Definition of and Ideologies On Globalization

Definitions, Approaches to
Globalization
Week 1&2: Introduction

Janice Morales
Defining Globalization
• Some concepts attached to the definition of
globalization:
global dominance of Anglo-American ideas.

fragmented uneven incomplete
Contradictory set of ideas time-space compression
increase global interconnectedness
unimpeded flow of capital, people and ideas beyond borders
• Some concepts attached to the definition of
globalization:
GLOBALIZATION AS GLOBALONEY
• Group of scholars who believed that the term is

imprecise could be divided into three camps
based on their arguments: rejectionists,
skeptics, & modifiers
• 3 arguments to globalization
1. REJECTIONISTS
q scholars who dismiss the usefulness of the term.
q Craig Calhoun- it is as vague and as complex as
nationalism.
q Susan Strange- it is a vacuous term; “anything
from the internet to a hamburger.”
q Linda Meiss-a big idea resting on slim
foundations.
• Solution/remedies of rejectionist to this
vagueness:
q Holton- abandon metatheory and move to

middle range theory
q Stegger- combine social-scientific and
interpretive approach
2. SKEPTICS
q scholars who emphasize the limited nature of it.
q Horster Thompson- the world economy is not
global because it only concentrate in Europe,
Eastern Asia, & North America
q economic activity are still national in origin and
scope.
2. SKEPTICS
q Without a truly global economic system, there
can be no globalization.
q It is being use to benefit neoliberal interests.
3. MODIFIERS
q scholars who believe it is a historically imprecise
concept.
q Wallerstein and Frank (Worlds-Systems Theory)-
modern capitalist economy has been global
since its inception.
q globalizing tendencies have been proceeding
along the continuum of modernization for a long
time. (It is nothing new).
3. MODIFIERS
q Wallerstein- “global integration is driven largely
by economic forces”
q Neomarxists/new world system scholars:
criticisms focus on quantitative analyses
(economic) and neglect qualitative shift in social
and political relations.
Dimensions of Globalization
Globalization as an economic process
q Historical development of markets that led to intensified
form of global interdependence.
q The increase linkage of national economies through
trade, financial flows and foreign direct investments by
multinational firms.
q Globalization is a ‘real phenomenon’
q Economic globalization- emerged after PostWWar and the
1944 Bretton Woods Conference. This is the “Golden Age
of Controlled Capitalism”; Creation of the IMF and IBRD
(International Bank for Reconstruction and Development-
a World Bank group).
q 1980s- Neoliberalism- liberalization and
internationalization of financial transactions (Structural
adjustment policies among countries with huge debt-
Liberalization, privatization, deregulation)
q Creation of international financial markets, TNCs (ex.Wal-
Mart, General Motors, etc.). TNCs hold 70% of world
trade.
Globalization as a political process
q politics is rendered possible in the face of an unstoppable
and irreversible techno-economic juggernaut
q Kenichi Ohmae- the nation-state lost its role as a
meaningful unit of participation in the global economy; it
limits the political options of states (developing countries)
q Politics mobilized political power and unleash the forces
of globalization.
q Jan Aart Scholte- ‘globalization refers to gradual process
of relative deterritorialization that facilitate the growth of
supraterritorial relations.
q Globalization is fueled by a mixture of political and
technological factors.
q John Gray- Trade wars will make international
cooperation difficult.
q Castells- the rise of international capitalism; nation-state
as a bargaining agency.
q Global governance- an internationalized, rights –based
Western State Conglomerate
q Wilkinson- state formation beyond the national level.
q John Keane- ‘cosmocracy’- a messy and complex polity; a
conglomeration of interlocking and overlapping substate,
state and suprastate institutions and multi-dimensional
process that interact and have political and social effects
on a global scale.
q Held & McGrew- globalization diminishes the sovereignty
of national governance.
Globalization as a cultural process
q Does it increase cultural homogeneity? or heterogeneity?
q How does the dominant culture of consumerism impact
the national environment?
q Tomlinson- cultural globalization is a densely growing
network of interconnections and interdependence that
characterize modern life.
q Culture is no longer tied with localities
q Some said that there is increasing homogeneity , though
it caters a more Anglo-American values system
q Americanization as a form of ‘cultural imperialism’
q Mcdonaldization as evident in American society leads to
the ‘eclipse of cultural diversity and the dehumanization
of social relations”
q According to Benjamin Barbers, “McWorld” is a form of
cultural imperialism; “A soulless consumer capitalism that
is rapidly transforming the world’s diverse population into
a blandly uniform market”
q Other scholars such as Roland Robertson argued that
there is pluralization of the world as localities produce a
variety of unique cultural responses to global forces.
q Glocalization-a complex interaction of the global and local
characterized by cultural borrowing; a complex mixture of
both homogenizing and heterogenizing impulses
q Hybridization or ‘creolization’-the process of cultural
mixing as reflected in music, film, fashion, language, and
other forma of symbolic expressions.
q Arjan Appadurai identifies 5 conceptual dimensions or
landscapes that are constituted by global cultural flows:
ethnoscape, technoscape, financescape, mediascape and
ideoscape.
Globalization, Globality, Globalism
q Globalization- a set of complex, sometimes contradictory

social processes that are changing our current social
conditions based on the modern system of independent
nation-states.
q Globality-a future social condition characterized by thick
economic, political, & cultural interconnectedness &
global flows that make currently existing political borders
& economic barriers irrelevant.
Globalization, Globality, Globalism
q Globalism- as an ideology, relies on the power of

