chapter 23 reading guide
What examples of this "reglobalization" phenomenon are given?
-capitalist victors from WWII were determined to avoid any return to such Depression-era conditions -the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund laid the foundation for postwar globalization -"Bretton Woods system" negotiated the rules for commercial and financial dealings among the major capitalist countries, while promoting relatively free trade, stable currency values linked to the US dollar, and high levels of capital investment -technology contributed to the acceleration of economic globalization with containerized shipping, huge oil tankers, and air express services dramatically lowered transportation costs, and fiber-optic cables and the Internet provided the communication infrastructure for global economic interaction) -population growth in developing countries -neoliberalism favored free global movement of capital -major capitalist countries abandoned many earlier political controls on economic activity (leaders and businesspeople viewed the entire world as a single market) -favored the reduction of tariffs, the free global movement of capital, a mobile and temporary workforce, the privatization of many state-run enterprises, the curtailing of government efforts to regulate the economy, and both tax and spending cuts -World Bank and IMF imposed free market and pro-business conditions on many poor countries if they were to qualify for much-needed loans -collapse of the state-controlled economies of the communist world
What is "reglobalization" as Strayer explains it?
-capitalist victors from WWII were determined to avoid any return to such Depression-era conditions -the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund laid the foundation for postwar globalization -"Bretton Woods system" negotiated the rules for commercial and financial dealings among the major capitalist countries, while promoting relatively free trade, stable currency values linked to the US dollar, and high levels of capital investment -technology contributed to the acceleration of economic globalization with containerized shipping, huge oil tankers, and air express services dramatically lowered transportation costs, and fiber-optic cables and the Internet provided the communication infrastructure for global economic interaction) -population growth in developing countries -neoliberalism favored free global movement of capital -major capitalist countries abandoned many earlier political controls on economic activity (leaders and businesspeople viewed the entire world as a single market) -favored the reduction of tariffs, the free global movement of capital, a mobile and temporary workforce, the privatization of many state-run enterprises, the curtailing of government efforts to regulate the economy, and both tax and spending cuts -World Bank and IMF imposed free market and pro-business conditions on many poor countries if they were to qualify for much-needed loans -collapse of the state-controlled economies of the communist world
Feminism in the West:
American women have struggled historically against certain paradigms of inferiority that all women experience. The female identity is different according to each culture and their customs, but many cultures are based on a patriarchal past where men wield more power than women. Women worldwide experience subjugation in the form of jobs, education, sexuality and reproductive choice. American women have strived to overcome these stereotypes and have gained a position of near equality in many societal constructs. In the United States today, men and women enjoy almost equal social standing. Women can and do vote, own businesses, hold political office and have a full spectrum of rights. They have reproductive and social rights to divorce, abortion and birth control. They can wear whatever they choose. Laws are in place protecting them from sexual assault and physical abuse. There are, however, media constructions of gender that portray clear stereotypes of men and women. Women are portrayed in the media as sexual objects: thin, large breasted, demure and flawless. Even though they hold powerful jobs and play valuable roles in a variety of social constructs, the paradigm of the American housewife prevails. Western culture is prevalent worldwide and imposes both the positive feminist ideals and the conflicting negative media messages on third world and developing countries. This paper will explore the impacts of Western culture in the specific realm of feminism and female stereotypes globally and will seek to establish common goals and difficulties for all women. As a dominant culture, the United States must be aware of the media messages it shares with the rest of the world and the examples it promotes as not all are compliant with other cultures.
What were the causes and effects of the 2008 financial crisis in the United States? What does it demonstrate about the nature of global economics?
An inflated housing market - or "bubble" - in the United States collapsed, triggering millions of home foreclosures, growing unemployment, the tightening of credit, and declining consumer spending. Soon this crisis rippled around the world. Iceland's rapidly growing economy collapsed almost overnight as three major banks failed,the countries stock market dropped by 80%, and its currency lost more than 70% of its value - all in a single week.
