Globalization Concepts and History Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, definitions, theoretical perspectives, historical milestones, and major institutions of globalization.

Globalization

Encompasses a multitude of processes involving economy, political systems, and culture, and literally refers to international integration.

Robert Cox's Definition of Globalization

Characterized by the globalization of labor, new South-to-North migratory movements, a new competitive environment, and the internationalizing of the state into agencies of the globalizing world.

Ritzer's Definition of Globalization (2015)

A transplanetary process or set of processes involving increasing liquidity and growing multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and information, alongside the structures that impede or expedite those flows.

Thomas Larsson's Definition of Globalization (2001)

The process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, and things moving closer, facilitating easier interaction across the world for mutual benefit.

Media Imperialism

The global flow of media where television, music, books, and movies are perceived as imposed on developing countries by Western countries, undermining local and regional media.

McDonaldization

The process defined by Ritzer (2008) by which Western societies are dominated by the principles of fast food restaurants, involving rational systems of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control.

Heterogeneity

The creation of various cultural practices, new economies, and political groups resulting from the interaction of elements from different societies, often linked to cultural hybridization.

Bartolomeu Dias

A Portuguese explorer who in 1488 became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa.

Vasco da Gama

A Portuguese explorer who sailed around Africa and reached India in 1498.

The First Era of Globalization

The 19th-century period marked by rapid growth in international trade and investment among European imperial powers, their colonies, and later the United States, which collapsed in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Bretton Woods Conference

A 1944 conference where plans were drawn up to establish international institutions intended to oversee post-WWII globalization, promote economic growth, and manage adverse consequences.

Liberalization

The freedom of entrepreneurs to establish any industry, trade, or business venture within their own countries or abroad.

Free Trade

A policy or state of trade relations where nations allow the free flow of goods and services without levying excessive taxes, duties, subsidies, or quotas.

Globalization of Economic Activity

The process of integrating the domestic economy with world economies, causing economic activities to be governed by both domestic and world markets.

Privatization

Keeping the state away from ownership of the means of production and distribution, allowing free flow of industrial, trade, and economic activities across borders.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The monetary value of the final goods and services produced within the domestic territory of a country during an accounting year.

Cultural Globalization

The transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world to extend and intensify social relations through shared cultural consumption.

Economic Globalization

The increasing interdependence of world economies due to the growing scale of cross-border commodities, services, international capital flows, and technology.

Industrial Globalization

The movement of countries toward specialization by producing goods in which they hold a competitive cost advantage while depending on global trade.

Financial Globalization

The emergence of worldwide financial markets and improved access to external financing for corporate, national, and sub-national borrowers.

Informational Globalization

The aspect of globalization characterized by a rapid increase in information flow across remote regions using modern technologies like the internet, television, and telephone.

Keynesian Economics

An economic theory developed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s advocating for active government fiscal and monetary intervention to manage aggregate demand and address recessions.

Neoliberalism

A policy model advocating for free-market capitalism by transferring control of economic factors from the public sector to the private sector through deregulation, privatization, and fiscal austerity.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

An international organization established in January 1995 to replace GATT, tasked with administering trade agreements, handling trade disputes, and monitoring national trade policies.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

A Washington-based lending agency planned at Bretton Woods in 1944 that provides short-term credit and policy advice to stabilize exchange rates and maintain orderly payment arrangements.

World Bank

Also known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, established at Bretton Woods in 1944 to provide long-term loans and financial assistance for economic growth and infrastructure.