CONTEMPORARY WORLD T1-T2
Development [IBRD] and the IMF
The Parable of Blind Men and the Elephant is
used as a warning for people that endorse absolute
truth or exclusive claims on a subject matter.
Globalization is
- inevitable, acceptable, and favorable
- “Globaloney” - nonsensical/absurd idea on
global issues
Rejectionists perceive globalization as a power
word like nationalism and development.
- Power words explain everything and
nothing; mere labels
Supporters of globalism can demonstrate its utility
through empirical studies or study ideologies linked
to the term.
Skeptics term globalization is not significant cause
most trades remain national in scope.
Modifiers globalization is one of many phases of
history. One moment in a more general theory of
world history.
FOUR MAIN DIMENSIONS OF
GLOBALIZATION
● Economic Dimension increase of economic
connections
1. The Advent of a New Global Economic
Order
- arose after World War II
- United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference [Bretton Woods Conference]
- International Monetary Fund [IMF], World
Bank, World Trade Organization [WTO]
- 730 delegates from 44 allied nations
- Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods,
New Hampshire, United States
- July 1-22, 1944
- regulated the international monetary and
financial order and established the
International Bank for Reconstruction and
The economic dimension is dominated by neoliberal
capitalism [transfers control of economic factors to
the private sector from the public sector]
- Eliminates fixed exchange rates, support
deregulation, allow prvt property, and
privatize business run by the gov.
- Liberalized financial transactions in the
1980s
- [setbacks] Great Recession of 2008 to 2010,
European debt crisis, and China’s economic
slowdown
2. The Internalization of Trade and Finance
- Eradicating trade barriers = growth in global
wealth, achieve international relations, nd
disseminate new tech
- Globalization in FT = increased mobility
with less restraints and more investment
opportunities
- 1990s financial transactions has been
speeded up by Internet-based tech and
satellite systems
3. The Increased Power of Transnational
Corporations
- Transnational corporations has the control of
much of the world’s investment capital, tech,
and access to international market
4. The Enhanced Role of International
Economic Institutions huge international
institutions play essential roles in making
rules of a global economy.
- Global South - Africa, Latin America, and
developing Asia including Middle East
- Global North - members of G8 and the ⅘
members of the UN Security Council
● Political Dimension expansion of political
interrelations around the world
Hyperglobalizers globalization is driven by
economic and technological forces. Politics is
powerless for them.
 - Globalization = decrease in territorial
boundaries, and states losing control of
things within their borders
Globalization Skeptics politics is the main factor
that pushes forward globalization. They disagree,
hasty expansion of global economic activities is
reducible.
Nation-state political units consisting of
self-governing sovereign states share common
culture, history, and language.
- Central political organization
- Independence and sovereignty
- Diplomatic representation to other
nation-states
- Sense of shared history, language, culture,
and identity among the citizens
Peace of Westphalia end religious wars [1648]
- 1990 US President Bush proclaimed the
birth of a “new world order” = death of
Westphalia nation-state model
Globalization seems to weaken bounded territory
and cause an upsurge of a borderless world. Public
affairs - global networks x states based on territory
● Cultural Dimension expansion of cultural flows
across the globe.
- Culture = symbolic construction,
articulation, and dissemination of meaning.
Mcdonaldization refer to the principles of the fast
food restaurant coming to dominate more and more
sectors of American society
- World is becoming more uniform [west]
Development of a global culture
Role of the media in forming our desires and
identities
Globalization of languages
Homogeneity world is becoming smaller
Heterogeneity world is fragmenting, emphasizing
our differences
Pessimistic Hyperglobalizers globalization causes
the rise of a homogenized popular culture [cultural
imperialism] [americanization]
Optimistic Hyperglobalizers agree with the rise of
sameness in cultural globalization = good result
Roland Robertson [1938] cultural hybridity as a
result of glocalization - interaction between local
and global cultural traits
Cultural Hybridization refers to the mingling
cultures as a result of globalization = new and
unique hybrid cultures that are not reducible to
local/global
Glocalization refers to the interpretation of the
local and the global resulting in unique outcomes in
various geographic areas
Individualism human independence
Consumerism encouraged the acquisition of goods
and services in ever-increasing amounts
FIVE VARIABLES WHICH INFLUENCE THE
GLOBALIZATION OF LANGUAGES
- Number of languages
- Movements of people
- Fola learning and tourism
- Internet language
- International scientific publication
● ECOLOGICAL DIMENSION worldwide
environmental issues [ population growth, access
to food, global reduction in biodiversity, the gap
between rich and poor + GN and GS,
human-induced climate change, and global
environmental degradation
UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHIES AND
IDEOLOGIES IN GLOBALIZATION
Ideology is a system of ideas and ideals - “patterned
clusters of normatively-imbued ideas and concepts,
including particular representations of power
relations…”
- Links certain human actions with some
generalized claims
Globalization is a social process of intensifying
global interdependence [beliefs, claims, accounts,
and norms, about the phenomenon itself]
Globalism is an ideology that endows a concept of
globalization with certain values
MARKET GLOBALISM pursues to grant
globalization with neoliberal meanings and
free-market norms
- Promises a consumerist, neoliberal ,
free-market world
SIX MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF MG
1. G is about the liberalization and global
integration of markets. Results are neither
intended nor foreseen
2. G is inevitable and irreversible
3. Nobody is in charge of globalization
4. Globalization benefits everyone
5. G furthers the spread of democracy in the
world. [democracy = demokratia = rule of
the people]
6. G requires war on terror
JUSTICE GLOBALISM based on egalitarian
ideals of global solidarity and distributive justice
- G may be inevitable, but assert that it can be
shaped by intentional policies that highlight
egalitarian principles
- Fairer rs and ecological safeguards
Political left/ left-wing politics supports social
equality and egalitarianism and in opposition of
social hierarchy
SEVEN KEY VALUES OF JG
1. Transformative change
2. Participatory democracy
3. Equality of access to resources and
opportunities
4. Social justice
5. Universal rights
6. Global solidarity
7. Sustainability
THREE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF JG
1. Reform
2. Autonomy
3. Transformation
RELIGIOUS GLOBALISM global religious
community with dominance over secular structures
Right-wing politics - conservative or reactionary
section of a political party or system
- Some social orders and hierarchies are
inevitable, natural, normal, or economics
Jihadism 21st neologism to label Islamist militant
movements considered as military movement
[jihadist islamism]
Jihadist globalism seeks to incite their global
community of believers into violent action.
