Globalization

Globalization is a world-wide economic, technological, political, social and cultural process consisting of increasing communication and interdependence among the different countries of the world.

Globalization, sometimes referred to as globalization, is a worldwide economic, technological, political, social and cultural process consisting of increasing communication and interdependence among different countries of the world, uniting their social markets through a series of social and political transformations that give them a global character. Globalization is regularly identified as a dynamic process produced mainly by society and that has opened its doors to the information revolution, reaching a considerable level of liberalization and democratization in its political culture, in its national legal and economic system, and in their national and international relations.

This process originated in the heart of Western civilization and which has spread around the world in the last decades of the Contemporary Age (second half of the 20th century) receives its greatest impetus with the end of the Cold War, and continues in the XXI century. It is characterized in the economy by the integration of local economies into a world market economy where the modes of production and capital movements are configured on a planetary scale ("new economy"), with the role of multinational companies and the free movement of capital together with the definitive implementation of the consumer society. The legal system also feels the effects of globalization and sees the need to standardize and simplify national and international procedures and regulations in order to improve the conditions of competitiveness and legal security, in addition to universalizing the recognition of the fundamental rights of the citizenship. In culture, it is characterized by a process that interrelates local societies and cultures in a global culture (global village), although there is a divergence of criteria as to whether it is a phenomenon of Western assimilation or multicultural fusion. Technologically, globalization depends on advances in human connectivity (transportation and telecommunications) facilitating the free movement of people and the massification of ICTs (information and communication technologies) and the Internet. On the ideological level, collectivist and traditionalist creeds and values cause widespread disinterest and are losing ground to the individualism and cosmopolitanism of the open society. The classic media, especially the written press, lose their social influence (fourth estate) in the face of the collaborative production of Web 2.0 information (fifth estate).

Meanwhile, regarding politics, the different governments are losing powers in some areas that are taken over by civil society in a phenomenon that has been called network society, activism increasingly revolves around social movements and the social media while political parties lose their former popularity, the transition to democracy against despotic regimes has spread, and public policy highlights efforts for the transition to capitalism in some of the former command economies and the transition from feudalism to capitalism in underdeveloped economies of some countries, albeit with varying degrees of success. Geopolitically, the world is torn between the unipolarity of the US superpower and the rise of new regional powers, and in international relations, multilateralism and soft power are becoming the mechanisms most accepted by the international community. Civil society also takes center stage in the international debate through international human rights NGOs that monitor the internal or external activity of States. In the military sphere, conflicts arise between non-state armed organizations (and transnationals in many cases) and the armies belonging to the state (war against terrorism, war against drug trafficking, etc.), while the powers that carry out military interventions in other countries (usually those considered a failed State) try to win over domestic and world public opinion by forming multinational coalitions and alleging the fight against some security threat, not without extensive debates on the legitimacy of the concepts of preventive war and humanitarian intervention in light of the principle of non-intervention and opposition to wars.

The positive or negative assessment of this phenomenon, or the inclusion of alternative definitions or additional characteristics to highlight the inclusion of some value judgment, may vary depending on the ideology of the interlocutor. This occurs because the globalization phenomenon has aroused great enthusiasm in some sectors, while in others it has aroused deep rejection (anti-globalization), and there are also eclectic and moderate positions.

Concept

Certain authors (such as Guy Rocher) consider that the term mundialization, a Gallicism derived from the French word mondialisation, is more appropriate in Spanish, instead of globalization, Anglicized from the English globalization, since in Spanish "global" is not equivalent to "mundial", as it does in English. However, the Dictionary of the Spanish language records the entry “globalization”, understood as the “tendency of markets and companies to spread, reaching a global dimension that goes beyond national borders” (DRAE 2006, 23rd edition), while the entry "globalization" is not in the Dictionary.

The Spanish economist and writer José Luis Sampedro, in his book The market and globalization (2002), defines globalization as

Constellation of centres with strong economic power and lucrative ends, coupled with parallel interests, whose decisions dominate world markets, especially financial ones, using the most advanced technology and taking advantage of the absence or weakness of regulatory measures and public controls.

