MR Essay, Research Paper

QUESTION 1

Explain what is meant by “globalisation”. Is it really a myth?

Globalization is the free movement of capital, goods, services and labour around the world, by big commercial companies, which have massive control of the world’s economy, transcending the boundaries of state and country. This transcendence across countries results in the shrinking of the economy and results on it depending on larger companies with a controlling interest in most of the capital within it. This global control of capital comes through the transference of operations from “superpower” economies, to third world countries. This transference takes place for purely economic gains, with companies seeking to take advantage of lower wages and a large unskilled labor force. A very good example of this is the footwear industry, in which footwear giants such as Reebok and Nike, regularly shift their manufacturing base to countries with lower wage scales.

Globalisation can be looked at from five different aspects; economically, technologically, politically, culturally and environmentally.

Economically, globalisation has been greatly encouraged since the Second World War, with the introduction of free trade agreements such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariff’s and Trade). Additionally, regional trade agreements have also been developed, which have included ’single markets’ established by the European Community and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).

Technologically, the Information Technology revolution has resulted in massive improvements in communication, through faxes, email, and the internet. These improvements have resulted in the world becoming a smaller place as world-wide interaction is both quick and easy.

Culturally, there has been a spreading of globalisation through the media of films, television and music. For example, following the Second World War, the USA fearing the rise of communism, actively encouraged and subsidised the world-wide distribution of films effectively advertising the benefits of capitalism and the American Dream. As a consequence to the dilution of cultures,

Environmentally problems are increasingly becoming global problems. Therefore, countries are no longer able to look at environmental issues in isolation. This has been dramatically illustrated for example by the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, the depletion of the ozone layer and acid rain over Scandinavia. Countries now need to act collectively for there to be any chance of reversing or just slowing the damage being caused to the environment.