Explain how the US now faces increased economic competition, and specifically China's role in that competition.
China has spent billions expanding China Central TV's broadcasts in English and other languages and opening 450 Confucius Institutes around the world teaching Chinese language and culture. It has even invested in trying to create global pop star Jia Ruhan. Russia has expanded its international TV news station, RT. The US continues to fund international broadcasting started during the Cold War. The US is considered the world leader in soft and hard power, and there's no doubt American culture is attractive to many around the world - consider the numbers wanting to migrate there and who wear baseball caps, eat American-style fast food, listen to American music and watch Hollywood movies. Much of the global attractiveness of the US has little to do with its government, and photographs of anti-American protesters in the Middle East in jeans and T-shirts demonstrate how it's possible to like American culture and dislike Washington's policies.
Examples of mass movements:
Flows occur when the material, soil, and/or rock, behave more like a liquid or fluid. Flows include mudflows, debris flows or lahars (superheated water that moves down an erupting volcano). Flows occur due to a large amount of water or ice present in the soil or material. Flows are most often the fastest traveling and can have speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour, depending on the location and steepness of the slope. Slumps behave differently than flows. Slumps occur as a wedge or slice of material that moves as one piece along a curved surface. As a result, it often can resemble a spoon scoop. Slumps typically occur where there is loose material or rock.
Neoliberalization:
For some two decades neoliberalism has dominated economic policymaking in the US and the UK. Neoliberalism has strong advocates in continental Western Europe and Japan, but substantial popular resistance there has limited its influence so far, despite continuing US efforts to impose neoliberal policies on them. In much of the Third World, and in the transition countries (except for China), the US has been successful in dictating neoliberal policies, acting partly through the IMF and World Bank and partly through direct pressure. Neoliberalism is an updated version of the classical liberal economic thought that was dominant in the US and UK prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s. From roughly the mid 1930s to the mid 1970s a new Ainterventionist@ approach replaced classical liberalism, and it became the accepted belief that capitalism requires significant state regulation in order to be viable. In the 1970s the Old Religion of classical liberalism made a rapid comeback, first in academic economics and then in the realm of public policy.
How would you define the US in the 20th and 21st century? Are we an empire or something else? Explain.
I would define the us in 20th and 21st century as revolutionary in all areas in innovation and rights of the common people. We are a democracy not an empire. Examples: Believing in "the promise of American life" (the title of a 1909 book by Herbert Croly), reformers in what is known as the Progressive Era advocated laws designed to fulfill that promise. The results of their efforts included the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906), intended to protect consumers against tainted or unsafe products; the Federal Reserve Act (1913), to bring order to the banking industry; the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission (1913), to investigate and prosecute corporations for unfair trade practices; and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914), to curb the power of trusts. To make government more responsive and accountable, reformers promoted practices known as referendum and initiative, as well as direct primaries, the secret ballot, and direct election of senators, the last accomplished by the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1913). The 19th Amendment (1920), guaranteeing women's right to vote, was a significant milestone in the campaign for women's rights that had begun in the middle of the previous century. The Progressive movement did little else for women, however, and even less for African Americans. Jim Crow laws enacted in Southern states between 1890 and 1910 sanctioned racial discrimination and curtailed blacks' right to vote. Segregation by race was defended as being "in the interest of the Negro." Booker T. Washington, the most famous African American, seemed to agree by advocating policies of accommodation. W. E. B. Du Bois, author of The Souls of Black Folk (1903), challenged him and provided leadership in founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909).
Explain the significance of the last 60 years in terms of global economic and human developmental growth.
On a global level, total world output grew from a value of $7 trillion in 1950 to $75 trillion in 2009 and on a per capital basis from $2,652 to $10,728. This represents an immense, rapid, and unprecedented creation of wealth with a demonstrable impact on human welfare. Life expectancies expanded almost everywhere, infant mortality declined, and literacy increased. The UN Human Development Report in 1997 concluded that "in the past 50 years, poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500."