These powers are so strong that they reach agreements outside of any direct political control of human beings that affect the employment, health and daily life of large sectors of Humanity such as CETA, TTIP and TISA, agreements that do not they have not been published nor known nor sanctioned by those who suffer their consequences, something legally very debatable. Against this (the lack of improvement of the democratic procedures of control of the government of the national states who, for example, are incapable of agreeing or agree to avoid global tax fraud, or in another way explained, they only agree not to agree) and the sale of the political system to capitalism in general, the so-called globalization of discontent has emerged, embodied in movements such as 15-M, the Occupy movement or the Indignados and independent complaint organizations such as Wikileaks, or in more disorganized and violent protests such as the riots in France in 200 5. Globalization affects the whole world and therefore requires a global law that controls it, which revitalizes the natural law inherent to the human species and should definitively discredit in this sphere the overly prestigious positive law used by national states in order not to agree on win-win measures. In this sense, Hans Küng affirms in the context of the preparation of a Universal Declaration of the Duties of Man:

The globalization of the economy, technology and the media also leads to the globalization of the problems, from financial markets and from work to those of ecology and organized crime. This globalization of problems demands, therefore, also an ethical globalization - of ethos- not a uniform ethical system; but a necessary menimum of common ethical values, fundamental attitudes and criteria, to which all religions, nations and groups of interests can be committed. Therefore, one ethos common fundamental of men. No new world order without a ethos global.

According to the economist Omar Alejandro Martínez, globalization is defined as the current stage that world capitalism is experiencing, characterized by the disappearance of economic borders that prevented the free circulation of goods, products and capital, including both Trade laws and politics itself producing effects on the environment, culture, political systems, economic development and prosperity, as well as the physical well-being of human beings that make up societies around the world.

History

British ship loaded with goods crosses the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal. The intensification of world trade has led the Panamanian government to launch expansion projects on the Canal.

Aldo Ferrer points out that the current process of globalization is part of a larger process that began in 1492 with the conquest and colonization of America by Spain. Marshall McLuhan already maintained in 1961 that electronic communication media were creating a global village. Rüdiger Safranski points out that from the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945 a global community was born united in the terror of a worldwide holocaust. The beginning of globalization has also been associated with the invention of the chip (September 12, 1958), the arrival of man on the Moon, which coincides with the first worldwide transmission via satellite (July 20, 1969), or the creation Internet (September 1, 1969). But in general, the beginning of globalization is located with the end of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union and the communist bloc it led, whose failed experiment in collectivism represented the decline of projects for closed societies and protected economies, disappeared. Although the self-dissolution of the Soviet Union occurred on December 25, 1991, it has been widely symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

The process of globalization also puts protectionism into crisis and the Welfare State had gained popularity in the interwar period, when in capitalist nations the notion spread that the State has a fundamental double function in the proper functioning of the economy: one to ensure the prosperity of the population and the other to avoid cycles of growth and recession. Thus, the foundations for the appearance of Keynesianism and the New Deal are created. The decades following World War II saw the emergence of "corporations" or multinational companies, which displace the importance of the companies of classical capitalism that both Adam Smith and Karl Marx knew when they formulated their theories. A precedent for the success of the liberalization that other countries would take was seen in Germany: the resurgence of their nation in the so-called German Miracle.

However, a new crisis that began in the mid-1960s (see stagflation), exacerbated by the oil crisis of 1973, caused a radical reorganization of the economy, based on the intense promotion of technological innovation (ICT), development policy reform (see Washington Consensus) and attempts to dismantle the welfare state, which came to be seen as —in the words of Margaret Thatcher— a "nanny state", stifling of freedoms and restricting the ability of individuals to choose. Since the 1970s and 1980s, various analysts and politicians found it necessary or convenient to carry out a strong critique, either from a pragmatic point of view or from a liberal point of view, of previous sociopolitical and economic forms, which they considered statistizing and consequently restrictive. both individual liberties and economic and social development, proposing new ways to create favorable ground for the revitalization of economies.

