Topic > Globalization as an economic, political and cultural process

“Globalization is a process in which the world seems to converge economically, politically and culturally” (Needle, 2015). Nowadays, financial markets, industry and politics are all internationalised. The occurrence of this has increased the transfer of wealth between countries; it has increased communication around the world, a greater importance of trade in the economy, and an increase in international trade policies. Globalization has had detrimental effects on the economy and created many challenges across the world. Globalization is divided into six main aspects; first and foremost there is international trade and the creation of the global market. Globalization can be seen as an increase in the amount of international trade. There are globally organized production and investment flows, migrations, communication flows, cultural flows, and rapid technological changes throughout the world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Globalization integrates markets into the world economy, leading to the union of national economies. Markets, in which globalization is particularly common, include financial markets, insurance markets, and product markets, such as electronics, motor vehicle, and agricultural markets. The globalization of sports and entertainment is also a feature of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Globalization has extended beyond its economic roots and extended to human rights, the environment and even national security. While these new initiatives don't look similar to what we're used to seeing, the difference is that today's arrangements come with their own governance structures. This has led to a surprising shift in political prerogatives from individual nation-states to a series of new higher-level political institutions. This is cause for celebration: the idea that political institutions have come together to grow in size, importance, and audacity is the conventional wisdom of today. There are three main competing views on globalization, each discussing different positive and negative impacts associated with globalization. The three different perspectives are the neoclassical perspective, the Marxist/socialist perspective, and the structuralist view. Neoclassical/Neoliberal Views The first competing view is the neoclassical/neoliberal perspective, this view holds that overall history and the current economy have come together to form a new relationship in which nations come together both economically and politically. It is essential for countries to collectively unite in both these aspects to succeed in the globalized world. The neoclassical competitive view shows that the world economy is controlled more by the existing market. This shows that if trade were so essential to the expansion of markets, thus allowing for increased productivity, it would be very easy to show how trade around the world would be so beneficial (Adam Smith, 1790). First, it provides an amount of financing that helps increase the amount of money available for domestic trade. Furthermore, it allows for greater market development around the world. An example of this would be two countries selling two pairs of goods: if one country has an “absolute advantage” in producing one set of goods and the other country has an absolute advantage in producing its own set of goods, each of them would specialize in their own country to sell the goods they own. The advantage of this is that both countries will benefit mainly aprovided that trade is fair. Additionally, trade and economic success allow many types of countries to develop and profit from a huge economic shift in foreign markets in order to acquire cheaper resources/materials. However, this could be a potential problem for countries that are significantly better at manufacturing and more advanced countries would benefit, while not as developed countries would not, simply due to the lack of growth and development and therefore making it more difficult trade. David Ricardo refined Adam Smith's theory by arguing that between two countries, if one country was better than the other in production, then that country will be known for that particular product. For example, David Ricardo uses trade between two countries, England and Portugal, to explain how it helps Portugal import fabrics even though Portugal can produce fabrics with less labor than England. Current economists believe that England has a comparative advantage in the production of textiles. Ricardo states: "To produce wine in Portugal, they must have 80 men per year, and to produce cloth in the same country, they must also need 90 men per year. So it would be advantageous for them to export wine in exchange for cloth" (David Ricardo, n.d.) Due to increasing globalization alongside the increase in accessible/usable technology and the convenience of improved transportation, technology has made it easier for people to communicate across borders and has also led to a decline in cost of transportation. It is now cheaper and more efficient to transport goods from one place to another. Globalized transport increased profitability and so during the major growth phases of globalization between 1970 and 1993 transport growth increased by almost fifty percent across Europe. A major change in transportation costs allowed businesses to capture greater profits. This comes from changing ideas within the company by moving where products are created (Heshmati, 2003). Additionally, companies can now transfer files over the Internet, which allows meetings to be held without all members being physically present. This has led to reduced long-distance communication costs and exchanging information is drastically easier than ever. International businesses can now communicate with others through the use of email, conference calls and video conferencing. The increase in the development of telecommunications has to do with a cause-effect relationship between technological development and the deregulation of financial market policies. (Czaputowicz, 2007). Socialist/Marxist Viewpoints The second competing viewpoint is the socialist/Marxist perspective. They argue that globalization has led to an increase in inequalities between countries/nations. Marx has many contradictory views on how unequal nations currently are and how important the role of globalization is in inequalities. First, Marx agreed with Smith that capitalism led to unprecedented growth, but he also pointed out that there was a huge flaw. He believed that the social system of capitalism was very unjust, he believed that owners of capital were able to take advantage of some access to resources, and that some political powers were in the hands of a few people. Richer nations continue to increase their wealth status while poorer nations/countries continue to remain poor. It has been found that the richest 20% of the world's population controls 86% of the world's gross domestic product, as well as 82% of world exports. Compared to the poorest 20% of the population..