Embracing Globalization: Understanding the Impact on the World and America's Role - Prof. , Study notes of Introduction to Sociology

Download Embracing Globalization: Understanding the Impact on the World and America's Role - Prof. and more Study notes Introduction to Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Coming to terms with globalization Outline ——————————————————————————— America and the world Our approach to globalization Military intervention Immigration Foreign investment Trade Culture Political decision making Which road will we choose? 144 WORLD ECONOMICS • Vol. 7 • No. 1 • January–March 2006 Branko Milanovic Figure 1 illustrates not only that inequality due to within-national dis- tributions is still significant and that countries are not homogeneous enti- ties composed of either rich and poor people only, but also it will have practical implications when we discuss global transfers (see Section 4). In short, if transfers were to flow from mean-income rich to mean-income poor countries (as they do now), and we do not a priori know who their beneficiaries are, a glance at Figure 1 immediately convinces us of a need to take recipient countries’ income distributions seriously. This is because the probability that money raised from a French citizen will end up in the pockets of somebody who is richer than he/she is, is higher if money is transferred from France to Brazil than if it is transferred from France to rural Indonesia. But to this topic we shall return below. Country ventile Pe rc en til e of w or ld in co m e di st rib ut io n France Brazil Sri Lanka Indonesia—rural Figure 1: The position of different countries’ ventiles in global income distribution Source: Calculated from World Income Distribution (WYD) data. Available at http://econ.worldbank.org/projects/inequality. 0 20 40 60 80 100 15 201050 America and the world ——————————————————————————— The U.S. government won't ever make the world's poor its number one priority But we could make them one of our top priorities A key is to embrace globalization America and the world ——————————————————————————— What is globalization? Globalization = integration between countries Jobs: foreign investment Goods and services: trade Money: finance People: migration Culture Military intervention Political decision making Foreign investment Foreign investment ——————————————————————————— Is foreign investment bad for citizens of poor countries? Sweatshops with long hours and poor working conditions Low wages Multinational firms ship profits back home and leave when costs get too high Foreign investment ——————————————————————————— These criticisms are valid They've sparked activism to pressure multinational firms efforts to monitor and expose worst practices: Nike, Wal- Mart attempts to impose minimum wages and working standards Foreign investment ——————————————————————————— The poor in many countries need more foreign investment, more sweatshops That doesn't mean activists, international agencies (UN, ILO), and governments shouldn't try to prohibit violations of human rights such as slavery or forced child labor Nor does it mean governments in poor countries should simply let the market be; in the most successful developing nations, in Asia, the government has played an active role in the economy But it does imply that attempts to force multinational firms to conform to rich-country norms in their pay and employment practices is likely to be counterproductive Trade Trade ——————————————————————————— A key problem faced by poor countries is import barriers imposed by rich nations to protect their own farmers and manufacturing firms Every successful economic development story in the past half- century has relied heavily on exports to rich countries South Korea Taiwan Hong Kong Singapore China Brazil Botswana Mauritius Trade ——————————————————————————— A preferable alternative is to embrace trade and help its victims here adjust Better education Unemployment insurance Wage insurance Portable health insurance Retraining Assistance with job placement We would want all of these are programs even if there were no cross-country trade, to protect against effects of technological change, within-country trade, immigration, etc. Culture Culture ——————————————————————————— Competition may lead to disappearance of cultural forms and producers — music, movies, books, sports, restaurants, languages — that have a small audience or are inferior in quality The result might be a world dominated by hip-hop, Hollywood films, Harlequin romance novels, soccer (surely not baseball), McDonalds, and English Political decision making Political decision making ——————————————————————————— Should there be a supranational body with real decision-making authority over countries? Political decision making ——————————————————————————— We've been moving in that direction The United Nations now authorizes military interventions The UN's International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court prosecute people who commit war crimes. The ICC recently, for the first time, issued an arrest warrant for a sitting government head (president of Sudan) The European Union has assumed decision making authority in a (still limited) number of areas Political decision making ——————————————————————————— An example: environmental sustainability The key challenge is getting developing countries to forgo some of the benefits of rapid industrialization in favor of the long-term health of the planet Perhaps they'll act altruistically, or maybe they can be bought off It would be easier if a world government could force them to do it (with some compensation) Would it, if these countries have the most votes? Farsighted political leaders can do the right thing even when it contradicts public opinion: Lincoln in the Civil War, FDR in World War II Political decision making ——————————————————————————— It's very unlikely that a world government would have full powers over national governments But it could have authority in particular areas The European Union experiment is worth studying to get a sense of the possibilities and limits Which road will we choose? Which road will we choose? ——————————————————————————— The evidence suggests that we would do well to continue this orientation With appropriate policies in place, any damage to our citizens will be limited The benefits to the world's least well-off will be enormous Parting wisdom Be optimistic: The world and our country face challenges, but we have the resources and the will to address them "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Martin Luther King, Jr.