In the military dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile (in what was called an "experiment", see Milagro de Chile), followed by that of Thatcher (1979-1990) in Great Britain) and that of Reagan (1981-1989) in the US, etc. They partially implemented the economic policies of economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman respectively, which in fact resulted in the generation of new interrelationships between economic factors and markets around the world (consumers, work, natural resources, financial investments, etc.); however, both governments were strongly interventionist in other areas. From then on, other governments would apply measures combining some level of economic liberalism together with state technocracy, often in order to satisfy social sectors and pressure groups that reject the dismantling of the Welfare State with some degree of interventionism. All this phenomenon in public policies would be known, especially by its critics from post-Cold War socialism, under the polysemic term of "neoliberalism".

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, paving the way for the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the disappearance of the communist bloc. From that moment on, a new historical stage began: globalization. Given the events in July-September 1989, the American political economist Francis Fukuyama published an article entitled The End of History, he even said that «what we could be seeing is not only the end of the War Cold, or of a particular post-war period, but rather the end of history as such: that is, the end point of humanity's historical evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.". Later he would retract this statement.

During this period, the role of international organizations such as the WTO, OECD, IMF and WB stands out, which in recent decades have been portrayed as promoters of globalization, however, globalization being a civil and market process rather tends to to be seen as a spontaneous order independent of political organisms, being discussed whether the actions of supra-state organisms hinder rather than facilitate globalization. A private organization that meets annually to support the globalization process is the World Economic Forum.

Recent Milestones

The following are some points of the growing interdependence between the countries of the world. It is not a list that reflects everything that globalization is, but these events can be identified in the context of globalization.

• In November 1989 U.S. economist John Williamson included in a working paper a list of ten policies that he considered more or less accepted by Washington-based economic groups and titled it by Washington Consensus. for some people represent the key points of globalization, but both things are not the same.

• The establishment in 1995 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the crucial moments of globalization. Being composed of most countries of the world ' s population: intellectual property, business and capital regulation, subsidies, free trade and economic integration treaties, trade services regime (especially education and health), etc.

• Economic crisis: The speed and freedom reached by capitals to enter and leave countries and companies is associated with a series of local global impact eco-financial crises. The first of the series occurred in Mexico in 1994/1995 and its overall impact was known as Tequila effect. Subsequently the Asian crisis occurred in 1995/1997 (the Dragon effect), the Russian crisis in 1998 (the Vodka effect), the Brazilian crisis in 1998/1999 (the Samba effect) and the Argentine crisis in 2001/2002 (the Tango effect). The repeated economic crises have generated a broad discussion of the role played by the International Monetary Fund.

• Pinochet's arrest and creation of the International Criminal Court: In October 1998, the former Chilean addict, Augusto Pinochet, was arrested in London for torture and terrorism. On 24 March 1999, the Court of the Lords of the United Kingdom ruled that Pinochet could be extradited, although finally extradition was not completed due to the alleged dementia of the commander. The fact is highlighted as a turning point in the globalization of human rights.

• At the same time in 1998, the Rome Statute was signed by establishing the International Criminal Court, which entered into force on 1 July 2002 after reaching the necessary amount of ratifications. In 2003 the International Criminal Court was established. The main problem for its operation is the position of the United States, opposed to its jurisdiction.
  

  With a population of 1.4 billion, China is the second largest economy in the world.

• China's entry into the WTO: In 2001 (Doha Road) and after 15 years of hard negotiations, China entered the WTO. Thus the world's most populous country (22 per cent of humanity), the second world economy and the largest one in the last 30 years, was fully incorporated into the world market. The enormous shifts of capital and labour that is causing the Chinese economy, as well as the consequences for the world system that will have the link of a gigantic and powerful "socialist market" economy (see also market socialism) with the world capitalist system, are passionately discussed by scholars around the world. There is, however, a broad consensus that China, and its growing economic leadership in Asia, is driving a historic process that will be decisive in the course of the century.XXI and the orientation of global globalization.

• The attacks of 11 September 2001 against the World Trade Center (World Trade Center) in New York and the Pentagon, broadcast live and live by the global television networks to all of humanity, acquired a global significance. From that moment on, the fight against international terrorism and the defence of the national security of the United States will acquire a priority hierarchy on the global agenda, will propose the need to restrict human rights to ensure security, and will reinstate the value of the State.