- Complain about the contemporary age of
Jahiliyyah [age of ignorance an pagan
idolatry] and call for a transformed
universalism of a global umma [ the whole
community of Muslims bound together by
ties of religion
DESCRIPTION OF G
1. Roland Robertson - Globalization as a
concept refers to both to the compression of
the world and the intensification of
consciousness of the world as a whole
2. James Mittelman - G compresses the time
and space aspects of social relations
3. Frederic Jameson - The concepts of g reflect
the sense of an immense enlargement of
world communication, as well as of the
horizon of a world market both of which
seems for mere tangible and immediate tha
in earlier stages of modernity
4. Tom G. Palmer - The diminution/elimination
of state-enforced restriction on exchanges
across borders and the increasingly
integrated and complex global system of
production and exchange that has emerged
as result
5. David Held - G may be thought of as a
process which embodies a transformation in
 the spatial organization of social relation and
transaction-assessed in terms of their
extensity, intensity velocity and
impeach-generating transcontinental or
interregional flows and networks of activity,
interaction and the exercise of power
6. Anthony Giddens - G can be defined 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
Manfred Steger - g can be best be described as
“the expansion and intensification of social relations
and consciousness across world-time and
world-space”
- Not a single process but a set of processes
that function concurrently
Dr. Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan - g as a process that
encompasses the causes, course, and consequences
of transnational and transcultural integration of
human and non-human activities.
Daming alam
T2 - THE STRUCTURES OF
GLOBALIZATION
Global economy system of trade and industry
around the globe - outcome of globalization
- International spread of capitalism
IMF defines economic globalization as a historical
process, the result of human innovation and
technological progress
- Increasing integration of economies around
the world…
- Movement of people and knowledge across
international borders
INTERRELATED DIMENSIONS:
1. The globalization of trade of goods and
services
2. The g of financial and capital markets
3. The g of technology and communication
4. The g of production
Internalization extension of economic activities of
nation states across borders
Economic globalization functional integration
among globally distributed activities
- Qualitative transformation
Professor Emeritus - g is nothing but a process
making the world economy an organic system by
extending transnational economic processes…
International economic relations led the prompt
development and decline in poverty in many
developing countries
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF
GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC RELATIONS
1. G ensures easier movement of goods and
services…
2. Easier movement of people between
countries…
3. G leads to free trade between countries…
4. G has ensured easier and faster flow of
information…
5. G has led to reduction in cultural barriers…
6. Movement of capital between countries…
7. G has given rise to several multinational
corporations…
8. G has helped to address environmental
issues…
FACTORS THAT FACILITATE ECONOMIC
GLOBALIZATION
1. Intergovernmental organizations [IGOs]
orgs that have national governments as
members.
