1

GEC121 HANDOUT

DEFINING GLOBALIZATION
• Globalization is the increasing interaction of
people, states, or countries through the
growth of the international flow of money,
ideas, and culture. Thus, globalization is
primarily focused on economic process of
integration that has social and cultural
aspect.
• It is the interconnectedness of people and
business across the world that eventually
leads to global, cultural, political, and
economic integration.
• It is the ability to move and communicate with others all over the world in order to
conduct business internationally.
• It is the free movement of goods, services, and people across the world in seamless and
integrated number.
• It is the liberation of countries of their impact protocols and welcome foreign investments
into sectors that are the mainstays of its economic.
• It refers to countries acting like magnets attracting global capital by opening up their
economies to multinational corporations.

Globalization as Defined by Other Authors

• “Globalization as a process by which the people of the world are incorporated into a
single world society.” – Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King
• “Globalization 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 (The Consequence of Modernity)
• “Globalization as the compression of the world and the intensification of the
consciousness of the world as a whole.” – Prof. Roland Robertson (sociology), 1992,
University of Aberdeen
• “Globalization is a transplanetary process(es) involving increasing liquidity and growing
multi - directional flows as well as the structures they encounter and create.” – George
Ritzer (Globalization: Essentials)

✓ According to anthropologist Arjun Apparudai, different kinds of globalization occur on

multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration.

He calls these SCAPES…

Ethnoscape – Refers to the global movement of people
Mediascape - Refers to the flow of culture
Technoscape - Refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and software
Financescape – denotes the global circulation of money
Ideoscape – realm where political ideas move around.
 2

Other Dimensions of Globalization:

• Economic globalization
- According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) it is the increasing of integration of
economies around the world through the movement of goods, services, and capital
across borders and the increase speed and frequency of trading, items being sold and
traded are also changing drastically.
- Basically, there is an establishment of a global common market, based on the freedom of
exchange of goods and capital.
• Political globalization- creation of international organizations to regulate the relationships
among governments and to guarantee the rights arising from social and economic
globalization.
• Cultural globalization - sharing of ideas, attitudes and values across national borders. This
sharing generally leads to an interconnectedness and interaction between peoples of diverse
cultures and ways of life. Mass media and communication technologies are the primary
instruments for cultural globalization.

Characteristics of Globalization
• There is social mobility of movement of people regardless of reason
• There is an intensification of interactions
• It’s an active process
• Borderless interaction
• Spread of ideas, knowledge, technology, culture, religion, etc.

Historical Foundation of the Term “Globalization”

• Before the age of discovery -> Age of discovery -> 1820’s -> 1900’s -> 20th century
Charles Taze Russel coined the term CORPORATE GIANTS, referring to a
1897
large national trust and other large enterprises of the time.
The world “Globalize” as a noun appeared in a publication entitled “Towards
1930 new education” where it denoted a holistic view of human experience in
education.
Late 1970’s Globalization was coined
Early 1981 Globalization was used as an economic sense
Late 1980’s Globalization was popularized by Theodore Levitt.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) identified four basic aspect of
Late 2000’s
Globalization.
2013 The Globalization was used to define “borderless society”
2017 Globalization was often used in the academe.
2018 Globalization was now used in all discipline.

Origins and History of Globalization

• Hardwired - Nayan Chanda ( 2007 : xiv) argues that “ globalization stems, among other
things, from a basic human urge to seek a better and more fulfilling life ”
- Trade (Economy)
- Missionary (Religion)
- Adventure and Conquest (Politics and Warfare)
• Cycles - The second perspective is that globalization is a long - term cyclical process.
 3

• Epochs - Therborn ( 2000 : 151 – 79) sees six great epochs, or “ waves, ” of globalization,
that have occurred sequentially, each with its own point of origin:
1. The fourth to the seventh centuries which witnessed the globalization of religions
(e.g. Christianity, Islam).
2. The late fifteenth century highlighted by European colonial conquests.
3. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries during which various intra-
European wars led to globalization.
4. The mid - nineteenth century to 1918; the heyday of European imperialism.
5. The post - World War II period.
6. The post - Cold War period.
• Events - A fourth view is that instead of cycles or great epochs, one can point to much more
specific events that can be seen as the origin of globalization and give us a good sense of its
history.
- Romans conquests
- The rise and spread of Christianity and Islam
- Trade in the Middle Age
- European traders like Marco Polo and his travels
- The “discovery of America” by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
- European colonialism
- The first transatlantic telephone cable in 1956.
- Invention of transatlantic passenger jet in 1958.
- The launch of the satellite Telstar 1962

