dissolved the
territorial and national culture and sentiment. The same is aggravated by
trans-world diffusion of capable, intellectual and decisive human resource from
the third world which has proved a bane.
b. Globalization and Development
The third world had always been the hegemony of
the developed country. The developing countries of Central and South America,
Africa, and Asia once merely exported raw materials and
cash crops (crops produced for sale overseas) in return for manufactured goods.
The people in these countries provided for most of their own needs through
subsistence agriculture and small-scale crafts. In time, though, people in these
countries grew increasingly dependent on the global economy, because local
crafts could not compete with the inexpensive-- factory-made exports of the
economically developed countries (western European nations, the United
States, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and Japan).
In order to decrease dependence, many
developing countries sought to strengthen their economies by building
factories, modern dams, and roads during the 1960s and 1970s. Some countries
also imposed tariffs and other barriers to trade in an attempt to protect
developing local industries from competition with imported manufactured goods.
Governments frequently made poor financial choices, however. Infrastructure
projects such as dams and highways were often too massive for local needs.
Choices about industry were sometimes based on the financial interest of
government leaders rather than on the best interests of the country, and
protection from competition frequently resulted in inferior goods. As a result,
products could not compete on the global market with the higher-quality goods
from the industrialized countries. Many developing countries then had little
income to pay off debts incurred during their expansion.
A few developing economies succeeded in
building prosperity through industrialization during the 20th century. The most
notable of these were South
Korea, Taiwan, Singapore,
and Hong Kong S.A.R. Like Japan during the 19th century, they
established tariffs and other barriers to protect local products from foreign
competition, and invested local wealth in industrial development. Also like Japan,
they focused on selling the products they manufactured to foreign consumers in
order to bring wealth into the country. By the end of the 20th century some
experts considered these economies to be developed, rather than developing,
although many of South
Korea's economic successes were reversed in
the financial crisis of 1997. Following a similar path, China advanced economically through a rapid
expansion of manufactured exports during the late 20th century.
Meanwhile, multinationals based in the
economically developed world set up low-wage manufacturing facilities in some
developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia and in Central and South
America. These factories typically generated few long-term benefits for the
local economy. The profits flowed outside the country to the shareholders of
the foreign multinational. Also, the developing countries were forced to
participate in a 'race to the bottom' to attract multinational investment. If a
developing country or its people sought higher wages or enforced labour or
environmental protections, multinationals often simply relocated production to
a country with lower costs.
At the end of the 20th century many developing
countries, especially in Africa, still lacked a strong industrial sector. These
countries continued to rely on money earned from exports of cash crops and raw
materials to buy manufactured goods and service their debts. An emphasis on the
export of cash crops and raw materials led to increases in production. As
transport became more efficient, countries began to compete to sell the same
goods, and more goods and increased competition drove down prices. This cycle
perpetuated poverty.
Facing an inability to attract further
investment or pay for imports, many debtor nations turned to the World Bank and
the IMF during the 1980s and 1990s for relief in the form of extended credit
and new loans. In exchange for this relief, debtor countries had to present a
plan of reforms to the lending institutions. These reforms often included
privatization plans and reductions in government expenditures. The measures
were intended to ensure that these countries could repay their loans, but
reforms were often painful.
Conclusion
The third world countries have played actively
in the process of globalization due to unstoppable diffusion of global culture,
economy, politics, finance and technology. Thy have perceived consumer
satisfaction, variety of choices, acculturation of good culture, awareness,
education and affordable technology. It has positive ramification in their
technology, awareness, finance and employment. However, due to political
instability, fragile economy as a result of low supply side capacity, higher
import and less export, the developing world have remained merely a consumer of
the first world multinationals. The impoverished third world, as a consequence
of neoliberalism—the un-intervened market economy are not competent in the
global market. Therefore, certain restriction or regulation by the government,
or following the ‘reformism’ approach would reap benefits globalization in the
third world.
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Note: This article is an edited version of the
original article, “Politics of Globalization in the Third World
Development Perspective” published in Nepalese Journal of Development and Rural
Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (July-Dec) 2008: Published by Central Department of
Rural Development, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur.