• In the riots in France of 2005, in November, thousands of young French people, children of immigrants from North Africa, staged for two weeks a revolt that had its stamp on the burning of thousands of cars in Paris. In the region of Paris, more than half of the population under the age of 15 is from Africa, which has led to the culture of the area in less than one generation. The event surprised the world and put on the table the question of international migrations and social and territorial inequalities in globalization.

Economic globalization

Singapore is the country that ranks first in the 2016 Enabling Trade Index.

Political globalization

United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Political globalization refers to the growth of the world political system, both in size and complexity. That system includes national governments, their governmental and intergovernmental organizations, as well as elements of global civil society independent of government, such as international non-governmental organizations and social movement organizations. One of the key aspects of political globalization is the diminishing importance of the nation-state and the rise of other actors on the political scene. William R. Thompson has defined it as "the expansion of a global political system, and its institutions, in which interregional transactions (including, but certainly not limited to, trade) are managed". Political globalization it is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, the other two being economic globalization and cultural globalization.

Global governance is an approach to political science and public administration theory that originated from studies of European integration. Multilevel governance gives expression to the idea that there are many interacting authority structures at work in the emerging global political economy. It illuminates the intimate entanglement between the national and international levels of authority.

Some people are citizens of multiple nation-states. Dual citizenship, also called dual nationality or multiple nationality, is a person's citizenship status, in which a person is simultaneously considered a citizen of more than one state under the laws of those states.

Increasingly, non-governmental organizations are influencing public policy across national borders, including humanitarian aid and development efforts. Philanthropic organizations with global missions are also coming to the forefront of humanitarian efforts. The Hudson Institute estimates that total private philanthropic flows to developing countries amounted to $59 billion in 2010.

In response to globalization, some countries have adopted isolationist policies. For example, the North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they do. Aid workers are subjected to considerable scrutiny and excluded from places and regions the government does not want them to enter. Citizens cannot freely leave the country.

Cultural globalization

Detail of one of the terracotta Warriors exhibitions in the United States.

Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world in such a way that social relations are extended and intensified. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been disseminated over the Internet, popular cultural media and international travel. This has been in addition to the processes of commodity exchange and colonization that have a longer history of carrying cultural significance throughout the world. The circulation of cultures allows individuals to participate in extended social relationships that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not observed merely on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings a growing interconnection between different populations and cultures.

Intercultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate, in ways similar to and different from each other, and how they strive to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communication is a related field of study.

Cultural diffusion is the diffusion of cultural elements, such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages, etc. Cultural globalization has increased intercultural contacts, but it may be accompanied by a diminishing of the uniqueness of once isolated communities. For example, sushi is available in both Germany and Japan, but Euro-Disney outperforms the city of Paris, which could reduce demand for "authentic" French pastries. The contribution of globalization to the alienation of individuals from their traditions may be modest compared to the impact of modernity itself, as existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus allege. Globalization has expanded recreational opportunities through the spread of pop culture, especially through the Internet and satellite television. Cultural diffusion can create a homogenizing force, through the connection of markets, cultures, politics, and the desire for modernization through the sphere of influence of imperial countries.

Religions were among the first cultural elements to globalize, spreading by force, migration, evangelists, imperialists, and merchants. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and more recently Mormonism are among the religions that have taken root and influenced endemic cultures in places far from their origins.

McDonald's is commonly seen as a symbol of globalization, often called McDonaldization of global society.

Globalization has heavily influenced sport. For example, the modern Olympic Games have athletes from more than 200 nations participating in a variety of competitions. The FIFA World Cup is the most watched and followed sporting event in the world, surpassing even the Olympic Games; one ninth of the planet's total population watched the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final.

The term globalization implies transformation. Cultural practices, including traditional music, can be lost or become a fusion of traditions. Globalization can trigger a state of emergency for the preservation of musical heritage. Archivists may attempt to collect, record or transcribe repertoires before the tunes are assimilated or modified, while local musicians may strive for authenticity and preserve local musical traditions. Globalization can lead performers to discard traditional instruments. Fusion genres can become interesting fields of analysis.