• Broader, More Recent Changes - The fifth view focuses on broader, but still recent,
changes.
- The emergence of US as the global power after WWII
- The emergence of Multinational Corporations (MNCs)
- The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War
-
Advantage of Globalization
1. An open economy spur fast innovation with fresh ideas from abroad
2. Exports jobs often pay more than other jobs
3. Productivity grows more quickly when countries produce
goods and services in which they are of comparative
advantageous.
4. Peaceful Relations
5. Employment
6. Education
7. Product Quality
8. Cheaper Prices
9. Communication
10. Transportation
11. GDP Increase
12. Free Trade
13. Travel and Tourism
14. External Borrowing
 4

Disadvantage of Globalization

1. Exploitation of underdeveloped countries

2. Widening of rich-poor gap
3. Harmful effects on small industries and small business
4. Health Issues
5. Loss Culture
6. Uneven Wealth Distribution
7. Environment Degradation
8. Disparity
9. Conflict
10. Cut-throat Competition

Metaphors of Globalization
▪ Solid - People, things, information, and places “harden ” over time and therefore have
limited mobility.
▪ Liquid - Increasing ease of movement of people, things, information, and places in the
global age.
▪ Gas
▪ Heavy
▪ Light
▪ Weightless

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

International Trading System

• Silk Road
- The oldest known international trade.
It is a network of pathways in the
ancient world that spanned from
China to Middle East and Europe.
-
• Flynn and Giraldez
- Age of globalization began when “all
important populated continents began
to exchange products continuously
and in values sufficient to generate
crucial impacts on all trading
partners.”
- The full economic globalization can
be traced back to 1571 with the Galleon Trade between Manila and Acapulco. The very
first time that the Americas were directly connected to Asian trading routes.
 5

• Mercantilism – it was a system of global trade with multiple restrictions.

✓ Imposed of high tariff
✓ Forbade colonies to trade with other nations
✓ Restricted trade routes
• 1867 – a more open trade system emerged when the US and the other European Nations
adopted the gold standard at an international Monetary Conference in Paris.
• Great Depression
- It was started during the 1920’s and extended up to the 1930’s. It is the worst and
longest recession ever experienced in Western world.
• Fiat Currency – currency that are not backed by precious metals and whose value is
determined by their cost relative to other currencies.

The Bretton Woods System

- It was established in New Hampshire in 1944 and it
ends in 1970’s.
- This system was largely influenced by the ideas of
British economist John Maynard Keynes.

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)

- It works with countries that are having
problems with money, problems with debt and paying
back the money that they borrowed. It gives advice on how to change their internal
policies and structures in order to fix the problems that they’ve got.
- The goal was to provide security, as well as flexibility, to the monetary order.

• International Bank For Reconstruction And Development (WORLD BANK)

- Responsible for funding post war reconstruction projects.
- World Bank is primarily a lending institution with a goal of ending extreme poverty and
lends money to poor countries for economic development. It focuses on developing
physical infrastructure in middle-income nations.
• General Agreement on Trades and Tariff (GATT)
- Facilitate the liberalization of trade by the reduction of tariff barriers and other
hindrances to free trade.
- It was established in 1947.

Neo-Liberalism and Its Discontents GDP - is the value of the finished domestic
• Neoliberalism goods and services produced within a nation’s
- A political approach that favours free-market borders.
capitalism, deregulation, and reduction of
spending. GNP - is the value of all finished domestic
- goods and services produced by a country’s
• Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman citizens, both domestically and abroad.
- Proponents of Neo-Liberalism
- The government’s practice of pouring money into the economies had caused inflation by
increasing demand for goods without necessary increasing the supply.
- More profoundly, they argued that government intervention in economies distort the
proper functioning of the market.
 6

• Washington Consensus
- Dominates global economic policies from the 1980’s until the early 2000’s.
✓ Pushed for minimal government spending to reduce government debt.
✓ Privatization of government-controlled services.
✓ Pressured government to reduce tariffs and open up their economies.

• World Trade Organization (WTO)

- World Trade Organization was founded in 1995 to promotes global trade and also
functions as a courtroom for member countries to resolve trade dispute with one another.
It upholds the rules of international trade.
- It was created to establish, stabilize and oversee exchange rates.

• Shock Doctrine - This involved the view

that a total overhaul of an economy
required a shock and the economic policies
put in place were designed to change the
economy dramatically and, at least in
theory, to breathe life into it.

Yom Kippur War • Organizations of Arabs Petroleum Exporting Countries

-Egyptian and Syrian forces (OAPEC)
launched attack - Arab countries imposed “Embargo” in 1970’s in
Against Israel on Yom Kippur, response to the decision of US and other countries to resupply the
the holiest day in Jewish Israeli Military during the Yom Kippur War.
calendar. - The stock market crashed in 1973-1974 after US
Stagflation stopped linking the dollar to gold which resulted to the end of the
-Came from two words, Bretton Woods System.
Stagnation and Inflation.

