AY23-24_TCW_PRELIMINARY-EXAM-REVIEWER
Page 1: Understanding Globalization
Framing Globalization
Beyond a problem-solving approach, especially a perspective of “promoting international competiveness” (e.g. economic and technological)
Beyond a buzzword: a process and discourse
Critical view: globalization as contested; understood and constituted in different ways
Frames of meaning used to describe the world are part of a political process
Words and meanings matter: some views become legitimate and define what the world is…
Globalization: Levels of Debate
What are the starting premises?
Competing definitions
Varying measurements
Contrasting chronologies
Diverse explanations
What are the implications for social change?
Geography
Identity
Production
Governance
Knowledge
What are the impacts on the human condition?
Security
Equality
Democracy
What are the responses?
Neoliberalism (markets)
Rejectionism (localism/populism)
Reformism (public policies)
Transformism (social revolution)
Contending Perspectives
Liberal or Hyper-global perspective
“end of geography”; ‘end of the nation-state’; borderless world of flows
Privileges an economic and technological logic
Globalization as mutually beneficial, progressive and benign
New, inevitable, levels off
A new modernization theory?
The end of the Cold War and the ‘end of history’: ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA)
There is however a “pessimistic globalist” perspective that emphasize both homogenization and its negative consequences
Conservative/Skeptical Perspective
Underplays globalization: internationalization or regional
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Expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across the world
Creation of new social networks and multiplication of existing connections
Cuts across traditional political, economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries
Relates to the way people perceive time and space
Objective and subjective perception
Must be differentiated with an ideology called GLOBALISM (belief)
Globalization: Key Themes and Characteristics (M. Steger)
Globality
Social condition characterized by tight economic, political, cultural, and environmental interconnections and flows
Makes currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant
Globalization
Set of social processes that transform our present social condition into one of globality
Human lives played out in the world as a single place
Redefining landscape of sociopolitical processes and social sciences
Global Imaginary
Concept referring to people's growing consciousness of belonging to a global community
Destabilizes and unsettles conventional parameters of understanding communal existence
GLOBALIZATION AS A PROCESS
Multidimensional set of social processes that generate and increase worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges
Fosters a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant
Start of globalization depends on perspective
GLOBALIZATION AS A CONDITION
Globality
Scholte's transplanetary connectivity - establishment of social links between people located at different places of the planet
Supra-territoriality - social connections that transcend territorial
Page 3: Transnational Capitalists and Transnational State: Class Relations
Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society
Globalization is a network of production, culture, and power shaped by advances in technology
New economy: informational, knowledge-based; global production organized on a global scale; productivity generated through a global network
The networked enterprise transforms signals into commodities by processing knowledge
Space, Time, and Globalization
Giddens' "time-space distanciation" - intensification of worldwide relations shaping local happenings
David Harvey - time-space compression produced by capitalist development
Sassen's "The Global City" - emergence of specialized services for transnationally mobile capital
Robert Robertson's "Glocalization" - spread of ideas about home, locality, and community
Transnationality and Transnationalism
Transnationalism encompasses transformative processes, practices, and developments at local and global levels
Transnational links are more intense due to speed and relatively inexpensive travel and communications
Global Culture
Rapid growth of mass media and global cultural flows
Focus on globalization and religion, nations and ethnicity, global consumerism, global communications, and the globalization of tourism
Ritzer's McDonaldization of society - homogenization, rationalization
Misconceptions about Globalization (Scholte)
Globalization as internationalization - global economic integration through free trade and capital mobility
Internationalization refers to international trade, relations, treaties, alliances, etc.
