Global Society

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Global Society

• Actors, processes, and effects

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Major International Organizations

• The World Trade Organization
• Enforces international trade rules among member
  countries
• Against tariffs, quotas, and subsidies
• Critique
• It reflects corporate, and not popular interests
• It limits national policy autonomy
• Its rulings impinge on issues of health and safety

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• The Bretton Woods institutions (1944)
• The International Monetary Fund
• Intended to prevent competitive devaluation of
  currencies, due to temporary government deficits
• Grants long-term loans conditional on adoption of
  sound economic policies
• These policies cause costs to population

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• The World Bank
• Grants loans to credit-worthy poor countries
• Reinforces the private sector of the economy

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What is Globalization?

• International processes intrude on the
  preferences and behaviour of national and local
  populations
• Mechanisms of globalization
• Political
• Economic
• Mobility and transnational social networks
• Cultural

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Globalization as a Political Arrangement

• The framework for international economic
  arrangements is a product of political
  negotiations
• This limits the discretion of national
  governments
• Critique
• The negotiated definition of sound economic
  policies is faulted
• It reflects interests of Western nations,
  particularly the US

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Globalization as Economic Process

• Exposes producers in rich countries to
  competitors who pay lower wages
• Third-world producers are undercut by imports
  from capital-intensive industries in rich
  countries
• Multinational corporations seek locations with
  low taxes, less restrictive labour laws, and less
  government intervention

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• The flow of finance capital (particularly hot
  money) is toward locations with high interest
  rates and stable currencies
• This makes it undesirable for governments to try
  to revive their economies and employment by
  lowering interest rates

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Globalization as Mobility and Transnational
Social Networks

• Migration from the Third World may force down
  wages in rich countries, especially in unskilled
  work
• This appears to have happened in the US, but not
  in Canada, because of immigration restrictions

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• Migrants often create transnational communities
  retaining close ties with relatives and members
  of the same ethnicity in other locations around
  the world and in the country of origin
• An globally-oriented elite, detached from
  national loyalties, controls international
  commerce

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Globalization as Cultural Diffusion

• American film and television is aggressively
  marketed abroad
• It is heterogeneous, but reflects the judgments,
  knowledge, and ignorance of its producers
• US universities train graduates from abroad and
  produce a disproportionate share of research
• American multinational companies transmit their
  employment practices to other locations

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Treaties and International Organizations

• The principle of constraint
• Treaties are international contracts that
  constrain signatories
• Governments are not free to enter or stay out of
  treaties as they will
• The issue has globalization increased the
  overall constraint on governments?

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• Constraint in practice
• Treaties are often entered to escape or limit
  other constraints
• Degree of compliance with treaties is highly
  variable
• A non-treaty situation would mean a tit-for-tat
  approach to disputes
• Benefit of treaties predictability

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Trade and Investment Rich Countries

• Critics of globalization focus on two negative
  consequences for rich countries
• Decrease in pay and employment of workers
• Little evidence of effects on pay, because most
  trade is between rich countries
• The aggregate effect of increased trade volume on
  employment is negligible, but there is an effect
  on industries that suffer largest tariff cuts
• The race to the bottom reductions in social
  policies to make them competitive to investment

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• There is no evidence that competitive tax cuts
  cause reduction in social programs
• Social policy variation persists despite
  globalization

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• Reasons why expected effects did not materialize
• Economic changes associated with globalization
  are exaggerated
• Other factors (technology, etc.) influence
  changes in the size of economic sectors
• Many governments with high exposure to
  international markets have chosen high level of
  social programs
• Multinational corporations prefer locations with
  some social services

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Trade and Investment Poor Countries

• Export of (often subsidized) agricultural
  products from the rich countries inhibits the
  development of commercial agriculture
• Increase in inequality between countries is not
  caused by globalization
• On the contrary countries integrated into the
  international markets have become richer, the
  isolated ones have stagnated

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Social Networks and the Movement of Populations

• Sassen global cities take the task of
  coordinating global economic activity
• They contain two kinds of globally-oriented
  networks
• Economic decision makers (loyal to international
  networks)
• Immigrants from the Third World (provide
  labour-intensive and poorly paid personal
  services to the elite)

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• Because of discrimination and limited
  integration, they remain loyal to the country of
  origin and develop economic ties with it

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• Evidence for Sassens theory
• The international corporate elite and the global
  cities exist
• The immigrant under-class exists in the US, but
  is prevented by union protection and higher
  minimum wage in other global cities
• The immigrants orientation to the country of
  origin varies
• It depends on simultaneous migration of a large
  group, the degree of discrimination, and
  facilitating policies of the country of origin

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Cultural Homogenization

• Cultural homogenization may be caused by
• Cultural diffusion from the US
• General processes existing in many countries

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• General processes
• Capitalism
• Imposition of cultural practices by force
• Increased living standard and the associated
  preoccupation with post-materialist goals
• A large volume of international communication
  without a single power centre
• General policy shift to the right

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• Alternatively, the volume of international
  communication may foster US hegemony
• Reason the rising share of communication is on
  the Internet
• The Internet is dominated by English language
• Most Internet content originates in the US
• Both US business and government try to break down
  regulatory obstacles to US cultural products in
  other countries

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Is there Cultural Homogenization?

• Evidence of cultural convergence in rich
  countries (longitudinal data by Inglehart)
• Brumanns hypothesis
• A slow decrease in the total number of distinct
  cultural elements
• A fast increase of the combinations of these
  elements