What are the arguments of the people and groups that have opposed neoglobalization?
Participants base their criticisms on a number of related ideas. What is shared is that participants oppose large, multinational corporations having unregulated political power, exercised through trade agreements and deregulated financial markets. Specifically, corporations are accused of seeking to maximize profit at the expense of work safety conditions and standards, labour hiring and compensation standards, environmental conservation principles, and the integrity of national legislative authority, independence and sovereignty. As of January 2012, some commentators have characterized changes in the global economy as "turbo-capitalism" (Edward Luttwak), "market fundamentalism" (George Soros), "casino capitalism" (Susan Strange), and as "McWorld" (Benjamin Barber). Many anti-globalization activists do not oppose globalization in general and call for forms of global integration that better provide democratic representation, advancement of human rights, fair trade and sustainable development and therefore feel the term "anti-globalization" is misleading.
What is the "soft power" the United States uses to have global influence?
Soft power is a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence. Recently, the term has also been used in changing and influencing social and public opinion through relatively less transparent channels and lobbying through powerful political and non-political organizations. In 2012, Joseph Nye of Harvard University explained that with soft power, "the best propaganda is not propaganda", further explaining that during the Information Age, "credibility is the scarcest resource."
Explain the role of technology and "neoliberalization" in the globalization process. Technology:
Technology can be defined as the socialized knowledge of producing goods and services. We can describe the term technology with five important elements: production, knowledge, instruments, possession and change. Our definition of technology as a socialized knowledge can be better conceived with these elements. Now we shall briefly look through them: It has something to do with production (of goods and services). We need technology to produce something either goods (ex: clothes, television set, cars etc.) or service (ex: banking, security, teaching etc.) Technology improves our capacity to produce. Technology has something to do with knowledge. Technology is a result of intellectual activities. Therefore technology is type of intellectual property. Today technology is developed through research and development institutions as integral parts of the universities. Technology has something to do with instruments. The instruments are the extensions of the human body, whenever an instrument is used there is technology involved. The instruments indicate the usage of technology by human beings. Instruments are mostly physical such as computers, vacuum cleaners or pencils, but sometimes there are immaterial instruments too, such as databases or algorithms in computer programming. Technology has something to do with possession. Those people who possess technology also control it. Controlling technology has usually something to do with economics and politics. Therefore we can speak of technologically rich and poor countries and the struggle among them usually in the forms of patents, transfers and protection of intellectual rights. Technology has something to do with change. With technology, the world has changed drastically. Most of the innovations from the technological advances have very important effects on the lives of peoples of the world, which has witnessed radical changes especially after 1960's revolutions on the microelectronics technologies. Even there are some people who argue that the history is made by technology as a result of their highly criticized techno-determinist view. All these aspects of technology justify our definition of technology as the socialized knowledge of producing goods and services, and this definition makes a clear differentiation between the terms technology and technique (technics). Therefore if we speak about the effects of technology on globalization, instead of techniques or technical developments we refer to technology as a social and political term.
section two starts here
The Globalization of Liberation: Focus on Feminism
What is the World Trade Organization (WTO), and what arguments came out of the 1999 WTO meeting in Seatle?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. 1999 Seattle WTO protests, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle or the Battle in Seattle, were a series of protests surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, when members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington on November 30, 1999. The Conference was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations. The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by massive and controversial street protests outside the hotels and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The protests were nicknamed "N30", akin to J18 and similar mobilizations. The large scale of the demonstrations, estimated at no less than 40,000 protesters, dwarfed any previous demonstration in the United States against a world meeting of any of the organizations generally associated with economic globalization (such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund, or the World Bank).
One could say a global Proletariat and Bourgeoisie have developed since capitalism has become the predominant global economic model. Explain this observation and the available evidence for it.
