The world of globalisation

countries and levels of development

Developed Countries
This group is made up of rich countries that control international institutions. They are
industrialised countries in which the tertiary sector is the most powerful part of the economy.
They benefit from profitable commercial alliances that less developed countries do not have.

Not only are they successful economically, but they also have democratic political systems and high
levels of cultural and social development. GDP per capita and consumption are very high. As a
result, they are described as ‘consumer societies’.

Underdeveloped Countries
In underdeveloped countries, consumption per capita is very low. These are poor countries with
very little industrialisation. Many of them are ruled by dictators and depend on developed
countries.

Unequal trade relations and high levels of foreign debt are two reasons why this dependence still
continues. This debt began as loans from banks, international organisations and developed
countries, which the underdeveloped nations have been unable to pay back.

Emerging Economies
Emerging economies have not yet reached the standards of developed countries, but they have
high rates of economic growth and industrialisation.

international decision-making bodies

The United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation which includes every officially recognised
state in the world. It wascreated in 1945 following World War II. Its main functions are to
guarantee international security and peace, defend human rights and provide humanitarian aid.

MAIN ORGANS:

• General Assembly: This is the main organ for providing advice and discussing issues. It does
not have the power to enforce its resolutions. It is made up of representatives from all
member countries
 • Security Council: The main decision-making organ has 15 members. China, Russia, the
United States, the United Kingdom and France are permanent and have the power of veto
over any decision.
• Secretariat: It is responsible for proposing, putting into practice and supervising UN actions.
Its leader is the Secretary-General, who is chosen by the Assembly.
• International Court of Justice: It is the organ responsible for trying and settling cases
brought by memer countries. However, its resolutions are non-binding.

Since it was first created, the UN has been subject to certain limitations which prevent it from
functioning in the most effective way. These limitations include:

• The enormous power held by the five countries with the power of veto on the Security
Council. They can block any decision, even if it has majority support among the
international community.
• The lack of armed forces to make sure its resolutions are obeyed.

The UN has economic, social and cultural aims, for which it has various subsidiary organs. Some of
the most important are:

SUBSIDIARY ORGANS:

• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Its objective is to combat hunger.

• International Labour Organization: Aims to create employment and improve working
conditions.
• UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Performs activities aimed
at developing culture, education, science and communications.
• World Health Organization: Promotes health around the world.
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): Protects children.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees (in Spanish ACMUR): Is in charge of protecting
refugees and people who are displaced due to persecution and conflict.

Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

In response to the injustice and inequality in the world, especially in the poorest countries, the first
NGOs appeared in developed countries in the final decades of the 20th century. This coincided
with greater public awareness of issues such as human rights and poverty.
The main characteristics of NGOs are:

• Most of their staff work as volunteers, although they also have paid employees.
• They are funded by membership fees and contributions from companies.
• They operate independently of any governmental power.
• They deal with a wide variety of problems.
Some NGOs include the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. Others work to relieve poverty,
such as Oxfam.

Regional Organisations
• The European Union (UN)
• The African Union (AU)
• The Organization of American States (OAS)
• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Informal Forums
The Group of Seven (G7) began to meet in 1973. It is made up of the seven countries in the world
that have the most economic and military power (the United States, Japan, Germany, the United
Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada).

A group of countries with emerging economies joined together at the beginning of this century.
This group is called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

For many years, Russia was part of the G7, which was then called the G8. However, following the
annexation of Crimea in 2014, the other members announced that Russia would no longer be
included in the meetings, making it the G7 once again.

Economic Organisations
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose aim it is to prevent financial crises and to
encourage economic stability. To achieve this aim, it advises governments on economic
matters and gives loans to member countries.
• The World Bank, whose main activity is to provide loans to governments so that they can
carry out reform projects in their countries.

Both the IMF and the World Bank receive a lot of criticism. According to their critics, these
organisations give unfair advantages to powerful nations. In order to provide a loan, the IMF
requires the country which receives it to adopt a series of measures which increase social
inequality. These may include cutting social services and benefits for disadvantaged sectors of the
population, and privatising state-owned companies. If these measures are not carried out before
certain fixed deadlines, the country receiving the loan may lose its financing.

The decision-making process at the IMF is highly questionable because it depends on the amount
of money contributed by each country. In other words, the more money a country contributes, the
more votes it has. As a result, the G7 nations hold 48.2% of the votes, meaning that they can be
sure that any decision will be in their favour.
globalisation in today’s world
Since the late 1980’s, the pace of globalisation has steadily increased. All of the world’s societies
are being brought together in a single system in which they depend on and interact with each
other economically, socially, politically and culturally.

Scientific and Technological Globalisation

Communications and high technology help bring both humans and economic markets increasingly
close together.

The continuing fall in prices for all types of technology and transport has accelerated the process of
globalisation. For example, since the first email was sent in 1971, the number of internet users has
grown to more than one billion people. The mobile phone, a device which in 1980 was used
exclusively by people in the business world or by rich people as a luxury item, is now available to
everyone.

a world in conflict
Geopolitics and Military Influence
The most important military alliances are:

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (OTAN in Spanish). It defines itself as a
system for the collective defence of its member states, which agree to defend each other
mutually in the event of an attack. However, the alliance’s critics accuse it of only serving
the interests of the USA and the countries with the most influence in the European Union.
• The Collective Security Treaty Organization (La Organización del Tratado de Seguridad
Colectiva). It represents a political and military agreement. However, its critics say that it is
essentially a tool serving Russian interests in response to NATO.

The Main Conflicts

Nowadays, these are some of the current conflicts in the world:

• There’s a great deal of drug trafficking in Mexico and Colombia

• There’s certain tension between the USA (capitalist) and Cuba (communist). The same goes
between the USA and Venezuela and the USA and Russia.
• In recent years, there have been several wars in Central Africa. These confrontations are
usually known as ‘Africa’s forgotten conflicts’ because of the little attention they receive on
the media. Some of these conflicts have been caused by the intervention of radical Muslim
terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda.
• There’s still unresolved tension in the area between Israel and Palestine as both countries
claim part of the territory.
 • In Central Asia, the development of Iran’s nuclear plan and extremist terrorist activity by
the Taliban and Al-Qaeda has destabilized the region.
• There’s also an unresolved conflict between South Korea (supported by the USA and Japan)
and North Korea (backed by China, which has developed nuclear weapons).
• There are many other conflicts in the world. These are just some of them.

territorial and administrative organisation of spain

Spainis organised into municipalities, provinces and autonomous communities, which are
administered by different levels of government.

Local government
A municipality is the basic territorial division. It consistsof one or more cities, towns or villages. Its
government is in charge of the town hall, made up of the mayor and several councillors. The
numer of councillors is not the same in all municipalities, as it depends on the number of
inhabitants.

Comarcas are territories that cover several municipalities with geographical or cultural similarities.

Provincial government
Spain is organised into 50 provinces. A province is a group of municipalities with a governing body
called the diputación provincial. Its duty is to promote cooperation between municipalities. This
body is known as the diputación foral in País Vasco/Euskadi and in Comunidad Foral de Navarra.

The diputación provincial does not exist in the islands, where there are specific government
bodies: consejos insulares in the Illes Balears and cabildos in Canarias.

Autonomous government
Spain is organised into 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities, Ceuta and
Melilla.

Each autonomous community has its own Statue of Autonomy, where the institutions of the
community, its competences and its funding system are set out.