Economic Globalization Today

• The financial crisis will take decades to resolve, for the world has become too integrated.
Alternative solutions posited by Nationalist and leftist groups are impractical.
• Export
- Makes national economies grow at present.

BEFORE: The advance nations benefit the most from free AFTER: Developing countries accounted for 51% of
trade (US Japan and European Union members were global exports as of 2011.
responsible for 65% of global exports while developing
countries only accounted for 29%).

- According to IMF, the global per capita GDP rose over five fold in the 2nd half of the 20th
century.
- Large Asian economies: Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
 7

- Some countries, corporations, and individuals benefitting a lot more than the others.
- Tariff reductions and lessening of trade barriers, as processes, have been often unfair.
- The beneficiaries of global commerce have been mainly transnational corporations (TNC’s)
and not Government.
- It also sacrifices social and environmental programs that protect the unprivileged.
- “Race to the Bottom” - Term used to refer to countries’ lowering of labor standard to lure
in foreign investors.

POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
- It is the creation of international
organizations to regulate the relationships among
governments and to guarantee the rights arising from
social and economic globalization.
Attributes of Today’s Global System
• World politics today has four key attributes:
➢ First, there are countries or states that are
independent and govern themselves.
➢ Second, these countries interact with each other
through diplomacy.
➢ Third, there are international organizations that
facilitate these interactions.
➢ Fourth, beyond simply facilitating meetings
between states, international organizations also take on
lives of their own.

What are the origins of this system?

• A good start is by unpacking what one means when he/she says a “country”, or what
academics also call the “Nation-State”.
• A Nation-State is composed of two non-interchangeable terms.
- NOT ALL STATES ARE NATIONS – Ex. Singapore and Myanmar
- NOT ALL NATIONS ARE STATES – Ex. Palestine and Scotland
• What is the difference between nation and state?
• In layman’s terms, STATE refers to a country and its government.
• State has four elements:
1. Citizen,
2. Territory,
3. Government, and
4. Sovereignty.
• NATION, on the other hand, is an “imagined community” according to Benedict Anderson.
It is limited because it does not go beyond a given “official boundary”, and because rights
and responsibilities are mainly the privilege and concern of the citizens of those nations.
• Nation and state are closely related because it is nationalism that facilitates state formation.
States becomes independent and sovereign because of nationalist sentiment that clamors for
this independence.
• Thus, SOVEREIGNTY is one of the fundamental principles of modern state politics.
Understanding how this became the case entails going back as far as 400 years ago.
 8

The Interstate System

• The origin of the present-day concept of sovereignty can be traced back to the TREATY
OF WESTPHALIA, which was a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the THIRTY
YEARS’ WAR between the major continental powers of Europe.
• Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic designed a system
that would avert wars in the future by recognizing that the treaty signers exercise complete
control over their domestic affairs and swear not to meddle in each other’s affairs.
• The system faced its first major challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte who believed in the
principle of the French Revolution – LIBERTY, EQUALITY, and FRATERNITY – to
the rest of the Europe.
• The French implemented the Napoleonic code that forbade birth privileges, encourage
freedom or religion, and promoted meritocracy in government service.
• The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1803 and ended during the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
• The Royal Powers created new system that restored the Westphalian system --->
Metternich System.
• Concert of Europe - an alliance of great powers that sought to restore the world of
monarchical, hereditary, and religious privileges of the time before the French revolution
and the Napoleonic wars.
• It was an alliance that sought to restore the sovereignty of states.
• Metternich system – it was named after Klemens von Metternich, the architect of the
system.
• Present-day International system still traces of this history. Until now, states are considered
sovereign. Moreover, great powers still hold significant influence over world politics.
• Example, the most powerful grouping in the UN, Security Council, has a core of five
permanent members, all having veto powers over the council’s decision-making process.
(US, China, France, Russia, and UK)

Internationalism

• The Westphalian and Concert systems divided the world into

separate, sovereign entities. However, others still imagine a
system of heightened interaction between various sovereign
states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation and
unity among states and people. This desire is called
INTERNATIONALISM.
• Internationalism comes in different forms, but may be
divided into two broad categories:
1. Liberal Internationalism
Emmanuel Kant
2. Socialist Internationalism

• Liberal Internationalism:

❖ Emmanuel Kant – he is the first major thinker of liberal internationalism. He is a

German Philosopher from 18th century. Kant imagined a form of global
government.
 9

❖ Jeremy Bentham – He is a British philosopher from late 18th century, who coined
the term INTERNATIONAL in 1780, and advocates the creation of the
“international law” that would govern the inter-state relations.

❖ Giussepe Mazzini - An Italian patriot from 19th century who reconcile the idea of
Bentham’s “Nationalism” and Kant’s “Liberal internationalism”
- He believed in a Republican Government (without kings and queens, and
hereditary succession) and proposed a system of free nations that cooperated
with each other to create an international system.