Globalization as liberalization
Liberalization is the removal of barriers and restrictions imposed by national governments
Globalization is realized when national governments
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Westernization is not the only path that can be taken by globalization
Scholars found it simpler to avoid talking about globalization as a whole
Instead "multiple globalizations" instead of one process
Arjun Appadurai: Different kinds of globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration - "SCAPES"
"ethnoscapes" - global movement of people
"mediascapes" - flow of culture
"technoscapes" - circulation of mechanical goods and software
"financescapes" - global circulation of money
"ideoscapes" - realm where political ideas move around
Claudio: distinct windows into the broader phenomenon of globalization
Lecture 2: Dimensions of Globalization
"Globalization is a fact, because of technology, because of an integrated global supply chain, because of changes in transportation. And we're not going to be able to build a wall around that." - Barack Obama
Economic globalization
Economic globalization is a historical process, the result of human innovation and technological progress.
It refers to the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through the movement of goods, services, and capital across borders.
The term sometimes refers to the movement of people (labor) and knowledge (technology) across international borders.
Globalization has its roots in international trade.
Goes back deep into human history.
The trade involved was over land and small in scale.
Slowly expanded territorially to involve larger and larger numbers of people.
History
Silk Road - from China to Middle East and Europe
130 BCE TO 1453 BCE
International but not global - no ocean routes
Flynn and Geraldez, the age of globalization began when
Page 5: Age of Mercantilism
Advocated that a nation should export more than it imported and accumulate bullion (especially gold) to make up the difference
16th to 18th c – countries primarily Europe competed with one another to sell more goods as a means to boost their country’s income (called monetary reserves later).
To defend their products from competitors, these regimes imposed high tariffs, forbade colonies to trade with other nations, restricted trade routes and subsidized its exports.
Mercantilism – global trade with multiple restrictions
The two fundamental legacies of this period of history:
The spread of European power and influence over the rest of the globe
The rise to prominence of New World countries like Argentina, Australia, Canada, and the United States that were to be prime movers in the process of globalization
FOUR WAVES OF GLOBALIZATION
Factors that contributed:
The steady spread of the free-trade ethos is one of them.
Constant improvements in production, communications, and transportation technologies
First Wave (1870-1914)
Retained the earlier period’s basic dynamic of movement → more integrated international economy founded on capitalist principles
Differed from it qualitatively in a number of very important respects.
Integration picked up pace as many countries reduced their protectionist tariffs, ships and railroads got faster and penetrated further, transportation costs fell sharply, and communication became more efficient with the invention of the telegraph and, later, telephone.
Mechanization brought tremendous increases in agricultural and industrial productivity → international trade.
Second Wave (1914-1945)
Globalization retreated sharply under the combined impact of the two World Wars and the Great Depression.
Trade and migration plummeted, strict controls on the flow of capital were introduced, and countries erected high tariff barriers against foreign goods.
Third Wave (1945-1980)
Picked up again as the growth of trade and investment flows resumed, transportation costs continued to fall, and barriers to the trade of manufactured goods were dismantled.
Fourth Wave (1980-present)
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First Wave (1870-1914)
Mostly limited to countries that were members of the GATT
Developing countries maintained trade barriers and were primary goods exporters
Benefitted little from international capital flows
Fourth Wave (1980-Present day)
Integration of markets, transportation systems, and communication systems has progressed "farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper" than ever before
Technological advancement lowered costs and increased speed of international communication and transportation
Increasing liberalization of trade and capital markets among less developed countries
Rapid escalation in international economic interactions
Developing world has become integrated into the globalized international economy
World exports: 1970s - 19.7% per annum of the world's GDP; 1980s - 22.6%; 1990s - 27.4%; between 2000 and 2006 - 38.3%; 2011 - 51%
Foreign direct investment in the developing world: 1970s - $5.9 billion per annum; 1980s - $42.2 billion; 1990s - $118.1 billion; between 2000 and 2009 - $356.1 billion
Economic Globalization
"The increasingly close international integration of markets for goods, services and factors of production, labor and capital"
Profit motive and entrepreneurial initiative
Accelerating at a faster pace
Governments of virtually all political stripes have accepted free trade and enacted policies of deregulation and liberalization
Transportation costs have fallen and communications technology has made rapid advances
Drivers of Economic Globalization
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The use of the gold standard lasted around the late 1970
The world economy operates based on FIAT CURRENCIES – not backed up by precious metals and whose value is determined by their cost relative to other currencies.
