The Concept of Globalisation

There atomic number 18 a plethora of factors that seduce played a role in influencing humane politics in the 20th century. There atomic number 18 the political ideologies, each with their own agenda, contrary or similar, much(prenominal) as Communism, Fascism, Nationalism, Capitalism and Socialism. There atomic number 18 the confused worldwide treaties and agreements, such as the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations and the United Nations. successive these argon scotch agreements, which baffle an ever-increasing role in world politics, interchangeable the General Agreement on Tariffs and switch over (GATT), the World Trade presidency (WTO), the World Bank, the multinational Monetary Fund (IMF), plus regional peck agreements and customs unions such as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), the European Union (EU) and the Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC). unconstipated the two World Wars have had an influence. However, the single force that has had t he greatest preserve on world politics in the 20th century is globoseization. Globalisation is a concept with many another(prenominal) differing definitions.Bayliss & Smith (1998, p. 15) define globalization as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by stock-stillts occurring many miles away and vice versa. Globalisation is a process that entails the movement of capital, goods, serve and push around the world. Globalisation is the massive control of the worlds economy by big business, transcending national boundaries. The underlying factors in alone of these definitions are that globalization involves worldwide consolidation of both political and economic ideals.Furtherto a greater extent, Strachan (1998, p. 159) argues that it involves legal and cultural integration similarly. But does such integration pervert a countrys sovereignty? Can such integration be achieved without violence a nd strife? In order to answer these questions, this undertake leave skunk examine the driving forces behind globalization, its crushfalls and cultural adaptability. Globalisation is an ever-increasing force, even today, as technological advances literally make the world smaller by increasing communication and decreasing travel multiplication, or what can be referred to as the Communication Revolution (Durst, 2000, p. 5).Through massive and rapid improvements in the Information Technology industry telecommunications, exponential increases in computing actor coupled with lower costs and the development of electronic communications and instruction networks such as the Internet, communications are outright possible almost instantaneously between any two points on the globe. The threads of global web are computers, facsimile machines, satellites, monitors and modems-all of them linking designers, engineers, contractors, licensees and dealers worldwide (Sims, 1989, p. 21).Physic al distance is now irrelevant. This improvement of communications this century from sailing ship to satellite has contri excepted directly to the globalisation of the worlds economies and political systems (Rimmer, 2000, p. 3). This has taken place crosswise cultural and physical boundaries, in force(p)ly eliminating the capacity of countries to isolate themselves from the lie in of the world. A prime example of this is China. For most of its existence, China has kept its doors closed to the rest of the world. No outside influences reached China and it remained unchanged and untouched.In recent times however, China has relaxed its legislation to accommodate outside investment and trade. Its economy has alter and new tuition on how to do things more efficiently has been introduced. Borders no longer act as boundaries, especially with respect to the movement of information and finance. Furthermore, borders are becoming increasingly difficult for governments to define and maintai n. Regional conflicts are arising everywhere Sierra Leone, the coup in Fiji, Chechnya, Southern Lebanon and Kosovo. As a result, national governments are being forced to redefine their roles, responsibilities and policy relationships.Thus, globalisation has raised fears that the sovereignty of nation states is being undermined. If sovereignty can be defined as the ability to exercise control without outside interference, past nation states are clearly experiencing diminished sovereignty. Governments have no quality but to recognise and work on the assumption that most issues they are required to deal with are affected by or will affect the worldwide competitiveness of the country. Governments own responses to globalisation or the search for joint solutions to global problems have further effects on sovereignty.Participation in international organisations or the adoption of international agreements puts limits on policy options available to governments (Rimmer, 2000, p. 5). Inste ad of independence, the world is now act interdependence. Proponents of globalisation argue that unilateral action is not the most effective way to achieve policy goals. In combating environmental problems and international crime, the interests of individual(a) nations can only be protected by collective action. This whim has led to competition between countries on almost all fronts.International investment is encouraged by the activities and mobility of multinational corporations, meaning that most national policies such as education and training, taxation, social protection, economic regulation and labour legislation have become international. Even a countrys domestic management policy is a matter of great apprehension to its trading rivals, because this will last affect a countrys efficiency and