Shakira, the multilingual Colombian singer-songwriter, playing outside his home country

Music plays an important role in economic and cultural development during globalization. Music genres like jazz and reggae started locally and later became international phenomena. Globalization supported the world music phenomenon by allowing music from developing countries to reach a wider audience. Although the term "World music" was originally intended for specific ethnic music, globalization is now expanding its scope such that the term often includes hybrid subgenres such as "world fusion", "global fusion", " 34;ethnic fusion", and worldbeat.

Some critics of globalization argue that it harms the diversity of cultures. As the culture of a dominant country is introduced into a host country through globalization, it can become a threat to the diversity of local culture. Some argue that globalization may ultimately lead to the Westernization or Americanization of culture, where the dominant cultural concepts of economically and politically powerful Western countries spread and cause damage to local cultures.

Globalization is a diverse phenomenon that relates to a multilateral political world and the growth of cultural goods and markets between countries. The Indian experience particularly reveals the plurality of the impact of cultural globalization.

Other dimensions

Scholars also occasionally discuss other less common dimensions of globalization, such as environmental globalization (the internationally coordinated practices and regulations, often in the form of international treaties, regarding environmental protection) or military globalization (the growing in extent and global scope of security relations).

Movement of people

Regular airline traffic in 2009.

An essential aspect of globalization is the movement of people, and state border lines on that movement have changed throughout history. The movement of tourists and businesspeople has opened up over the past century. As transportation technology improved, travel time and costs dropped dramatically between the 18th century and early 20th century. For example, traveling across the Atlantic Ocean used to take up to 5 weeks in the 18th century, but at the time of the XX only took 8 days. [110] Today, modern aviation has made long-distance transportation fast and affordable.

Developments in transportation technology and infrastructure, low-cost airlines, and more accessible airports, have made many types of tourism more affordable. At any given time, half a million people are airborne. International tourist arrivals surpassed the 1 billion worldwide tourist milestone for the first time in 2012.

Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not a native or do not hold citizenship to settle or reside there, especially as permanent residents or naturalized citizens, or to accept temporary employment as a foreign worker. According to the International Labor Organization, in 2014 there were an estimated 232 million international migrants in the world (defined as people away from their country of origin for 12 months or more) and approximately half of them were estimated to be economically active (i.e. employed or seeking employment).

Movement of information

The Internet has been instrumental in connecting people across geographic boundaries. Globalization can be spread through global journalism, which provides massive information and relies on the Internet to interact. It is possible to assume that global threats such as climate change precipitate the establishment of global journalism.

Arguments in favor of globalization

It is important to note that among supporters of economic and social development, there are currents with conflicting visions and radically different perceptions of the benefits of globalization; This is the case of libertarian liberalism and neoconservatism in politics, or the Austrian school and monetarism/neoclassical school in economic doctrine.

• The libertarian liberals and other supporters of capitalist laissez-faire say that the high levels of political and economic liberties, in the form of democracy and capitalism, have been valuable in themselves in the developed world and have produced high levels of material wealth. They see in globalization a beneficial process of extension of freedom and capitalism.

• Those who support free trade proclaim that the increase in both economic prosperity and opportunities, especially in developing countries, will increase civil liberties and lead to a more efficient resource allocation. The economic theories of comparative advantage suggest that the free market produces such effective resource allocation, to the greater benefit of all countries involved. In general, this leads to price reduction, more jobs, increased production and living standards especially for those living in developing countries. Moreover, direct investment of foreign capital to increase in many developing countries due to increased free trade, as was the case in Mexico from NAFTA.

• There are also the so-called "globalists" or "globalists", which propose a "democratic globalization". They believe that the first stage of globalization, market-oriented or economic affairs, should be followed by a stage of creating global political institutions that represent the visions or aspirations of the "global citizen". Their difference with other "globalists" is that they do not define in advance an ideology to guide this will, leaving it to the will of those citizens through a democratic process.

• Proponents of globalization argue that the anti-globalization movement is protectionist and uses punctual and anecdotal evidence to support its visions, while the statistical sources provide strong support for globalization.