The bourgeoisie merchants' zeal for accumulation has led them to conquer the globe, forcing everyone everywhere to adopt the capitalist mode of production. The bourgeois view, which sees the world as one big market for exchange, has fundamentally altered all aspects of society, even the family, destroying traditional ways of life and rural civilizations and creating enormous cities in their place. Under industrialization, the means of production and exchange that drive this process of expansion and change have created a new subordinate urban class whose fate is vitally tied to that of the bourgeoisie. This class is the industrial proletariat, or modern working class. These workers have been uprooted by the expansion of capitalism and forced to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie, a fact that offends them to the core of their existence as they recall those workers of earlier ages who owned and sold what they created. Modern industrial workers are exploited by the bourgeoisie and forced to compete with one another for ever-shrinking wages as the means of production grow more sophisticated. Marx argued that the capitalist bourgeoisie mercilessly exploited the proletariat. He recognised that the work carried out by the proletariat created great wealth for the capitalist. The products created in the factory (the material outcome of the workers' labour) were sold for more than the value of the labour itself i.e. more than the workers' wages. For instance, the factory worker may get paid £2 to produce a yard of cloth. The capitalist then sells the cloth for £5. In this way, the capitalist, who controls the process of production, makes a profit. But the worker does not benefit from this added value, and fails to benefit from the fruits of his/her own labour. Marx believed that capitalism contained the seeds of its own destruction. He described how the wealth of the bourgeoisie depended on the work of the proletariat. Therefore, capitalism requires an underclass. But Marx predicted that the continued exploitation of this underclass would create great resentment. Eventually the proletariat would lead a revolution against the bourgeoisie. The final struggle would lead to the overthrow of capitalism and its supporters. Marx wrote that modern bourgeois society 'is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.' Following the proletariats' defeat of capitalism, a new classless society would emerge based on the idea: 'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs'. In such a society, land, industry, labour and wealth would be shared between all people. All people would have the right to an education, and class structures would disappear. Harmony would reign, and the state would simply 'wither away'.
Explain the purpose, components, and effects of the "Bretten Woods system".
The purpose of the Bretton Woods meeting was to set up a new system of rules, regulations, and procedures for the major economies of the world to ensure their economic stability. To do this, Bretton Woods established The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Under the Bretton Woods agreement, all countries were to fix the value of their currency in terms of gold but were not required to exchange their currencies for gold. The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton-Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system could work only as long as the U.S. inflation rate remained low and the United States did not run a balance-of-payments deficit. On August 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced his New Economic Policy, a program "to create a new prosperity without war." Known colloquially as the "Nixon shock," the initiative marked the beginning of the end for the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates established at the end of World War II. This was because of the new system, it had greatly injured the United States while helping the other 43 country's out of poverty and to gain more money or gold.
What are "transnational corporations"?
Transnational corporations (TNCs) are incorporated or unincorporated enterprises comprising parent enterprises and their foreign affiliates. A parent enterprise is defined as an enterprise that controls assets of other entities in countries other than its home country, usually by owning a certain equity capital stake.
International Feminism:
Two historical examples Global Feminists might use to expose patriarchal structures at work in colonized groups or societies are medieval Spain (late eleventh to thirteenth centuries) and nineteenth-century Cuba. The former example concerns women of the Mudejar communities of Islamic Spain and the strict sexual codes through which their social activity was regulated. Mudejar women could be sold into slavery as a result of sexual activity with a Christian man; this was to escape the deemed punishment accorded by the Sunnah, or Islamic law. Because of their simultaneous roles as upholding one's family honor and one of "conquered status and gender", "Mudejar women suffered double jeopardy in their sexual contact with Christians [in Spain]". Nineteenth-century Cuba can be looked at as an example of colonialism and neocolonialism working together in a slave-based society to affect women's lives under patriarchy, where Cuba "remained a Spanish colony while enduring a neocolonial relationship with the United States". Havana, a city noted for its "absence of the female form", had, "of all the major cities in the West...the most strict social restrictions on the female portion of its population". Upper-class Cuban women were "a constant visual reminder of the separation between elite white society and the people of color they ruled".