competitiveness. Therefore, government policies must increasingly be made more consistent with, or competitive to, those of their trading rivals.Robert Reich is a strong service of globalisation, publishing the book entitled The Work of Nations. In his book, Reich argues that it is already too late to stop globalisation. His view is supported by Joan Spero, US down the stairs Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, who states that capital now moves around the world with startling speed. Each day over US $1 million is traded in a global foreign exchange market that never closes. (Spero in Strachan, 1998, p. 156). Reich (1991, p. 112) argues that at that place is no such thing as an American product anymore, giving the example of an ice hockey stick.It is designed in Sweden, financed in Canada, assembled in Cleveland and Denmark out of alloys patented in Delaware and fabricated in Japan and finally distributed in North America and Europe. There are many criticisms of globalisation and Edward Herman (1999, pp. 3-5) classifies his criticisms into a number of categories. Two of those are that, firstly, globalisation is un republican and secondly, that it is a n assault on labour. In the United States, public printing polls showed the general public was against NAFTA, even after incessant propaganda, but the mass media supported it and it was passed.In Europe as well, polls have shown persistent majorities opposed to the introduction of the Euro, but a reasonful elect supports it, so it moves forward. Globalisation has been a tool serving elite interests. This contradicts the democratic and egalitarian utopia that these regions have been relentlessly encouraging during the 20th century. Globalisation has also steadily weakened body politic because the containment of labour costs and scaling down of the welfare state has required the business minority to establish home control of the state and remove its capacity to respond to the demands of the majority (Herman, 1999, p. ). superstar of the main objectives of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) movement abroad, for example Nike manufacturing shoes in Korea, has been to belt seedyer labour sources. Labour is frequently cheapest, and least prone to cause employer problems, in authoritarian states that curb unions and enter into virtual joint venture arrangements with foreign capital, as in Suhartos Indonesia and PRIs Mexico. Once again, this directly contradicts governments agendas.Publicly, politicians declare out in support of foreign aid, human rights and equality, while behind closed doors they are endorsing and funding TNCs operations that exploit cheap labour in troika world countries. Another criticism of globalisation is that it is against the very nature of culture. Culture derives its diversity from the differences between different human communities and the distinctions between their respective geographical roots and historical experiences.Globalisation disregards these factors and ultimately aims to treat the entire world population as if they have the homogeneous tastes, personalities, customs, traditions and language, through a universal govern ment system. If this were to be so, the world would be a very boring, robotic, monotonous place, devoid of any form of culture. The ramifications of this are wide-ranging. Diversity, variety and room for change are scattered and forgotten. Identities of oneself are lost I is replaced with we. Power is placed into the hands of a select elite few, very oligarchic and undemocratic.If a group of countries were to unite under a common government, equality would not be established. Such a radical would encompass a wide spectrum of political views, ideologies, religions, races and colours. Instead of one wholly body, there would be many minority groups. This transfers an unequal balance of power throughout the states. As the regional conflicts in East Timor, Yugoslavia and Chechnya have shown, conflict shall arise. There are too many barriers to overcome which only leads to foiling and violence. A Commission on Global Governance (COGG) has been established since 1992.In a report publish ed in 1995 entitled Our Global region, the commission argued that countries have to accept that in certain fields, sovereignty has to be exercised collectively (Strachan, 1998, p. 155). Once again we have a contradiction in terms by definition, collective and sovereign are exact opposites that are mutually exclusive. Having stated all the above criticisms, it is important to mention that there is no perfect system in society today that is unresolved of running a country absolutely efficiently.In fact, conflicting ideologies often correct each other. Communism corrects the equality problem of democracy and democracy corrects the problem of efficiency of communism. By choosing one system or the other, up risal and discontent from the people is inevitable. But is it possible to combine the two? Hitler and Mussolini argued that fascism was the third way an secondary to capitalism and socialism. However, fascism led to the death of more than six-spot million Jewish people, so it just ifiable to be wary of anyone fling a third alternative.So globalisation has had the greatest impact on world politics in the 20th century, mainly because of the technological advances in telecommunications and information technology. This is most likely to continue through this the 21st century. The criticisms of globalisation are that it undermines sovereignty, exploits third word countries and is undemocratic. However, there is no feasible alternative at this time and globalisation is already well-spread and embedded in political economy and politics. For now, the world will just have to go with it.