• Although some discuss it, the inequality of global income seems to be declining, as economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin argued in 2007. Leaving aside who is right, it can be argued that more important is the measure of absolute poverty: if everyone lived in misery, income inequality would be very low.

• From 1981 to 2001, according to World Bank figures, the number of people living with a dollar or less income per day has declined in absolute terms from one thousand five hundred million to one hundred million. At the same time, the world's population increased. Thus, in percentage terms the number of such persons declined in developing countries from 40 per cent to 20 per cent of the population, with the greatest declines taking place in economies that have further reduced barriers to trade and investment. However, some critics caution that it would be desirable to use more detailed measures of poverty.

• The percentage of people living in less than two dollars per day has fallen much in areas affected by globalization, while poverty rates have remained stable in other areas. In East Asia, including China, this percentage has declined by 50.15 %, compared with an increase of 2.29 % in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Life expectancy has almost doubled in developing countries since World War II and is beginning to cut the gap between it and that of developed countries, where improvement has been lower. Even in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the less developed region, life expectancy has increased from less than 30 years before that war to about 50 years before the AIDS pandemic and others will begin to reduce it again to the present level of about 47 years. Infant mortality has decreased in all regions of the developing world.

• The presence of democracy has increased dramatically: from a position in which there were very few nations with universal suffrage in 1900 to be present in 62.5 % of all countries in 2000.

• Women's rights (see Feminism) have advanced. Even in areas such as Bangladesh they are gaining access to jobs that provide economic stability and independence.

• The proportion of the world ' s population living in countries where the provision of per capita food is less than 2200 calories or 9200 kilos per person per day decreased from 56 per cent in 1960 to less than 10 per cent in 1990. The average daily calories ingested at the Mudial level rises from 2,162 kilocalories in 1961 to 2,861 in 2018. There are currently 16 countries (Kenia, Rwanda, Liberia, Yemen, Haiti, Venezuela, Chad, Tajikistan, Mozambique, Afghanistan, North Korea, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar and the Central African Republic) where the average daily calories consumed are less than 2200.

• Between 1950 and 1990. the global literacy rate rises from 52 per cent to 81 per cent. Women have represented much of this growth: the female literacy rate, as a percentage of males, increased from 59 per cent in 1970 to 80 per cent in 2000.

• There are similar trends in access to electricity, cars, radios, telephones, etc. At the same time as a growing proportion of the population with access to safe drinking water.

• The percentage of minors in the labour force has dropped from 24 per cent in 1960 to 10 per cent in 2000.

• Indur M. Goklany, in his book The Improving State of the World It also finds evidence that these, and others, measures of human well-being are improving and that globalization is part of the explanation. It also seeks to respond to the argument that the Environmental Impact would limit that progress.

• Other authors, such as Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, simply see globalization as inevitable and argue in favour of creating institutions such as a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly elected to oversee and control the action of unelected international bodies and institutions.

• Although the critics of globalization complain that this implies a predominance of Western culture (or Westernization) a 2005 UNESCO report shows that cultural change is being made in both directions. In 2002, China was the third country in exports of cultural goods, behind the United Kingdom and the US. U.S. Between 1994 and 2002, the proportion of these exports from both North America and Europe declined, while Asia's exports grew to overtake the American.

Proponents of globalization strongly criticize some current policies in developed countries. In particular, agricultural subsidies and protective tariffs in those countries. For example, almost half of the budget of the European Union is used for agricultural subsidies, mostly to large companies and industrialized farms that constitute a powerful lobby. Japan, for its part, granted its agricultural sector 47 billion dollars in 2005. nearly four times the amount it gave in Official Development Assistance. The US gives $3.9 billion each year to its cotton farming sector, which includes 25,000 farmers, three times the budget Full USAID Fund for Africa's 500 Million People These policies drain taxpayer resources and increase prices to consumers in developed countries, decrease competition and efficiency, prevent exports from more efficient farmers and other sectors where developing countries and undermine industries in which developed countries have comparative advantages. Thus, trade barriers hinder economic growth not only for developing nations, which has a negative effect on general living standards.

Points to consider according to critics

• The widespread opening of goods and capital markets that suggests the end of trade blocs, regional treaties and economic independence of countries but at the same time facilitates the ability to resolve economic needs that local actors have been unable to meet.

