CONTEMPORARY WOLRD PRELIMS

CHAPTER 1 (LESSON 1)

Globalization is an umbrella term denoting the growing modern interconnectedness of nations,

people, and markets.

Globalization is principally an economic process of interaction and integration.

Concepts and Ideas Associated with Globalization

1. Free Trade - promoted by globalization, free trade is an international trade left to its natural
course, that is, without tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions.

2. Mass Media - be the strongest (though the most debatable) indirect agent of socialization in
the contemporary globalized world.

The mass media play a key role in augmenting globalization as they facilitate cultural exchanges
and several flows of information and images, among countries through international news
broadcasts, television programs, new technologies, film, and music.

3. Technology and Internet - has enabled globalization. Since the turn of the 20th century, there
have been international market integration and widespread cultural exchange.

The 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study in the Philippines reported that the
deregulation of the telecommunication industry in 1995, following the passage of Republic Act
7925 (Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines), paved the way for the rapid
development of information and communication technology in the country.

The Internet provides a means to establish relationships without face-to-face contact, referred to
as virtual friends and online business clients.

4. The Social Media and Social Networking - Social media are computer-and-internet-
mediated tools that allow people to generate, share, and exchange information, pictures, and
videos in virtual communities and networks.

Social networking is a famous form of social media and an integration of the various social
media platforms.

5. Transnational Migration - Since the late 20th century, the rise of globalization has changed
the concept of migration.
Transnational migration refers to the phenomenon in which people migrate from one country
to another for temporary labor, in which they simultaneously participate in social connections in
multiple nations.

6. Capitalism - Capitalism is an economic and political system in which the industry and trade
are controlled not by the state but by private owners for profit.

7. Terrorism - is politically oriented violence or threat of violence. It undoubtedly causes

change in society as it involves the purposeful creation and exploitation of fear for bringing
about sociopolitical change.

8. International Organizations - International organization refers to membership group that

functions across national borders for well-defined purposes.

International organizations fall into two basic categories:

1. The intergovernmental organizations

2. The international nongovernmental organizations

9. State’s Sovereignty - Another problem with globalization is that states are in effect
increasingly losing their sovereignty. Sovereignty refers to the full power and right of a
governing body over itself, without any intrusion from outside bodies or sources.

10. Ethics - branch of philosophy that studies morality or the rightness or wrongness of human
conduct.

LESSON 2

Manfred Steger, professor of Global Studies and director of the Globalism Institute at Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, explains that globalization is not a new
phenomenon as it started with pre-historic early human migration. For him, what has been taking
place from 1980 onwards is no longer globalization per se but rather the expansion of
globalization to a point of “convergence.”

The Parable of The Blind Men and An Elephant

The Parable of Blind Men and the Elephant is used today as a warning for people that endorse
absolute truth or exclusive claims on a subject matter.

Competing Conceptions of Globalization

1. Rejectionists - In this camp, scholars perceive globalization as a “power word',” like

“nationalism” and “development”.

2. Skeptics - Skeptic scholars point out that even if the term globalization is meaningful, it is
nonetheless not significant at all: They claim, for instance, that most trades remain national in
scope.

3. Modifiers - These so-called modifiers consider globalization as simply one of many similar
phases in history.

Four Main Dimensions of Globalization

1. The Economic Dimension of Globalization - Economic globalization refers to the

intensification, increase, and stretching of economic connections around the world.

2. The Political Dimension of Globalization - Steger (2017) defines political globalization as

the intensification and expansion of political interrelations around the world.

3. The Cultural Dimension or Globalization - Cultural globalization is the intensification and

expansion of cultural flows across the globe.

LESSON 3

Underlying Philosophies and Ideologies in Globalization

1. Market Globalism - Market globalism pursues to grant globalization with neoliberal
meanings and free-market norms.

2. Justice Globalism - Justice globalism upholds an alternative vision of globalization based on

egalitarian ideals of global solidarity and distributive justice.

Justice globalism involves seven key values: (1) transformative change, (2) participatory
democracy, (3) equality of access to resources and opportunities, (4) social justice, (5) universal
rights, (6) global solidarity, and (7) sustainability. The ideology further promotes three different
strategies: (1) reform, (2) autonomy, and (3) transformation.

