Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
I start with the consensus that “the world is essentially capitalist and exploitative in its
operation” Went, (2000, p. Xii); Toussaint, (1998) and that any economic relationship
between the north (owners of capital) and the South (labour providers) will be guided by
“the owner of capital seeking to make profit” Soros, (1998. P. Xxii) irrespective of the
micro welfare of the former. McChesney (1999, p. 104). This is because,
and labour; if the power of labour gets too strong, the ‘rule of the game
allow those who own and control capital to institute vicious counter attacks.”
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Thus, could the enduring legacy of “exploitation-oriented policies that took off under
colonialism and imperialism and being currently propagated under globalisation”
Ohmae, (1995) by the north be “an acute sickness that the north rather manages than
cure?” Bello et al., (2001). The analogy here is that, keeping the south; the indispensible
source of raw material and dumping ground for European industries and products
respectively on a life support machine is economically the preferred option rather than a
death south. The European expansionist strategy is to ensure that the economic patient
(the south) is not restored to full health so as to threaten the very economic existence of
the north, but to remain so acutely incapacitated that the south’s economic survival
depends on the north.
Following this introduction will be a background overview of the evolution of the north-
south economic relations; colonialism, imperialism and globalisation. (See appendix
One). The body of the essay will use headings like protectionism and trade
liberalisation, dependency and debt servicing; globalisation and migration; subsidies
and ecology to analyse northern economic policies towards the south. Under appraisal I
will compare, contrast and correlate prevailing opinions on whether the legacy of
European expansion has been to create a world economy structured to favour the
global north? My conclusion will be a summary and projection on debates developed
within the essay. Finally, the bibliography will use the Harvard model to alphabetically
credit all citations made in the essay.
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Background
The paradox behind the widespread marginalisation in ASS is that “African nations are
poor because they are rich? Martin Khor, (1995). Contentiously, the inter-play of power
politics amongst the capitalist North to secure Africa’s wealth and resources are seen as
the major determinants of Africa’s sustained economic stagnation. Adams, (1993).
Analysts agree that colonialism and imperialism culminating in the partition of Africa was
primarily underpinned by economic motives to exploit and extract Africa’s resources to
sustain European industrial revolution. Nicholson, (1998, p. 71); Williamson, (1996);
Soros, (1999). The accompanying slave trade that depleted Africa of her virile and
active population also inflicted a debilitating blow to Africa’s political and economic
aspirations. Needless to emphasise that Africa’s current powerlessness and economic
vulnerability could be directly attributed to the ramifications of the slave trade.
Nicholson, (1998, p. 69). Nevertheless, opinions are polarised on whether the legacy of
the enduring northern-favoured economic policies are still underpinned by the same
motives that informed colonialism and imperialism. With primary focus on globalisation;
the pandemic phenomenon that is controlling societies the world over, I will examine the
pros and cons of these opinions. As with most concepts, the initial premise is that,
whatever opinions that is projected by any school of thoughts, is a factor of their vested
interest and cultural background.
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Protectionism and trade liberalisation
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- the common guaranteed prices for most commodities”
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Ohmae, (1995) states that “national states or trade unions can do very little or even
nothing.” Consequently, maintaining the status quo or the legacy of vulnerability and
dependency of ASS states is economically conducive for the advancement of northern
global economic aspirations.
While some will argue that the North’s phenomenon of globalisation has improved the
lives of Southerners from a communication, technological and consumer perspective, as
will become evident in this discourse, there are ample reasons to provide a counter
argument to show that, globalisation has enhanced and perfected the tools used by the
north in the exploitation of the south as never before. Like its predecessors; imperialism
and colonialism; globalisation has been posited as preferential structural frameworks to
economically favour the capitalist north and their multinationals. Baylis and Smith,
(1997, p. 127). In consensus, Martin Khor, (1995) defines globalisation as, “what we in
the Third World have for several years called colonization which allows the more
efficient exploitation of the less well-off nations using technologies that automatically
benefit the richest world”. For example, attracted by cheap labour and favourable tax
incentives “multinational corporations based in industrialised countries are relocating
productions in those countries where core rights are not respected”. Brenton, (2000).
Because of their dictatorial attitude to their work force, Went, (2000, p. 95); McChesney,
(1999) has described northern multinationals corporations as “unaccountable private
tyrannies”. As befits such image, northern employers habitually exploit their employees
as well as deny them any wages negotiating rights and trade union rights. Thus this
enduring structural framework, be it informal that is constructed to economically favours
north, is the norm rather than the exception. Without union rights, workers can be
sacked without notice or compensation. It is this fear of losing one’s jobs that compels
the employees to be irrespectively compliant. This is more so where workers are
unskilled. Where economic reforms would have ensured equity in transactions between
the north and south, Went, (2000, p. Xi) explains clearly why these attempts are
doomed to fail on their own terms: “they are attempts to rationalise a system with an
irredeemable element of irrationality at its heart.” At a more professional echelon, the
process of ensuring that the south remains marginalised and dependent is achieved by
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depriving her of the very elites that would have been instrument in building the south’s
economy. For example, Sjoberg, (1971, p. 6) points out that medical professionals from
the south end up as employees in the north to subsidise the latter’s staff short fall.( brain
drain). In globalisation, Went, (2000, p. 33) points out that trade liberalisation and the
internalisation of production have led to altered relationships between industrialised and
Third World. These and the tendency for European multinational corporations to
repatriate capital to their rich north inevitably disempowers ASS nations at any
economic negotiation table.
