Globalisation in Terms of Social and Economic Trends

Globalisation is not a single phenomenon. It has become a catch-all concept to pick out a range of trends and forces changing the social and stinting structures of the area. Globalisation may be outlined as turn or making cosmea-wide, but it has besides been referred to as Westernisation. Globalisation as argued by prof Ruud Lubbers, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, is considered to get under ones skin a number of distinct elements to it, which include Economic, Technological, Political, Cultural and environmental.Economically, great world integration or planetaryisation has been greatly encouraged since the Second humanity War, with the introduction of light trade agreements such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). Additionally, regional trade agreements pay back in addition been developed, which have included single markets open by the European Community and NAFTA ( trade union American isolated Trade Agreement).Technologically, the IT revoluti on has provided a massive im surfacements in our dexterity to store and manipulate data victimisation ever more powerful computers. More master(prenominal) however, is the communication abilities of these computers. The Communications Revolution has issuinged in the shrivel up of the world.Politically, it was not until the collapse of the former Soviet bar in the late 1980s and the general acceptance of the hand around market (deregulation) and democracy, coupled with the emergence of the tiger economies of the Pacific Rim, that the term inter disciplineization has taken on true significance.Culturally, there has been a spreading of Westernisation, or perhaps more accurately Americanisation through the media of films, idiot box and music. Following the Second World War, the USA fearing the eject of communism, act uponively encouraged and subsidised the world-wide distribution of films effectively advertising (if sole(prenominal) subliminally) the benefits of capitalis m and the American Dream. As a consequence to the dilution of cultures, France for lesson has since introduced legislation requiring receiving set stations to play a minimum of 40% of music originating from or sung in French.Environmental problems be more and more becoming global problems. Therefore, countries atomic number 18 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 dot rain over Scandinavia. Countries now subscribe to to act collectively (as per the Rio Conference) for there to be any prospect of reversing or just slowing the damage cosmos caused to the environment.Globalisation of the deliverance has not been establish strictly on free trade but also on the free movement of capital. This has promoted direct immaterial investments from one plain into another (e.g. massive Japanese investment into the EU, especially the UK) w hich has had a strong exploit on the globalization of the national economies.As an scotch phenomenon, globalisation has resulted in a shift a portion from a world of distinct national economies to a global economy in which production is distributed worldwidely and finance is able to flow freely and without delay between countries. Multinational businesses have vast stinting powers, whilst institutional investors and financial gurus such as George Soros be capable of influencing the property range, economic policies, and interest rates of whateverone nation states (e.g. September 1992, the UK was forced to give the European Exchange Rate Mechanism). The framework of rules in spite of have the appearance _or_ semblanceance which economic activity takes place is increasingly defined within the global framework of organisations such as the WTO (World Trade Organisation), the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and G7-8 summits, together with the regional trading blocks such as the European Union and NAFTA.Globalisation is arguably both a cause and a consequence of the information revolution. It is dictated by dramatic improvements in tele communication theory, exponential increases in computing power coupled with lower costs, and the ontogenesis of electronic communications and information nedeucerks such as the Internet. These communications technologies are helping to overcome the barriers of forcible distance.Communities of various types, including NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) which include foreign interest groups exchangeable Amnesty International or Greenpeace, as healthy as business and lug organisations, now race across national borders. Greenpeace is a prime example the Shell Brent Spar case illustrated the ability of such planetaryly organised interest groups to successfully exert commercial and political pressure in multiple countries simultaneo usly. In turn, social policies affecting individual citizens are becoming more sensitive to international cultivates, especially when highlighted by the global news media. go globalisation is transferring numerous finishs to the international arena, political and constitutive(a) reforms in many countries involve attempts to de interchangeise decision-making from central government to more regionally autonomous government to cater for a sense of local identity (e.g. new get the picture polices on devolution for Scotland and Wales). These trends appear contradictory, but in practice they are create the development of new multi-level indemnity systems. Consequently, borders are becoming increasingly difficult for governments to define and maintain. Therefore, national governments are world forced to redefine their roles, responsibilities and indemnity relationships. In the same way, multinational companies exit find that they will not only have to deal with global trends bu t also the local laws and customs of their mean markets and manufacturing centres.