- Formed by treaty, involving two or
more nations = good faith and common
interest
2. International nongovernmental
organizations [INGOs] non state
institutions, same mission as NGOs
Non-governmental organizations neither a part of
a gov nor a traditional profit-oriented business
Red Cross [1863] to institute and monitor the laws
of warfare
3. Multinational corporations [MNCs]
companies that have facilities and other
assets in at least one country other than its
home country
- Brought increased automation to developing
countries
Race to the bottom - phenomenon that
MNCs are persistently attempting to
increase or maintain their influence
FOUR CATEGORIES OF MNCs
- Decentralized corporation with a strong
presence in its home country
- Global, centralized corporation that acquires
cost advantage where cheap resources are
available
- Global company that builds on the parent
corporation’s R&D
- Transnational enterprises that uses all three
categories
Research and Development exploratory
activities to improve current products and
procedures
4. Transnational corporations [TNCs]
incorporated or unincorporated enterprises
consisting of parent enterprises and their
foreign affiliates
Istvan Bencze - TNCs are the major actors
in world economy
Parent enterprise - control assets of other
entities in countries other than its home country
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
- Larger than single states, but do not have to
be global
Westphalian System foremost world-system
functioning in the contempo world, standing for the
system of sovereign states and nation-states formed
by the Westphalian Treaties in 1648
Westphalian sovereignty / state sovereignty is the
principle in international law which states that every
NS has exclusive sovereignty over its territory
Modern world-system a capitalist world economy
[Immanuel Wallerstein]
- WS - Geographical division of labor in
which the basic linkage is economic
Capitalism endless accumulation of capital
World-empire huge bureaucratic structures with a
sole political center and an axial division of labor,
but multiple cultures
World-economy large axial division of labor with
multiple political centers in multiple cultures
Micro-systems small non-states units, such as
tribes
World systems theory [Wallerstein] - a country’s
economic system cannot be understood without
reference to the world system of which it is a part.
- Proposes that there is a world economic
system in which some nations profit while
others are exploited
PARTS OF THE SYSTEM
1. The core control and exploit the peripheral
countries for labor and raw materials
2. The Periphery the peripheral nations are
dependent on core countries for capital
3. The Semi-Periphery lies between the two
extremes. Represent either core nations in
decline or peripheral countries attempting to
improve [ buffers between the core and
periphery ]
4. External Areas maintain their own
economic systems as they manage to remain
outside the modern world-system either by
choice or neglect
Economic integration is an agreement among
different regions that usually includes the lessening
or abolition of trade barriers, and the coordination
of monetary and fiscal policies
- Aims to reduce cost for both producers and
consumers + increase trade
Global economic integration is economic
integration in a global scale
Monetary policy involves the actions of a central
bank, currency board, or other regulatory
committee… money supply
Fiscal policies Adjust its tax rates and expenditure
levels to monitor and influence a country’s
economy
DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC
INTEGRATION
1. Human migration
2. Trade in goods and services
3. Movements of capital and integration of
financial markets
THREE FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS
AFFECTING THE DIMENSIONS
1. Improvements in the technology of
transportation and communication…
2. The taste of individuals and societies have
favored…
3. Public policies have significantly influenced
the character and pace of economic
integration…
ADVANTAGES OF ECONOMIC
INTEGRATION
1. Trade benefits - decrease in the cost of
trade…
2. Employment - opportunities tend to
increase…
3. Tighter economic ties - political cooperation
4. Upholds free trade - promotes global
economic growth
5. More inflow of information
6. Swift travel, mass com, and speedy
dissemination of info
DISADVANTAGES OF ECONOMIC
INTEGRATION
1. Erosion of national sovereignty
2. Big multinational companies can exploit tax
havens
3. Transnational companies and MNCs are
progressively influencing political decisions
4. EI and G lead to the infiltration of
communicable diseases
5. G and EI are said to have made the rich
richer and the non-rich poorer
6. For developed countries - jobs are lost and
moved to lower cost countries
Fiscal policy 1. This refers to the means by which a
government adjusts its tax rates and expenditure
levels to monitor and influence a country’s
economy.
Economic Globalization 2. It is said to be the
functional integration among globally distributed
activities.
Intergovernmental organizations 3. These are
organizations that have national governments as
members.
Research and Development 4. It involves
exploratory activities to improve current products
and procedures or to lead to the generation of new
products and procedures.
Westphalian System 5. This is said to be the
foremost world-system functioning in the contempo
world.
World empire 6. These are huge bureaucratic
structures with a sole political center and an axial
division of labor, but multiple culture
Immanuel Wallerstein 7. He proposes a theoretical
model to comprehend the modern world system
which is fundamentally capitalist in nature.
Monetary policy 8. The policy that involves the
actions of a central bank, currency board, or other
regulatory committee that determine the rate and
size of growth of the money supply.
World-system 9. These are typically larger than
single states, but do not have to be global.
Istvan Benczes 10. The Head of the Institute of
World Economy who believes that the major actors
of contempo global economy are the transnational
corporations.
Capitalism 11. It 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.
Peripheral / Periphery 12. The nations that are
dependent on core countries for capital.
Westphalian sovereignty 13. This is the principle in
international law which states that every nation state
has exclusive sovereignty over its territory.
Race to the bottom 14. A phenomenon which
implies that multinational companies are
persistently attempting to increase or maintain their
influence in countries that are already dependent
solely on foreign investment.
NGOs 15. These endeavor towards solutions that
can profit undeveloped countries that face the
backlash of economic globalization.
INGOs 16. These non-state institutions have the
same mission as NGOs …
Red Cross 17. This was organized in 1863 to
institute and monitor the laws of warfare.
Internalization 18. It is simply about the extension
of economic activities of nations' states across
borders.
Global Economic Integration (?) 19. It denotes
global economic activities among various countries
that are deemed interconnected and thus can affect
other countries either positively or negatively.
Multinational corporations 20. These are said to
have brought increased automation to developing
countries.