Globalization: Exploitation, Inequality and Power Imbalances: Literature Review
In recent years, as awareness of globalization has entered the mainstream, a variety of tomes examining the detrimental effects of this process have emerged. While some of the literature is strictly intended for a scholarly audience, many books have been published with the general reader in mind. In what follows, I will examine both the sociological and - for lack of a better term - "popular" literature of globalization organized around three basic, but essential themes: 1) Globalization as the Precursor of Inequality;2) Globalization as a means of Exploitation of people and resources; and3) Globalization as the harbinger of Dominance and Power.Globalization as the Precursor of InequalityIn When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten argues that the rise of corporations in the United States today has effectively worked to destroy the foundational concepts of private enterprise that the United States of America was founded upon. What is more, the ideology that is promoted by corporate libertarians manipulates the theories promoted by Adam Smith, the esteemed free market economist. Korten feels that the type of economic development that is supported by Bretton Woods institutions and multinational corporations
The three pillars of neoliberal economic theory - privatization, deregulation, and cutbacks in social spending - have had disastrous effects on local economies throughout the world. He identifies what he calls the "New social democratic Left" as being a tendency found in the sociological work of such writers as Habermas, Giddens, Offe, and Beck. Through IMF conditionalities, the United States forced a balanced budget amendment on emerging markets while fighting the very same amendment at home. Globalization as the harbinger of Dominance and PowerJoseph E. As a result, the government's income is also reduced. This is by far a more radical alternative to globalization than that proposed by such writers as Korten. Such a move can come either from the Right or Left - it is effectively immune from traditional political concerns. It also forces them to accept private foreign investment, massive layoffs, and a removal of trade barriers and tariffs, effectively allowing richer countries to exploit poorer ones, without giving them much benefit in return. These organizations are able to do this via the creation of debt burdens, which force governments to accept the privatization of state owned industries and services. The globalizing worldview is one that considers money to be the sole focus of economic life and global development. This used to be accomplished via dictatorial military force. His analysis attempts to unravel how each of these spheres interrelates with the others, and is thus reminiscent of the hermeneutic circle. All of these factors, he feels, play in to the increasing consolidation of corporate power all over the world. Stiglitz feels that there should be more leeway in terms of class action suits and that intellectual property laws must be enforced on a more regular basis.
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