This system allows governments to freely and actively manage their economies by increasing or decreasing the amount of money in circulation as they see fit
After the two world wars, world leaders sought to create a global economic system that would ensure a longer-lasting global peace.
They believed that one of the ways to achieve this goal was to set up a network of global financial institutions that would promote economic interdependence and prosperity.
Bretton Woods Conference formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference was inaugurated in 1944 to prevent the catastrophes of the early decades from reoccurring and affecting international ties.
The Bretton Woods system was largely influenced by the ideas of British economist John Maynard Keynes
Who believed that economic crises occur not when a country does not have enough money, but when money is not being spent and, thereby, not moving.
When economies slow down, governments have to reinvigorate markets with infusions of capital. This active role of governments in managing spending served as the anchor for what would be called a system of global Keynesianism
Delegates at Bretton woods agreed to create two financial institutions.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, or World Bank)
Responsible for funding postwar reconstruction projects.
Critical institution at a time when many of the world's cities had been destroyed by the war.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Which was to be the global lender of last resort to prevent individual countries from spiraling into credit crises.
If economic growth in a country slowed down because there was not enough money to stimulate the economy, the IMF would step in.
Shortly after Bretton Woods, various countries also committed themselves to further global economic integration through the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 - main purpose was to reduce tariffs and other hindrances to free trade
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Resupplying Israeli military during the Yom Kippur War
Arab countries used the embargo to stabilize their economies and growth
Impact on Western economies reliant on oil
Stock markets crashed in 1973-1974 after the US stopped linking the dollar to gold
Stagflation - decline in economic growth and employment alongside sharp increase in prices
New form of economic thinking challenging Keynesian orthodoxy
Economists like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman argued that government intervention caused inflation
Government intervention distorts the proper functioning of the market
Neoliberalism as an economic philosophy
Advocates for free-market and removal of restrictions on business and trade
Supports deregulation of public services and minimum state interference
Draws criticism from social activists for negative effects on social welfare and the working class
Neoliberalism as a codified strategy
From the 1980s onward, neoliberalism became the strategy of the US Treasury Department, World Bank, IMF, and WTO
Policies known as the Washington Consensus
Washington Consensus
Set of 10 economic policy prescriptions
First used in 1989 by economist John Williamson
Prescriptions include macroeconomic stabilization, economic opening, and expansion of market forces
Broader sense of the Washington Consensus
Refers to a market-based approach or neoliberalism
10 Economic Policy Prescriptions
Fiscal discipline
Keeping government budgets small
Operating deficit should be no more than 2% of GDP
Public expenditure priorities
Redirecting expenditure towards economically productive areas
Strengthening infrastructure and improving income redistribution
T
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Restrict competition, while ensuring that all other regulations can be justified by criteria such as safety, environmental protection, or prudential supervision of financial institutions
Foreign direct investment removal of investment barriers impeding entry of foreign firms, with all receiving ‘national treatment’ (the same treatment as domestic firms)
Financial liberalization progressively move towards market-determined interest rates within a less constrained financial market-place
Exchange rates a single exchange rate that is set at a level that encourages expansion of non-traditional exports and managed in a way that assures exporters of continued competitiveness
Trade liberalization rapid conversion of quantitative trade restrictions, such as import quotas, into tariffs and the progressive reduction of tariffs to between 10 and 20 percent
Privatization of state enterprises and asset
Property rights ensuring security of property rights under law without excessive costs.
Criticisms of the Washington Consensus policies
The economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Rodrik, who have challenged what are sometimes described as the 'fundamentalist' policies of the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury for what Stiglitz calls a 'one size fits all' treatment of individual economies. According to Stiglitz the treatment suggested by the IMF is too simple: one dose, and fast—stabilize, liberalize and privatize, without prioritizing or watching for side effects
In the developing world, reduction of tariffs and opening up of the economies, is the quickest way to progress.