How has global capitalism impacted social structures/equality throughout the world? Give examples.
We live in an unequal world in which descriptors of global inequality—especially inequalities in income—abound. "[T]he world's richest 500 individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million ... 2.5 billion people [are] living on less than $2 a day" (Watkins et al., 2005: 18). Researchers and policy makers continue to debate how, and at what scale, inequality trends are changing, but, by any measure, the disparities between rich and poor are striking (Firebaugh, 2003; Milanovic, 2005; The Economist, 2006; Held and Kaya, 2007; Lobao et al., 2007). The recent past has also seen rapid economic globalization—characterized by the supranational spatial integration of economies and societies (Stiglitz, 2002). Globalization has intensified flows of goods, finance, people, and political/cultural interactions all across our planet (Mittelman, 2002; Dicken, 2007). Understanding the nature of, and linkages between, globalization and inequality is crucial because disparities abound in access to needs such as shelter, land, food and clean water, sustainable livelihoods, technology, and information. Inequalities in all of these realms pose challenges to human security and environmental sustainability. Much of the research on the link between globalization and inequality has focused on the global scale—looking at inequality between countries using aggregate economic indicators such as gross domestic product per capita (sometimes weighted by national population). These measures of global inequality are limited because they implicitly assume that within-country distributions of income are perfectly equal (Milanovic, 2005). Comparisons of inequality across individuals in the global population, and across a broader range of measures, regardless of national boundaries, are much rarer, but are increasingly possible and necessary (Milanovic, 2005). Beyond the need for improved measures of global inequality, we are currently witnessing a historic change in patterns of inequality, termed by Firebaugh (2003) as the "inequality transition." Since the 1980s, evidence suggests that inequalities have increased more rapidly within countries than between them, heralding the reversal of increasing between-country inequality—a trend that began with the Industrial Revolution (Milanovic, 2005; Held and Kaya, 2007).
What US international US policies/stances have angered people/nations around the world?
When President Trump announced the latest and most far-reaching version of his travel ban on Sunday, citing threats to national security posed by letting citizens of specific countries into the country, the White House said it had come after exhaustive planning. It was meant to prevent the confusion and chaos that his first travel ban created at airports, colleges and technology companies in the United States and at refugee camps around the world back in January. A White House official said the new policy was more narrowly targeted than its precursor, which was swiftly blocked by the courts. But immigrant and diaspora communities from the affected countries once again reacted with dismay, and refugee advocates denounced the new decree as more of the same. "This is still a Muslim ban," Becca Heller, the director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement. The first travel ban was blocked by federal judges because it was perceived to discriminate against Muslims; the Trump administration argued it was a security measure designed to thwart terrorism. A revised version of that ban expired on Sunday. The new third version, which is to take effect on Oct. 18, adds Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the list of affected countries and drops Sudan. (The other affected countries are Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia.) Different restrictions were imposed on each of the three additions, depending on the threat they were deemed to pose. For example, for Venezuela the ban applies only to visits by certain government officials and their families, while Somalis are barred from emigrating to the United States but not from visiting.
Feminism in the Global South:
feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women. Feminist movements started in the West in the late 19th century and its development has three ways of evolution. First-wave feminism was about the status of white women of middle and upper-classes, suffrage and their political equality. Second-wave feminism went further in dealing with inequalities in social and economic spheres. Third-wave feminism deals with financial, social and cultural inequalities and women's rights in politics and media. Feminism may be found almost in each country around the world. However, there is an opinion that the classical division of the periods taken from the example of the USA does not fit to some extent feminism evolution in Latin America, namely the time of second and third waves in Americas are different. On the one hand, there is an opinion shared by many people that feminism in Latin America was a western product. On the other hand, some studies, for example, Francesca Miller's Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice, prove that it has been rather an ideology that appeared in the region over the last century. However, evidence also points to Latin American women advocating for equal rights as early as the seventeenth century.
