WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION What is globalization One defn
WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION? • What is globalization? : – One defn: The process through which the constraints of geography are less important. – Another idea: it is the post-WW 2 emergence of dense, intense linkages bw states, societies, and economies that link them to global affairs and institutions – Another idea: it is the rise of the non-western powers, who are now demanding economic and political power on par with their resources… It is a new global international system that will replace what we’ve had in place since the 15 th century – It is “the End of History”? Economic and political liberalism seemed like the would prevail at the end of the Cold War, but globalization has turned out to be more complex. • How is globalization impacting the way that individual states interact with other governments, supra-state organizations, and substate interest groups?
IS ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION A PROBLEM FOR THE AIDS? • Kupchan: “Globalization is producing a widening gap between what electorates are asking of their government (“good governance”) and what those government are able to deliver” • Do we have to choose between growth and democracy? Is capitalism… or at least state capitalism… expanding globally at democracy's expense? Will the rise of China (an alternative brand of globalization) provide another model of what’s best? (Kupchan and the Economist) • Can/do democracies make good economic decisions? (Kupchan and the Economist). Can democracies protect future generations? • Does globalization undermine the ability of states to regulate their own economies to meet their own economic priorities (e. g. , IMF and austerity requirements)? Or does it mostly provide opportunities to deal with complex collective action problems (EU as example)? • Does global capitalism inevitably undermine the ability of socially democratic states to provide “fair” benefits and to collect the taxes necessary to pay for them? Is the “race to the bottom” inevitable or is it a choice? What are the alternatives (e. g. protectionism) and why is it hard for nations to pursue them?
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND BRITISH POLITICAL DISATISFACTION? • Economic responses to globalization: Tony Blair and Labour’s Third Way: Can you have Thatcherism (heavy privatization, austerity, and free trade) with “equity”? Where do Cameron/May’s Tories fall on the continuum between Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair? • What key political reforms have been pursued in the UK over the last two decades? If you add them up, how radical has the change been? Why hasn’t the US gone through change like this? • Why did Scotland almost vote to leave in 2014? Will they vote to leave again? • Political changes at multiple levels: The EU, NATO, federalism, referenda, and the Tories in power (austerity in 2010 and distain for Scotland) • Economic forces: Oil, the EU, WTO, and economic anger • Why did Brexit happen in 2016? Why did party leaders say no way, but the people… or at least 52% of the 72% of registered voters… say yes? • Many of the same reasons as Trump’s victory: WTO, refugees and nationalism, economic anger, having the Pound • What relationship will the UK have with the EU? Will Brexit make any difference? • The big question for the UK going forward? Can Britain become more American and still deal with the pressures of globalization?
How is Germany Responding A little context: A full, representative democracy achieved in just a couple of decades: 1950 s: studied as non-democ; today = a “model” That full democracy achieved only after periods of massive inflation, fascism, occupation, and a complete rebuilding German infrastructure and society. • Industrialization in the big picture: 1951: GNP per cap = $500 (1/4 US); Today: $30 K (= to Britain & Japan) • Unification costs: Over $3 trillion. E. Germ. still receives 4% of GDP in transfers (7. 5% tax surcharge) • The bottom line: Germans think and act like they live in an up-andcoming economy rather than living in a hegemon.
WHAT’S THE GERMAN APPROACH TO GLOBALIZATION? • Harder to get things changed than in Britain, but stability and centralism are the norm versus America’s inaction or UK’s flip flops. • Corporatism under a strong state (the Bundesbank) • Codetermination with wage restraints • Strong worker benefits and training & a very generous social policy • What’s their secret? Selective privatization; strategic social investment; and above all a political culture that emphasizes consensus, sacrifice, and stability • Is Germany’s domestic politics and economic (emphasis on saving and running huge external trade deficits) going to harm their international relations over the long run? • Schroeder (Social Democratic) and Merkel (Christian Democrats): How different? Not very different, which is why they have been able to work together. • Is the govt. held hostage by workers & small parties? It hasn’t been so far (2017 elections), but increasingly there are issues. Immigration (i. e. trying to absorb one million refugees) concerns are central in this.
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