Certain industries would be affected and die, but they considered this "shock therapy" necessary for long-term economic growth.
Its advocates like US President Ronald Reagan and British prime Minister Margaret Thatcher justified their reduction in government spending by comparing national economies to households.
The greatest recent repudiation of this thinking was the recent global financial crisis of 2008-2009 when the world experienced the greatest economic depression downturn since the Great Depression.
The crisis can be traced back to the 1980s when the United States systematically removed various banking and investment restrictions.
Government authorities failed to regulate bad investments occurring
Keynesian Economics vs Neo-liberalism
Keynesian Economics:
Use government spending on the public sector and infrastructure to boost the economy and provide jobs.
Neo-liberalism:
Reduce government spending and public sector of the economy.
Increase the role of the private sector and market forces.
Importance of International Trade
International trade remains essential for countries to develop in the contemporary world.
Exports, not just the local selling of goods and services, make national economies grow at present.
In the past, advanced nations benefited the most from free trade.
By 2011, developing countries accounted for 51% of global exports.
The WTO-led reduction of trade barriers altered the dynamics of the global economy.
Economic Globalization
Economic globalization has led to an unprecedented spike in global growth rates.
The global per capita GDP rose over five-fold in the second half of the 20th century.
Economic globalization remains an uneven process with some countries, corporations, and individuals benefitting more than others.
Rich countries exploit developing countries by paying workers low wages and employing them in poor conditions.
The WTO encourages free trade, but barriers are lowered by developing countries while the developed world still maintains barriers in agriculture.
Free trade has led to the price of basic products produced in developing countries falling, while the price of advanced products from developed countries rises.
Free trade means local cultures are replaced with global brands like Coca Cola, Starbucks, and McDonald's.
WTO rules do not allow countries to set environmental restrictions on imported goods, leading to environmental plundering.
Developed countries are often protectionists, refusing to lift policies that safeguard their primary products.
Trade imbalances characterize economic relations between developed and developing countries.
The beneficiaries of global commerce have been mainly transnational corporations (TNCs) and not governments.
Page 11: POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
An increasing trend towards multilateralism
United Nations plays a key role
Emergence of national and international nongovernmental organizations
Act as watchdogs over governments
Increasing intensity and influence
Commonly used measure of political globalization
Growth in the number of multilateral organizations
Two types of organizations
Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
Membership made up of states pursuing common objectives
Examples: UN, EU
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
Non-state actors
Sometimes cooperate with governments to achieve shared goals
WHAT IS A STATE?
Community of persons permanently occupying a definite portion of territory
Must have a government to which inhabitants render obedience
Must enjoy freedom from external control
Administrative entity that endures over time
Develops laws and creates public policies
Must have a legitimate and recognized claim to a defined territory
Must have institutions needed to administer the laws
MODERN STATE SYSTEM
Developed in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648
Prior to it, political authority was based on hierarchical religious order
Introduction of the legal concept of sovereignty
Rulers had no internal equal and no external superiors
Westphalia
Page 12: Inherent Powers of the State
Police Power
Eminent Domain
Taxation
States and Globalization
The rise of civilizations have fueled different levels of internationalization
Civilizations tend to create empires which define global/international affairs
Greek, Macedonian, Roman, etc - ushered growth either by trade or conquest
This is an initial start of the globalization story based on globalism
Joseph Nye describes it as "networks of connections that span multi-continental distances"
Thin vs Thick Globalism
Thin Globalism - the initial phase of interconnection but the density of connection is still limited
Ex-Silk road connected the East and West but this is limited to the trade of certain goods like silk and spices
Impact is felt by small groups (Nye,2002)
Not large amount of interaction
Thick Globalism - Density of the networks of connection is immense
Increase reliance among nations, communities, and economies
Characterizes the level of interconnection in the 21st century
Greater socio-economic impact-cultural transfers and supply chain reliance
Globalization is defined by Power
History has always vested the powerful with the advantage in international affairs
Most of the powerful nations tend to have a level of control in the different types of globalism
Joseph Nye's Types of Power
HARD - Military and Economic
American Carrier Fleet in the Pacific
China's use of its economic strength
SOFT - Cultural
Promotion of American Music and
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NINTENDO switch's components are manufactured by countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, China and Japan.