‘common sense’ (thus difficult to resist)
q Other ideologies of globalization and development are as
follows: Neoliberalism, Structuralism, Interventionism
Ideologies of Globalization
1. Neoliberalism
q also called ‘market liberalism.’
q It is the descendants of the ‘free enterprise’ in the 1950s.
q It became dominant in the 1980s.
q This view holds that intentional development is not
necessary.
q Its underlying theoretical ideas could be traced in the
work of Adam Smith.
1. Neoliberalism
q According to this view, there are 3 obstacles to
development, namely:
1. Tradition
2. Monopoly
3. State regulation
2. Structuralism
q It views history as a summary of political and economic
struggles between large groups or classes.
q Similarities with neoliberalism: 1) view development in
terms of broad historical/ social change, & 2)
industrialization is favorable to economic growth.
q Contradictions with neoliberalism: The latter emphasis
on the materialist motivations of individual and self-
regulating market while structuralism gives importance
on social solidarity, class and collective forms of action.
2. Structuralism
• 2 Models under Structuralism
q Marxism- there is antagonism in capitalism which is a
particular type of class society.
q There are issues on relations of production and means of
production.
q Class exploitation and oppression are essential features of
capitalism
2. Structuralism
q Dependency model-This model is in favor of
industrialization but believe that the southern countries
should not be dependent with the north. Thus, there is a
need to withdraw from the international capitalist system
q It argues that the industrialization of the Northern
capitalist created structures in which Southern
economies were dependent and which tend to lead to
and maintain underdevelopment
2. Structuralism
q Core-Periphery argument of the Dependency Theory
q Based on the observation that within many spatial
systems sharp territorial contrast exist in wealth,
economic advancement and growth between the ‘core’
and ‘periphery’.
(Core- U.S., Japan, Western Europe; Periphery- Latin
America, Asia and the Pacific)
3. Interventionism
q It argued that, ‘to regulate the market there is a need for
state intervention.’
q Pertinent questions to answer include, how much
intervention? what kind of intervention?--- answers to
these questions will lead us to the four arguments of
intervention.
Four arguments for Intervention:
1) Keynesian view 2) Protectionism 3) Welfarism 4)Global
environmentalism
3. Interventionism
Keynesian view
q Developed during the great depression in the 1930s.
q It argued that there are periodic booms and slumps as
problems of capitalism.
q John Maynard Keynes viewed that the state should spend
to create employment and increase incomes that will
then stimulate demands and restore business confidence.
3. Interventionism
Protectionism
q Developed in the 19th century
q Proponents argued that there is a need to protect ‘infant
industries’ of newly industrialized countries (NICs) from
competition to well established industries.
q State protection through tax concessions and incentives
must be done.
3. Interventionism
Welfarism
q Development planning should be link to investment and
creation of jobs, eradication of poverty, and improvement
of services such as health.
Global Environmentalism
q Became popular as a solution to the problems discussed
during the Rio De Janiero Earth summit of 1992.
q Agreement between states for global environmental
protection.
Globalism
q Globalism- As an ideology it tends to combine traditional
ones (neoliberalism, interventionism, etc.)
q Six core claims of Globalism:
1. Globalization is about the liberalization and global
integrations of markets.
- Globalization and markets are twin concepts.
- a combination of neoliberalism and neoconservatism.
- free-market capitalism

2. Globalization is inevitable and irreversible.
- The belief in extra-human ‘natural’ origins of social order;
‘organic change” (similar to Marxism)
- Presenting it as irreversible/inevitable make it easier for
globalists to convince people that they have to adapt to
the discipline of the market if they are to survive.

3. Nobody is in charge of Globalization
- Globalists are not ‘in-charge’ but they merely carry out
the unalterable imperatives of the transcendental force
much larger that narrow partisan interests.
4. Globalization benefits everyone (in the long run)
-even globalists who consider the possibility of unequal
global distribution patterns nonetheless insist that the
market itself will eventually correct these ‘irregularities.’
q Some contradictions of Globalism:

1. Coercive power of the state vs. a self-regulating market
2. Enforcing’democracy’ & freedom at gunpoint vs. liberty
as absence of coercion
3. War on terror as an Anglo-American nationalist
undertone vs. universal spirit, cosmopolitan concept of
globalization

5. Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in the
world
-Globalists tend to treat freedom, free market, free trade
and democracy as synonymous term ( Thatcherism- Thatcher
is an advocate of a free-market model)
6. Globalization requires a global war on terror.

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Definitions, Approaches to

Week 1&2: Introduction

global dominance of Anglo-American ideas.

• Group of scholars who believed that the term is

q Holton- abandon metatheory and move to

q Globalization- a set of complex, sometimes contradictory

q Globalism- as an ideology, relies on the power of

q Six core claims of Globalism:

q Six core claims of Globalism:

q Some contradictions of Globalism:

q Six core claims of Globalism:

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