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 diminishing sovereignty. Governments mustiness recognise and work on the assumption that most issues they are required to deal with are affect by or will affect to some extent the international agonisticalness of the country.Governments own responses to globalisation or the search for joint solutions to global problems have further effects upon sovereignty. Participation in international organisations or the adoption of international agreements puts limits on constitution options available to governments. This may even require modifications to long-standing interior(prenominal) policies and practices.Interdependence is narrowing the degree of interior(prenominal) policy independence. Unilateral action may not be the most effective way to achieve policy finales. For example, the exploitation of resources such as fisheries would inevitably result in the severe depletion, if not destruction, of common stocks (European viridity Fisheries Policy) . Many other important policy goals cannot be met by governments acting alone. In combating environmental problems and international abuse etc, the interests of individual nations, therefore, may only be protected by collective action.The competition for international investment encouraged by the activities and mobility of multinational enterprises convey that most traditional domestic policies such as education and training, taxation, social protection, economic regulation and labour legislation have become international. Even a nations domestic management policy is a question of great concern to its trading rivals, because this will in the long run affect a countrys skill and consequently its competit iveness. Government policies must increasingly be made more consistent with or competitive against those of their main trading rivals. This was highlighted by Britains decision to opt out of the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty.Monetary and pecuniary policy decisions can no longer be taken on the basis of exclusively domestic considerations. Currently more than 10 times the tot of finance needed to support the current garishness of world trade, is traded daily on the world currency markets. This means that 90 per cent of that activity could be seen as pure currency speculation. This is far in excess of what central banks can hope to influence through their own interventions, especially in the absence of any joint action. In recent years, the Labour Party in the UK, after four accompanying election defeats has graduatedly moved its economic policy broadly in line with that of the current Government. This may be seen as an attempt to gain credibleness with the UK elector ate but perhaps most importantly, to gain believability with the International Money Markets which will have the probability of voting with their fundsThe improvement of communications this ascorbic acid from sailing ship to air has contributed directly to the globalisation of the worlds economies and political systems. Technological globalisation of Information Technology has moved across cultural and physical barriers, effectively eliminating the substance of countries (however draconian) to isolate themselves from the world outside. Despite this, Iran has recently banned the use of satellite television, but control will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve because the information revolution which has also provided electronic mail and the Internet has democratised information. It may seem nonsensical for the need to obtain a visa to physically gibber someone to whom you are able to talk to electronically on a daily basis. The result is that free speech and civil libe rties are becoming increasingly international.Borders will no longer act as boundaries, especially with respect to information (IT has effectively eliminated the capacity of countries to keep out foreign influences, good or bad) and the flow of finance and crime. Therefore, numerous problems can only be tackled in collaboration with other countries.Ultimately, the goal of globalisation is to achieve a world economy reaping the benefits of supererogatory trade and, consequently, mutual dependency (no two countries with a MacDonalds franchise have ever gone(a) to war with each other), therefore creating more jobs and prosperity for the participating countries. However, some such as Martin Khor, an economist and director of the NGO Third World Network, believe that free trade within a global market will polarise the poorer countries from the richer nations tranquil further. According to some estimates, the industrialised countries, which take up up 20% of the GATT membership, will gain 70% of the additional income arising from the implementation of the Uruguay Round of GATT.The globalisation of trade finance and information is perhaps the tip of the globalisation iceberg. The repugn to governments may be made more subacute by a host of other internationalisations under-way, which include areas such as crime and population movement (economic refugees).Even if it is considered by some to be less than desirable, the increasing globalisation of the world seems unavoidable. In the long term, little may be gained by nation states resisting the impacts of globalisation, which may ultimately prove to be ineffective and counter-productive.To conclude, the ever-improving technology and consequently communications available to businesses, have enabled the creation of a global economy of production and finance, enabling industry to make use of territorial divisions, playing one country or trade-block off against another to maximise subsidies, nest egg in taxes, avoid ance of anti-pollution regulations and guarantees of political stability and favour.With this, a new political structure is emerging with national sovereignty being an ever-looser concept (illustrated by the gradual and continuing integration of individual nation states into the European Union), which is contributing to the emergence of a phenomenon described by Robert Cox as macro-regionalism. He considers there to be three macro-regions in the making Europe based on the European Union an Eastern Asian sphere centred around Japan and a North American sphere centred around the USA and facial expression to embrace Latin America. Perhaps the emergence of these macro-regions is part of a natural evolution towards a authentically global state?