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise is developed by different sub studios based in Hungary, the Philippines, China and others
Thicker Globalism's challenge to NATION STATES
The higher level of trade and interdependence among nations have created an increasingly MULTIPOLAR world.
The WEST is not the overall masters of the WORLD anymore.
According to Joseph Quinlan, the East is now becoming more prominent since 2008 (post US and Euro crisis)
The traditional borders of power, culture, and economy is now becoming less OCCIDENTAL
Western NATION STATE model is now being CHALLENGED by the new norm of GLOBALIZATION.
GLOBALIZATION AND THE STATE (HISLOPE, 2021)
In its totality, globalization combines accumulating interdependence across a number of dimensions, all of which share the characteristic of meaning a lesser role for the state in shaping its own economic, social, political, and cultural destiny.
Their sovereignty has been, and is being, compromised in that what goes on within their borders is increasingly influenced by actions and decisions taken by actors outside those borders.
CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired my man as a member of society.
Characteristics of CULTURE
it is LEARNED
based on SYMBOLS
SHARED
can be PATTERNED/INTEGRATED
ADAPTIVE
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Globalized Culture often favors the cultures of powerful countries
Countries with better economic might tend to have the power to promote their cultures to other nations with weaker economies
Undermines the growth and survival of local culture
Promotion of English over native languages in the Philippines based on cultural attraction to Western Ideals
Culture Clash
Dominant cultures clash with middle power cultures
Liberal-Western-Juedeo-Christian vs Islamic traditions
Criticisms on Dog Meat consumption by Asian Countries
Child Marriages
Acceptance of LGBTQ++
Global and Local Convergence
Pushing for GLOBAL and LOCAL
GLOCALIZATION
Term coined by the sociologist Roland Robertson in the late 1990s
Refers to product or service in a global market that is customized for the local people in the country in which it is sold
Adoption of Global and Local Expectations
McDonalds, KFC, Popeyes serving rice meals to Filipinos
Jollibee serving market specific menu to other countries
LECTURE 3 INTERSTATE SYSTEM AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Deepening Interdependence
Institutional Pluralism
Transnational Actors
Anti-Globalism
Rising Multipolarity
The United Nations
The United Nations is an International organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to:
Maintaining international peace and security
Developing friendly
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Comprised by the strongest military states and is a concrete manifestation of the reality of power dynamics
15 members
5 members: China, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the USA
10 members with 2-year terms:
5 African and Asian states
1 Eastern European state
2 Latin American states
2 Western European and other states
The twenty-first-century world has changed:
New powers have emerged
Global connectivity has come
Complexity and uncertainty have compounded
All countries and peoples have become more equally vulnerable to proliferating non-state threats
Proliferation of pressing global problems:
Break out far more suddenly and surprisingly
Spread more swiftly and extensively
Interact in more complex and uncertain ways than ever before
New crises and their accompanying challenges have demanded and received a forceful, innovative, global governance response
The current global landscape is quite different from the not-too-distant past:
The process of globalization has intensified
The world is moving towards new forms of governance
Michelle Bachelet: "The formal and informal arrangements that produce a degree of order and collective action above the state in the absence of a global government that involve coordination of the state and non-state actors."
Global governance encompasses the totality of institutions, policies, norms, procedures, and initiatives through which states and their citizens try to bring more predictability, stability, and order to their responses to transnational challenges
Effective global governance can only be achieved with effective international cooperation
The actions of any state can and often do affect the welfare of other states
This imposition of mutual externalities and the existence of global goods provides both the need and justification for global governance
BRICS stands for Brazil