• The growing privatization of public economic sectors such as health, education and public administrations (in addition to other public enterprises), by liberal government governments, together with the boom of the multinational company and the thinning of national enterprises and state.

• The promotion of competition as a universal economic value, which on the one hand increases the quantity and quality of products and on the other threatens working conditions such as wages and labour rights. This eternal competition among multinational companies favors the depredation of the environment in full global climate crisis.

• Access to the international markets of the oligarchic elites of countries rich in natural resources but industrially undeveloped leads to the abandonment of political attempts to promote progress and so-called social justice in those countries, as these elites allocate their production to a much more lucrative export, in the short term, than to establish an industrial fabric localizing their production.

• Within the new debate on multiculturalism: respectful cultural exchange versus Western cultural globalization that threatens the loss of the integrity of cultures (although there is no single definition for the word) or national identities of the rest of the world.

• Conflict between the conceptions of culture as "civilization" or 'high culture' versus the extension of the "culture of the common man" or popular culture.

• The possibility of the rebirth of regional or folkloric cultures and individual values versus the cultural homogenization resulting from the massification and internationalization of the media.

• The strengthening of a "human community" consciousness versus the acritical acquisition of cultural elements of dominant societies.

• Overvaluation of material and consumerism about social or moral and ethical. Promoting industrial technology above productive efficiency.

• The possible decay of nationalism against the reinforcement of internationalism.

• The conquest of the political system of defenseless countries at the hands of multinational companies that can even hire their own private army.

• The generalization of conventional democracy and the rule of law as predominant forms of government worldwide versus the resurgence of areas and periods of deep political instability due, on the one hand, to the loss of power by governments against external powers (producing so-called failed states) and, on the other, to the rejection of what is seen as Western conceptions of making politics, which generates scenarios of cultural confrontation.

• The gradual decline in migratory controls in developing countries that can lead to the loss of the most innovative sectors (see brain drain) or the 'invasion' of international business elites in poor countries. The increase in migratory restrictions in developed countries hosting migratory flows from south to north, leaving the planet in an ultra-developed hemisphere and in another intentionally poor and commercially profitable and subject.

• The search for a better economic and social order, through the use of nominative national currencies and with the traceability of payment chains, and through the use in the world economy of a true international currency not rigidly linked with national currency baskets (see Barcelona Consensus and Joan Bardina Studies Centre).
• The criticisms of globalization emerged from the citizens of most countries of the world, beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Nobel Prize in Economics Joseph E. Stiglitz proposes two alternatives to solution to globalization: to change the government of globalization and to transfer to poor countries the interventionism of the rich countries. On the other hand, there are many who think that globalization should be controlled, as the world would be dominated by multinational companies, so it is important to create a global government that is capable of creating a new and powerful UN that encourages and promotes dialogue or allows the alliance between civilizations. In terms of finance, Stiglitz again argues that international agencies, such as the IMF and the MB, have failed in that regard, so the solution is to correct their interventionism. In another order of ideas, in the case of international trade it is advisable to promote protectionism among countries with the creation of unions such as the case of the European Union or Mercosur. Finally, a solution for globalization is to weaken the economic and political intervention of rich countries towards underdeveloped countries.
• Roland Robertson asserts that globalization is culturally marked by glocalization processes, a term used to define the transformations by which local cultures adapt and redefine the products of global culture to suit their particular needs, beliefs and customs. Glocalization can be understood both in an economic and cultural sense. In economics, it is sought to insert local industries into global scenarios adapting them to the peculiarities of the environment; in cultural, it tries to mix local elements with the global ones, although this can generate a confrontation between those who are in favor and those who are against the integration of these practices. The adjective "glocal" has also been used to qualify cultural or social phenomena, such as migration or popularization of musical themes, which extend in wider regions than the country of origin without losing, to some extent, its national character.

