Friedman’s definition of Globalization (page 9)



Friedman’s definition of Globalization (page 9)

[Globalization] is the inexorable integration of markets, nation states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before –

in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before

and

in a way that is enabling the world to reach into individuals, corporations, and nation states farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before.

This process of globalization is also producing a powerful backlash from those brutalized or left behind by this new system

The Global System is built around three balances that overlap and interact:

1) The traditional balance between nation states

2) The balance between nation states and global markets

3) The balance between individuals and nation states

A more sophisticated take on globalization would begin by realizing that there are multiple patterns, each of which is often called (either singly or in some combination) globalization:

1. The emergence of global currency markets since the deregulations of the 1980s

2. The transnationalization of technology and the rapidity of redundancy

3. The competitive pressure on corporations to become global

4. The globalization of political activity and transnational economic diplomacy

5. The intensification of global cultural flows, communications, and migration

6. The breakdown of geographical boundaries and the emergence of new connections between cities, regions, and governance structures

7. The loss of faith in the capacity of governments to manage domestic problems

Globalization is also rife with “claims”:

1. The globe is now a single unit for the purposes of decision-making

2. Capital, goods, and services move more freely throughout the world

3. National economies have been opened up to global markets and are declining

4. The role of the nation-state in shaping national policies has reduced

5. The rate of economic interaction between nation-states and national economies has accelerated

6. Organization of production has changed from Fordism to post-Fordism or has become flexible or been internationalized

7. Social relations are acquiring relatively distanceless and borderless qualities

8. The nation-state has been internationalized

9. Migration patterns have shifted from south to north

In so far as it is desirable to have a finite definition of globalization, it is desirable to incorporate both the 7 patterns and the 9 claims most often associated with globalization. Attempting to do this would result in a working definition of globalization along the lins of:

Globalization is the intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations across borders

This definition invites historical exploration of the dynamics of social change through which the porousness of the borders of the nation-state has become very evident.

This definition also has the advantage of emphasizing that globalization is not simply an economic phenomena/problem.

Rudd Lubbers, former Dutch prime minister and Professor of Globalization at the University of Tilburg defines globalization as:

“… a process in which geographic distance becomes less a factor in the establishment and sustenance of border-crossing, long distance economic, political, and socio-economic relations. People become aware of this fact. Networks of relations and dependencies therefore become potentially border-crossing and worldwide. This potential internationalization of relations and dependencies causes fear, resistance, actions, and reactions.” (Lubbers, 1998)

Anthony Giddens (in The Consequences of Modernity, 1990, p.64) stresses the intensification of worldwide social relations:

Globalization can thus 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. This is a dialectical process because such local happenings may move in an obverse direction from the very distanciated relations that shape them. Local transformation is as much part of globalization as the lateral extension of social connections across time and space.

Another entire literature equates globalization with the triumph of economic liberalism or the application of economic rationalism to “nation societies.” This approach assumes that markets offer, at least in principle, the most reliable means of setting values on all goods and that economies and markets can, in principle, deliver better outcomes that states, governments, and the law.

This view sees globalization as a consequence of “ideology” and “a bad thing.”

From this discussion it is crucial to decide whether:

• Globalization is a process of global integration occurring since the dawn of history, which has recently accelerated

• Globalization is contemporal with modernization

• Globalization is a specific phase of capitalism

• Globalization is bound up with post-industrialization and/or post-modernization and/or the disorganization of capitalism

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