Consumerism
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Dependency and debts servicing
The dependency theory on international relations premises that, “if we have powerful
economic actors, which can profit by using their monopoly or near-monopoly power to
enrich themselves, then they will do so, even if it means keeping the poorer countries
poor” Nicholson, (1998, p. 102). Applied to the north-south economic relationship, the
south, especially Africa, far from developing under the impact of northern capital, will
remain in a subordinate position purely in the service of the richer economies of the
north, thanks to the way northern economic expansions can influence policies. Thus, so
long as Europe ensures that ASS never attends the level of economic competence that
would enable equity in competition, the former will always dictate economic tunes
reciprocal to their economic vested interest. Nowhere is this more evident than in the
management of third world debts; manufacturing industries and capital investments.
Structuring northern economic to exploited the south on facilitated by the fact that the
latter rely for “foreign exchange on primary export of single commodity that is either an
agricultural product or an unrefined mineral” Bennett, (1995, p. 298). The repatriation of
profit from extractive industries, plus the problem of servicing debts leaves little
investment income within ASS for economic growth. In fact, “rescheduling of debts
payments were accompanied by stringent conditions of austerity and reform measures
imposed by the IMF and others.” Bennett, (1995, p. 292-293). In manufacturing, the
north has consistently exploited the lack of professionalism in ASS. For example, in the
Cameroon-Chad pipeline project, the technology and expertise that is cheaply exported
from France in many cases have proved inappropriate for underdeveloped economies;
they have to depend on expatriate know-how for their effective operations. As a
structured occurrence to create and perpetuate economic dominance of the south,
Bennett (1995, p. 300) points out that “without skills and knowledge amongst the
general citizenry... economic development is marked by undue reliance upon non-
indigenous personnel in managerial positions, especially in the economic structure”.
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This trend is widespread today under globalisation where the South produces cheap
primary products like cocoa beans which are exported to the North, where they are
processed or converted into manufactured goods like chocolate then re-exported to the
South with value added. The north sustains this legacy by limiting the capital needed to
set up comprehensive manufacturing enterprises. ‘Compliant’ rather than ‘competition’
seem to be the economic motto; “those who want to attract capital or investors on the
global market have to adapt to the demands and wishes of the supplier of capital,
otherwise the party is off” Went, (2000, P. 26). In cases where the host countries
threaten the multinationals, the preferential global economic structures mean that the
latter can relocate their production or investment elsewhere. The increasing
accumulation of capital and power has concentrated excessive and uncontrollable
power in the hands of multinationals like the pharmaceutical companies “whose veto
can be enough to hold up all sorts of political decisions.” As such, the health of the
south which is a determinant of a successful economy is also a factor of profit-oriented
policies; influenced by the vested interest of the pharmaceuticals. Thus the European
sales of generic as opposed to designer drugs, or dumping drugs hitherto banded in the
north to African countries are economic arrangements whose legacy serves the vested
interest of the north. Consequently, nation states of ASS do not develop or are held in a
semi state of developing because their position within the global economy is very
convenient for many vested interest groups in the north. It is therefore plausible to infer
that, by being forced to adapt their macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policies to
northern market demands as a consequence of the enforced dependency culture, this
lopsided economic structure favours the Europeans.
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Subsidies
In 1974, increasing concerns to the UN about the price of raw material and development
compelled the “group of 77” “led to the demand for a New International Economic Order
(NIEO) based on equity, sovereignty equality, interdependence, common interest and
cooperation among all states” Bennett, (1995, p. 311). Dominated by the less-
developed nations who felt that economic transactions favoured the north, they pressed
hard for a radical restructuring of the global economic system to address what they saw
as inequalities and injustice. Within the context of northern vested interest, these
demands threaten their economic welfare and as typical of the asymmetry in capitalism,
they work to prevent any progress. Amongst other demands, a Charter of Economic
Rights and Duties of States asserted the right of each nation to exercise exclusive
sovereignty over its wealth and natural resources and to regulate foreign investments.