Criticism

Criticism of the globalization process configures what is called the anti-globalization or alter-globalization movement and its media heads are generally located in a nationalist context, from the extreme left, from one of the new progressive social movements, from orthodox social democracy (the one that rejects the Third Way) or Third World populism (which may include anti-Western or anti-American components), likewise various conservative religious movements and the extreme right have positioned themselves against globalization. The majority of these critics have in common is that they equate globalization to imperialism and neocolonialism (see Dependency Theory), they all oppose what they have called market fundamentalism and accuse globalization of promoting a consumerist and postmaterialist lifestyle.

As a more generalized solution, all these ideological creeds point to the need for a strong and regulating State for society and propose the resurgence of developmentalism, dirigisme and protectionism in the economic policies of nations, at the same time that they claim to re-educate to society around values that counteract individualistic values and customs.

• A first criticism uses the views of the theorists of globalization itself. As has been seen, they are opposed to barriers and obstacles to the movement of both goods and people that governments claim to follow globalization policies impose on products and people in other countries. Equally questionable are the subsidies and other protectionist measures that these countries use. In that sense, it has been claimed that the institutions of the "Consensus" are at the service of their senior shareholders (i.e., the United States) and not of those who were created to benefit.

• Another criticism that can be argued is that if we accept the suggestion of the proponents of globalization that both democracy and capitalism were the sources of the economic prosperity of the developed countries, it follows that the role that the state played at the national level in the emergence of that prosperity needs to be replicated not only at the level of countries that are integrated into the system but also at the international level. Even some proponents of globalization recognize this (although it is argued that democracy itself does not promote economic growth, it should be considered that the origin of the present levels of Economic Development and Social Welfare in certain countries is due to political considerations that become urgent with the expansion and deepening of democracy—see "Origines and Evolution" in the welfare state— It may be suggested that while mere democracy does not produce prosperity, once both become present they create a positive feedback system.

• A third criticism, this time of opponents of the process, suggests that its proponents have and are, on the one hand, adopting the results of the actions of third parties and on the other, misinterpreting the facts — including distorting the basic statistical data — in order to spread their ideas:

• In addition, it can be mentioned that the decline in relative poverty rates in countries that apply IMF policies does not seem to be achieved through the decline in income distribution extremes, but due to the loss of income from wage classes in industrialized countries and the pauperization of middle classes, especially in developed countries and middle incomes, such as those in Latin America. The world-wide concentration of ownership continues and is accentuated, which should not be a surprise, as in the second half of the 1990s some students of development policies — for example, Michael P. Yet "Economic Development"—they warned that the presence of multinational companies in developing countries could result in the long-term impoverishment of those countries due to the displacement of local companies, the diversion of local resources to serve more profitable markets in other regions and the export of profits, etc.

• The policies of both the Washington Consensus and the rest of the proponents of globalization suggest that it would be possible to achieve levels of global economic prosperity similar to those seen in Europe or the United States. U.S. This presumption is questionable, especially from an ecological point of view (see: The Limits of Growth).

Recommended bibliography

• AGUILAR MONTEVERDEAlonso. Globalization and Capitalism. Mexico: Plaza & Janés, 2002, ISBN 978-968-11-0503-7.
• BAUMANZygmunt. Globalization: human consequences. Second edition in Spanish. Mexico: Fund for Economic Culture, 2002, ISBN 950-557-330-8.
• BRÜNNERJosé Joaquín. Cultural globalization and postmodernity. First reprint. Santiago de Chile: Fund for Economic Culture, 1998, ISBN.
• FERRER, Aldo. Acts and fictions of globalization, Fund for Economic Culture, Buenos Aires, 1997, ISBN 978-950-557-244-1.
• GHEMAWATPankaj, Redefining globalization: the importance of differences in a globalized world. Editions Deusto, Barcelona, 2008, ISBN 978-84-234-2606-5.
• GIDDENS, Anthony, Europe in the global era, Editions Paidós Ibérica, 2007, ISBN 978-84-493-2036-1
• GODIO, Julio. The world in which we live: an essay on the collapse of real socialism and the meaning of the self-revolution of capital, Editorial Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 2000, ISBN 978-950-05-1322-7.
• IANNIOctavian. Theory of Globalization. Mexico: 21st Century Editors, 1996, ISBN 978-968-23-2001-9.
• WOLFMartin. Why Globalization Works, Yale University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-300-10252-9.