❖ Widrow Wilson (1913-1921)

- Became one of the 20th century’s most prominent internationalist. He was
greatly influenced by Mazzini’s idea.
- Most notable advocator for the creation of League of Nations (1919), a venue
for reconciliation and arbitration to prevent another war.

❖ WORLD WAR II – It was in the midst of this war that INTERNATIONALISM

would be eclipsed.
- Axis Power: Germany (Adolf Hitler), Italy (Benito Mussolini), and Japan
(Hirohito) versus Allied Power: US, UK, France, Holland, Belgium, and Russia.
- Despite the League of Nation’s dissolution, the organization’s principled
survived in WWII including the World Health Organization and International
Labour Organization.

• Socialist Internationalism:
❖ Karl Marx – He is a German Socialist Philosopher who criticized Mazzini’s idea
and did not believe in nationalism.
- Marx and his co-author Friedrich Engels opposed nationalism because they
believe it prevented the unification of the world’s workers.
- Marx died in 1883 but his followers continued his idea and established their
International organization, the SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL.

❖ SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL – it was a union of European socialist and labor

parties that was established in Paris in 1889 and collapsed in WWII.
- May 1 – Labor Day
- International Women’s Day
- 8-Hour working days

- As the Socialist International Collapsed, a more radical version

emerged. In 1917, Russian Revolution happened where Czar Nicholas II
was overthrown by a revolutionary government led by the Bolshevik
Party and its leader Vladimir Lenin.
- This new state was called USSR or Union of Soviet Socialist
Republic.
Vladimir Lenin - Bolshevik Parties used the method of terror and
lead the revolutions across the world. This parties also referred to as
Communist Parties.
 10

- Lenin established Communist International (Comintern) in 1919 which

served as the central body for directing communist parties all over the world.

❖ Joseph Stalin – He was the successors of Vladimir Lenin, dissolved the Comintern
in 1943. After the war, Stalin re-established the Comintern as the Communist
Information Bureau (Cominform). It helped direct the various communist parties
that had taken power in Eastern Europe.
- In 1991, Soviet Union had collapsed and Liberal Internationalism would once
again ascend.

THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance is such a complex issue that one can actually teach an entire course itself. This
lesson has focused on the International organizations (IO’s) and the United Nations in particular.

Global Governance – refers to the various intersection processes that create world order.
- There are many sources of global governance.
1. States sign treaties and form organizations.
2. International Non-governmental Organization can lobby individual states to
behave in a certain way.
3. TNC’s can likewise have tremendous effect on global labor.

International Organization
- When scholars refer to groups like the UN or institutions like IMF and the World Bank,
they usually call them International Organizations (IO’s).
- IO’s is a term also commonly used to refer to international intergovernmental
organizations or groups that are primarily made of member states. One major, fallacy
about international organizations is that they are merely amalgamations of various state
interests. However, IO’s can take on lives of their own.

❖ Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore listed the following powers of IO’s.
1. IO’s have the power of classification
- They create powerful global standards.
2. IO’s have the power to fix meaning.
- States, organizations, and individuals views IO’s as the legitimate sources of
information. As such, the meanings they create have effects on various policies.
3. IO’s have the power to diffuse norms.
- IO’s do not only classify and fix meanings; they also spread their ideas across the
world.

THE UNITED NATIONS

- The United Nations is divided into five active
organs.
1. General Assembly (GA)
2. Security Council (SC)
 11

3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOR)

4. International Court of Justice (ICJ)
5. UN Secretariat

• General Assembly
- Main deliberative policy-making and representative organ.
- Decisions on important questions require a 2/3 majority of the General Assembly.
- Carlos P. Romulo was elected from 1949-1950.

• Security Council (SC)

- It is considered as the most powerful organ of UN.
- Consists of 15 member states.
- 10 out of 15 were elected by the GA for 2 year terms. And the remaining 5 member
states are what they referred to as P5 or Five Permanent members (China, Russia,
France, US, and UK).
- Takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of
aggression.
-
• Economic and Social Council (ECOSOR)
- The principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue, and
recommendations on social and environmental issues, as well as the implementation of
internally agreed development goals.
- It has 54 members elected for 3 year terms.
- Example: The Sustainable Development Program of UN

• International Court of Justice (ICJ)

- To settle, in accordance with international law. Legal disputes submitted to it by states
and to give advisory opinions referred to it by authorized United Ntaions organs and
specialized agencies.
- Security Council may enforce the rulings of the ICJ.
- Issues legal opinions.
- Render judgement by relative majority. Its 15 judges are elected by the UN general
Assembly for 9 year terms.

• UN Secretariat
- Secretary-General and tens of thousands of internationals UN staff members who carry
out the day-to-day work of the UN as mandated by the GA and organization’s other
principal organs.
- Supports the other UN bodies administratively.