Globalization and Politics Flashcards
1
Q
What is globalization?
A
- Globalization: a complex process of integration and interconnection
- Trending toward a “borderless world”
- A single global market, culture, society, and political order
- Supraterritoriality
2
Q
Economic globalization
A
- Intensification of transnational flows (goods, services, labour, capital)
- Challenges economic sovereignty
3
Q
Cultural globalization
A
- Diffusion of information, ideas, and images via improved information technology
- Reducing distinctiveness in international cultures
4
Q
Political globalization
A
- Reduced ability for states to manage their own affairs
- Enhanced importance of organizations above states
- Bigger role for subnational bodies – regions, cities
- States: one part of complex multilevel system
5
Q
One world?
A
- We’re not there yet
- Global economy not completely integrated
- Cultural backlash, indigenization – ‘glocalization’
- States remain crucial players
- Globalization is a process – multi-faceted and open-ended
6
Q
Globalization: is it new?
A
-Centuries of global exchange, exploration, empire building (Persia, China, Europe)
7
Q
Modern expansion
A
- Marx: the restless bourgeoisie
- Imperialism
- 1870-1914: Intensification of commercial and financial interconnections
8
Q
De-globalization (1914-40s)
A
- World War I (1914-18) – reduced extent of global contacts
- World War II (1939-45)
- Interwar protectionism
9
Q
Is it new this time?
A
- Globalization gradually re-emerged in the 1950s and 1960s
- Trade liberalization
- Financial integration
- US leadership of the ‘free world’
- Soviet Union collapse 1991: Opens up the east
- China: No collapse, but joins capitalism
10
Q
Neoliberal globalization in context
A
- Liberalism: laissez-faire, 19th Century
- Keynesianism: state-managed demand, 1930s-1970s
- Neoliberalism: return to classical liberal principles, since 1980
- Neoliberal globalization – Washington consensus, since 1990s
11
Q
Neoliberal globalization brings
A
- Growing inequality
- Social dislocation
- Debt-driven public spending
- Privatized Keynesianism: productivity growth with stagnant wages, private debt drives spending, growth
12
Q
Global capitalism in crisis (sources of crisis 2007 onwards)
A
- Deregulation of the financial sector
- Sale of increasingly risky and poorly understood financial products
- US housing collapse
- Financial integration diffuses effects, the world is now one big financial market
13
Q
Response to crisis (national response)
A
- Bank bailouts, stimulus programs, austerity
- Problems: paradox of thrift, socialism for the rich
14
Q
Response to crisis (international/supranational)
A
- No coordinated global or European response
- Clearly, political globalization is the slowest
- Capitalism, neoliberalism, globalization persist
15
Q
Consequences of the crisis
A
- Social and political effects not always immediate
- Populism as delayed response to the crisis, neoliberal globalization
- Protectionism, yes, but not closed borders
- Populists often get neoliberal policies they didn’t vote for