Other demands called for the formation of producers’ associations and the
establishment of “linkage between the prices of exports of developing countries; the
price of imports from developed countries and the restructuring of the economic sector
of the United Nation System” Bennett, (1995, p. 311). If this succeeded, the north and
its multinational corporations would have lost their enduring legacy of exploiting the
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south. Needless to say these provisions were not only vigorously opposed by
representatives of the developed market economies, the south’s comprehensive lack of
means to enforce their demands and the corresponding concerted inactions by the
north meant that by the 1990s the dream for a NIEO had been vanquished. In
colonialism, imperialism and globalisation, remunerative and stable prices for the
south’s primary commodities which constitute their primary source of foreign exchange
can spell the death of most northern economic ventures. As an economic safeguard, the
operational structure of the north is preferentially constructed to prevent this happening.
Ecology
Historically, Africans have depended on the forest through subsistence practice for their
survival using crude and rudimentary technology. The onset of the industrial revolution
in Europe and the arrival of the extractive and exploitative northerners in Africa have
exerted irreparable negative repercussion on Africa’s biosphere. Despite persistent
protests by the indigenes; their governments including NGOs like Green Peace, the
vested interests of the north and their multinationals have always prevailed. Went,
(2000, p. 39) points out that “under capitalism, rather than ecological concerns, the
north’s only criterion is what is rational and profitable from the standpoint of their own
narrow interest”. The political, fiscal and economic structure in the north enables her to
overlook southern ecological and concerns as well as global warming resulting primarily
from northern industrial activities. The economic and health ramification of the north’s
ecological exploits in ASS colludes with other factors to diminish the latter’s ability to
bargain on equal terms within the global economies. Northern economic policies are
either directly or indirectly structured to maintain this legacy in view to profiting through
the exploitation Africa’s resources.
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Appraisal
Economic and political mainstreams presume that under the current economic structure
of globalisation “everyone would gain in the end from free trade movement of capital
and international markets and companies.” Went, (2000, p. 24). Assuming that
everyone in this instance includes ASS, then her disadvantaged position in north-south
economic transactions may be evidence that ‘that end is a long way away’. Moreover,
the economic structuring under globalisation is said to be the result of powerful
governments like Great Britain and United States;
- “Pushing trade deals and other accords down the throats of the world’s people to
make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to dominate the economies
around the world.”
Thus if the principal architects of northern economic structuring are the masters of
corporation that “control much of international economy and have the means to
dominate policy formation as well as the structure of thoughts and opinion” McChesney,
(1998, p. 13) it is plausible to infer that, so long as capitalism in the guise of
globalisation endures, ASS nations will always be economic victims e.g. being exploited
through non-negotiable low wages and lack of Unionship in corporate relocation. A
counter argument may point to the fact that in economic relocation, the home countries
like the UK also suffers negative repercussion like unemployment and loss of income
through loss taxes. Bull and Watson, (1984); Jackson, R. H. (1997) ultimately, this will
put increasing pressure on the welfare system with far-reaching economic ramifications.
Similarly in mitigation against European unfairness, Deacon et al., (1997) seeks to
spread the blame by saying that we must also “be aware of the increasing importance of
international and global actors such as the World Bank or IMF and their efforts to
regulate world economics”. At a regional level, critics argue that part of the south’s
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economically disadvantaged position is self-inflicted. Citing population control, Bennett,
(1995, p. 319) points out that “population increases are cancelling out many of the
potential economic gains of the poor countries”
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Conclusion.
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Bibliography
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London: Zed.
Bello et al., (2001) International Socialism 91: Anti-capitalism, which way? London:
International Socialism.
Brenton, P. (2000) Globalisation and Social Exclusion in the EU: Policy Implications CEPS
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Bull, H. And Watson, A. (1984) (eds.) the Expansion of International Society. Oxford:
Claredon Press)
Crokatt, R. (1995) The Fifty years Wars: United States and the Soviet Union in World
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Deacon, B. Et al., (1997) Global Social Policy: International Organisations and the
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Khor, M. (1995) Globalisation in Baylis and Smith, (1997, p. 15)) Globalization of World
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McChesney, R. W. (1999) Profit over People. neo-liberalism and global order. London:
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Ohmae, K. (1995) The End of the Nation State. New York: Free Press
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Jackson, R. H. (1997) The Evolution of International States: in Baylis and Smith, (1997)
Globalization of World Politics; AN Introduction to World Politics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Jary, D. And Jary, J. (1995) Dictionary of sociology. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Soros, G. (1998) The Crisis of Capitalism: Open Society Endangered. London: Little,
Brown and Company.
Spicker, P. (1993) Can European social policy be universal? In Page, R and Baldock, J.
Social Policy review 5. Canterbury: Social Policy Association.
Toussaint, E. (1998) Your Money or Your Life: The Tyranny of Global Finance. London:
Pluto Press.
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Appendix
Colonialism: the political rule either directly or indirectly, of one society, country or
nation over another. Jary and Jary (1995, 95)
Globalisation; the tendency for worldwide diffusion of cultural patterns. Jary and Jary
(1995, p. 267)
Learned Helplessness: the inability of a person to act in situation where they have
learned previously that they will have no control over the outcome. Thomas and
Pierson, ( 1999, p. 201)
Glossary
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ASS: Africa South of the Sahara
G7: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and United States.
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