3. Religious Globalism - Religious globalism endeavors for a global religious community with
dominance over secular structures.

The term Jihadism is a 21st-century neologism found in Western languages to label Islamist
militant movements considered as military movements (allegedly) rooted in Islam and assumed
to be threatening to the West. The Jihadist globalism advocated by some radical Islamists seeks
to incite their global community of believers into violent action.

CHAPTER 2 (LESSON 1)

Global economy refers to the system of trade and industry around the globe that has developed
as the outcome of globalization, that is, the manner in which economies have been developing to
function together as seemingly one system.

ACTORS THAT FACILITATE ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

1. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), also known as international governmental

organizations, are organizations that have national governments as members (referred to as
member-states).

2. International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are nonstate institutions. They have

the same mission as non-governmental organization (NGOs), but are international in scope and
have headquarters around the world to deal with definite issues in several countries.

3. Multinational corporations (MNCs) - are companies that have facilities and other assets in at
least one country other than its home country.

There are four categories of multinationals: (a) a decentralized corporation with a strong
presence in its home country; (b) a global, centralized corporal non that acquires cost advantage
where cheap resources are available; (c) a global company that builds on the parent corporation's
R&D; (d) a transnational enterprise that uses all three categories.

4. Transnational corporations (TNCs) - refer to incorporated or unincorporated enterprises

consisting of parent enterprises and their foreign affiliates.

LESSON 2

A world-system is “a socioeconomic system, under systems theory, that encompasses part or all
of the globe, detailing the aggregate structural result of the sum of the interactions between
polities”

The Westphalian System is said to be the foremost world system functioning in the
contemporary world, standing for the system of sovereign states and nation-states formed by the
Westphalian Treaties in 1648.

Immanuel Wallerstein, a senior research scholar at Yale University and director of the
Fernand Braudel Center at Binghamton University, defines the modern world-system as
“specifically a capitalist world economy,” with capitalism explained as “the endless
accumulation of capital"(Wallerstein 2004).

Capitalism is typically defined as an economic and political system in which the industry and
trade are controlled not by the state but by private owners for profit.

As a foundation for comparison, Wallerstein offers four various categories: (1) core, (2) semi-
periphery, (3) periphery, and (4) external, into which all regions of the globe can be located.

LESSON 3

Market integration is a term that is used to identify a phenomenon in which markets of goods
and services that are somehow related to one another being to experience similar patterns of
increase or decrease in terms of the prices of those products.

INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

is that financial institution which has been founded or chartered by more than one nation, and
thus are subjects of international law.

The term international financial institution characteristically refers to the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the five multilateral development banks (MDBs): (1) the World Bank Group, (2)
the African Development Bank, (3) the Asian Development Bank, (4) the Inter-American
Development Bank, and (5) the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

On the other hand, MDBs grant financing for development to developing countries through the
following:

1. Long-term loans, with maturities of up to 20 years, based on market interest rates.

2. Very-long-term loans (usually termed credits, with maturities of 30 to 40 years) at interest

rates well below market rates.

3. Grant financing (offered by some MDBs), typically for technical assistance, advisory
services or project preparation.

Former director of international affairs at the World Bank Vinay Bhargava further
explains the typical IFIs and their functions (Bhargava, 2006):

1. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) - In 1945, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
was founded by international treaty as the central institution of the international monetary
system, that is, the system of exchange rates and currency trading that allows business to take
place among countries with different currencies.

2. The World Bank Group -The World Bank was established in 1945 at the same international
conference as IMF. At first, it was involved primarily in the reconstruction of countries
distraught by World War II.

3. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - In 1959, the IDB was founded as a
development institution. This oldest regional development bank is owned by its 48-member
countries (as of 2018), which include many Latin American and Caribbean states, the United
States, Canada, several European countries, Israel, the Republic of Korea, and Japan.

4. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) - The ADB is owned by its member countries. From
31 members at its formation ADB in 1966, ADB has grown to include 67 members (as of 2018)-
of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside.

5. The African Development Bank - Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Abidjan, Cote
d’Ivoire, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is owned by 80-member countries (as of 2018),
that is, by more than 50 African countries and by more than 20 countries in the Americas,
Europe, and Asia.