What was the main idea of Barber in his book Jihad vs. McWorld?
- Jihad is clash of civilizations; nations are turning away from modernity
- Jihad is reaction to globalisation
- Globalisation is spreading like McWorld
- Nation-stead is dead and buried; globalisation is dominant
- McWorld is homogenizations and Jihad is reaction to this
Argues that we need to think globally but act locally (smaller democracies)
What are the critiques on this idea by Barber?
- Book is very orientalist/Western centric (placing democracy at the heart of globalisation)
- Portrays self-determination and religion as negative; however these are freedoms of US charter
- Sense that barber ignores history (global order based on post Cold War world)
But: gives us a sense on new idea on globalisation
What are different ways of thinking about globalisation?
Globalisation as…
- Westernisation (barber’s McWorld/homogenisation)
- Liberalisation (Ohmae’s borderless world; freeing of trade barriers)
- Supraterritoriality
What is supranationality?
- World in which states remain important, but less
- Relative deterritorialisation: territorial borders less important
- Space-time compression: sense of the world is shrinking
- Transcendence of territorial space; trans border exchanges without distance
What is Hobson and Ramesh their idea on globalisation?
Different people think differently about globalisation. Som think it is more focused on the global and states are less important, whereas others believe states are still very important.
Hobson and Ramesh try to deal with this through structuralism and agency.
According to Hobson and Ramesh, what are the two different ways of thinking about structure and agency?
Structure:
- Structurally hard notion: global structure transcends the sovereign state
- Structurally soft diversion: global structure hollows out the state, but requires the sovereign state for its own reproduction
Agency:
- Hard notion: sovereignty allows states to resist extra-territorial influences - states are prominent actors globally
- Globalisation is enabled by the actions of states; states are leading in globalising world
How is globalisation possible?
- Economic interdependence (between states)
- Information technology and material infrastructure
- Growing global consciousness and identity; cosmopolitanism (world as single, ethical space)
What is the evolution of globalisation?
- Up to 18th C – concept of globe as single, unified space
- 1850s-1950s – beginning globalisation
- 1960s – full-scale globalisation
- 1970s – Collapse of Bretton Woods, advance of neoliberalism, emergence of floating exchange rates, TNCs, financial markets etc. (Technology is key! Telegram, telephone etc…)
What is important to remember about globalisation and the economy?
- Leaves capitalism as entrenched as ever.
- Has been experienced unevenly, it is not flattening the world.
- Does not spell the end of cultural diversity, but aspects of homogenisation.
- Does not equal emancipation.
- Is driven by a multitude of forces; state, NGOs, TNCs.
- Territory and state remain significant/important.
What was the beginning of neoliberalism?
Nixon shocks
- Withdrawal from Vietnam (failure to win).
- Pressure on avoiding intervention.
- End of Bretton Woods (used to maintain fixed exchange rates; no more Gold Standard)
- End of open economic system with fixed exchange rate
- Private banks more important, reduced government regulation
- Détente with SU, alliance with China.
What are the core tenets of neoliberalism?
- Trade liberalisation
- Financial deregulation
- Privatisation and support rise of Trans National Corporations (don’t restrict them)
- Flexible exchange rates and balanced budgets
From state regulation towards the market
What are three keypoints of proponents of neoliberal globalisation?
- Magic of the market (efficiency of market)
- Everyone wins (rich get richer, poor gets less poor)
- Economic freedom promotes other freedoms (also promotes democracy, more education opportunities)
- Neoliberal order transforms us as individual: we define ourselves through consumption and the stuff we buy (Hout)
What can states do in Neoliberal order?
Liberalist Game of globalisation
- Exploiting geography and technology
- Attraction factors
- Technology transfer to ‘advance’
Develop industry clusters
Move to world driven by transnational corporations as leaders of global economy
What is the impact of neoliberalism according to its proponents?
- Long-term economic growth
- Expansion of the financial sector
- Growth of public and private debt; debt is sustainable because of economic growth it leads to (speculate to accumulate)
- Integration of domestic markets into the global economy
What is neoliberalism and entreprise capitalism approach?
- Division between state and business
- Weak bureaucratic interference
- Privatization and deregulation
- Open economies/free trade
What is the Developmental states and state capitalism approach?
Different form of capitalism
- Strong state-business relations
- Powerful bureaucracies (help states channel finance and help companies to become world leaders)
- Coordinated industrial development
- Protectionism
Example: Japan
What are the critiques on close business and government ties like in Developmental states and State capitalism approach?
- Close business government ties can lead to corruption
- Safety standards not regarded to make more profit
What is Marxism?
- Historical materialism; dominant modes of production through which an economy moves
- Capitalism and globalisation; capitalism needs to world as its market, it is seeking to expand
Marx on goal of capitalism: to overcome the tyranny of distance, to conquer the whole earth for its market
What is World Systems Theory?
- Foundations of capitalism based on imperialist expansion
- Dependency of core on periphery
- Capitalists will exploit 3rd world
What’s been the transformation of production?
- From Fordist model: machine made standardized products on an assembly line that workers can afford
- Changed: globalisations allowed states to break up production processes for them to be built in different parts of the world: International Production Networks
What are International Production Networks?
- International division of labour, in which each function or discreet stage of a value chain is spatially or geographically relocated in the most efficient site, and undertaken by different firms including MNEs and local firms (Dent 2008, 46)
- Important for profit maximisation
- What does this mean for states?
• Attracting capital
• Better infrastructure to attract capital
According to critics, why does economic globalisation not cause prosperity for all?
- Deepening poverty and inequality (winners are not the workers)
- Hollowing out of democracy; states react to corporations instead of electorate, they scale back on welfare to increase trade and income
- Corruptions of consumerist materialism; idea that greed is good (self-interest), we define ourselves in consumption
- Environmental impacts; capitalism is environmentally destructive
What is social capitalism?
- Central & Western Europe model
- Combines market competition with social cohesion and welfare
- Trade unions & social security are stronger
- Education & vocational training are stressed together with high capital investment
What is neogramscianism?
- Idea of material power and idealisation (coercion and consent)
- Combination is uneven globally: more coherent in core, more contradictory in periphery.
- Hegemony tends to prevail when consent is at the forefront.
