Файл: экон.бизн4.pdf

16

Extension. 

Texts for supplementary reading. 

Text 1. 

Globalization, or globalisation is the increasing interdependence, 

integration and interaction among people and corporations in disparate locations 

around the world. It is an umbrella term which refers to a complex of economic, 

trade, social, technological, cultural and political interrelationships. The term 

has been used as early as 1944, however Theodore Levitt is usually credited 

with its first use in an economic context. 

A typical - but restrictive - definition can be taken from the International 

Monetary Fund, which stresses the growing economic interdependence of 

countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border 

transactions in goods and services, free international capital flows, and more 

rapid and widespread diffusion of technology. 

While being a complex and multifaceted array of phenomena, globalization 

can be broken down into separate aspects: 

9

industrial globalization (alias transnationalization) - rise and expansion of 

multinational enterprises;  

9

financial globalization - emergence of worldwide financial markets and 

better access to external financing for corporate, national and subnational 

borrowers;  

9

political globalization - spread of political sphere of interests to the 

regions and 

countries outside the neighbourhood of political (state and non-state) 

actors informational globalization - increase in information flows between 

geographically remote locations;  

9

cultural globalization - growth of cross-cultural contacts.  

Economic definition: 

According to Dr. Ismail Shariff, globalization is the worldwide process of 

homogenizing prices, products, wages, rates of interest and profits. 

17

Globalization relies on three forces for development: the role of human 

migration, international trade, and rapid movements of capital and integration of 

financial markets. 

Characteristics 

Globalisation/internationalisation has become identified with a number of 

trends, most of which may have developed or accelerated since World War II. 

These include greater international movement of commodities, money, 

information, and people; and the development of technology, organisations, 

legal systems, and infrastructures to allow this movement. The actual existence 

of some of these trends is debated. 

- Greater international cultural exchange. 

- Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural 

diversity, for example through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies. 

However, the imported culture can easily supplant the local culture, causing 

reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation. The most 

prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures also takes 

place.  

- Greater international travel and tourism  

- Greater immigration, including illegal immigration  

- Spread of local consumer products (e.g., food) to other countries (often 

adapted to their culture)  

- World-wide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa 

Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, and MySpace.  

- World-wide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic 

Games.  

- Formation or development of a set of universal values.  

- Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater 

transborder data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication 

satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones  

18

- Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g. copyright laws 

and patents  

- The push by many advocates for an international criminal court and 

international justice movements.  

Positive and negative effects 

The term "globalization" is used to refer to these collective changes as a process, 

or else as the cause of turbulent change. The distinct uses include: 

Economically, socially and ecologically positive: as an engine of commerce; one 

which brings an increased standard of living — prosperity — to Third World 

countries and further wealth to First World countries.  

Economically, socially, and ecologically negative: as an engine of "corporate 

imperialism;" one which tramples over human rights in developing societies, 

claims to bring prosperity, yet often simply amounts to plundering and 

profiteering. Negative effects include cultural assimilation via cultural 

imperialism, the export of artificial wants, and the destruction or inhibition of 

authentic local and global community, ecology and cultures.  

It is often argued that even terrorism has undergone globalization, with attacks 

in foreign countries that have no direct relation with the attackers' own country. 

Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably 

lowered through international agreements such as the General Agreement on 

Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT 

and the WTO, for which GATT is the foundation, have included: 

Promotion of free trade  

Of goods:  

- Reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zones with 

small or no tariffs.  

- Reduced transportation costs, especially from development of 

containerization for ocean shipping.  

Of capital:  

- Reduction or elimination of capital controls.  

19

- Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local 

businesses.  

Intellectual property restrictions  

- Harmonization of intellectual property laws across nations (generally 

speaking, with more restrictions).  

- Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. 

patents granted by China would be recognized in the US).  

Text 2 

Historical precedents of Globalization 

Although the term "globalization' was coined in the latter half of the 

twentieth century, and the term and its concepts did not permeate popular 

consciousness until the latter half of the 1980's; various social scientists have 

tried to demonstrate continuity between contemporary trends of globalization 

and earlier periods. Earlier forms of globalization existed during the Mongol 

Empire, when there was greater integration along the Silk Road. 

The first steps towards Globalization as we know it nowadays were taken 

in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Spanish Empire reached to 

all corners of the world. The effects on European industries were notable, e.g. 

the Silver Mining in Schwaz in Austria was partly abandoned, as silver was 

available from the Spanish colonies for lower prices. Globalization became a 

business phenomena in the 17th century when the first Multinational was 

founded in The Netherlands. During the Dutch Golden Age the Dutch East India 

Company was established as a private owned company. Because of the high 

risks involved with the international trade, ownership was divided with Shares. 

The Dutch East India Company was the first company in the world to issue 

shares, an important driver for globalization. 

Liberalization in the 19th century is often called "The First Era of 

Globalization", a period characterised by rapid growth in international trade and 

investment, between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and, later, the 

United States.The "First Era of Globalization" began to break down at the 

20

beginning with the first World War, and later collapsed during the gold standard 

crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Countries that engaged in that era of 

globalization, including the European core, some of the European periphery and 

various European American and Oceanic offshoots, prospered. Inequality 

between those states fell, as goods, capital and labour flowed freely between 

nations. 

Globalization in the era since World War II has been driven by advances 

in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation 

rounds, originally under the auspices of GATT, which led to a series of 

agreements to remove restrictions on free trade. The Uruguay round (1984 to 

1995) led to a treaty to create the World Trade Organization (WTO), to mediate 

trade disputes. Other bi- and trilateral trade agreements, including sections of 

Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement 

(NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and 

barriers to trade. 

The world increasingly is confronted by problems that can not be solved 

by individual nation-states acting alone. Examples include cross-boundary air 

and water pollution, over-fishing of the oceans and other degradations of the 

natural environment, regulation of outer-space, global warming, international 

terrorist networks, global trade and finance, and so on. Solutions to these 

problems necessitate new forms of cooperation and the creation of new global 

institutions. Since the end of WWII, following the advent of the UN and the 

Bretton Woods institutions, there has been an explosion in the reach and power 

of Transnational corporations and the rapid growth of global civil society.  

The Global scenario group, an environmental research and forecasting 

organization, views globalization as part of the shift to a Planetary Phase of 

Civilization, characterized by global social organizations, economies, and 

communications. The GSG maintains that the future character of this global 

society is uncertain and contested.