The concept of globalization aims to define the reality of our planet as a connected whole, which is becoming more like a single society, beyond national borders, ethnic and religious differences, political ideologies and socio-economic or cultural conditions. This consists of the expansion of the economic, cultural and political dependence of the countries of the world, which is caused by the increase in international activity.
What is Globalization
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Globalization is a process of interaction and integration between people, companies and governments of different nations. It is a process based on trade and investment in the international arena, which is supported by information technologies. This process has effects on culture, environment, development, political systems, and economic prosperity, as well as the physical well-being of the human beings that make up societies across the planet.
It can be said that the definition of globalization is the union of countries for a common good, to achieve a change in the production and consumption of societies. Countries seek the well-being of citizens, as well as keeping up with new ways of life.
But really, what does globalization mean? At first, globalization was only considered in the field of economics. Due to the fact that trade and the capital market were increasing little by little, the economies of nations were increasingly intertwined and there was greater freedom of markets and product exchanges.
However, today globalization, in addition to focusing on the economy, also focuses on technological innovation, leisure and changes in justice. It is related to world trade in goods and services, the flow of capital, as well as the advancement of means of transport, and the use of new information and communication technologies (satellite technologies and especially the Internet).
Origin of Globalization
There are many theories about the origins of globalization, the Argentine economist and public accountant Aldo Ferrer has written, that globalization has its origins with the discovery of America in 1942, he explains that until that date the economy was focused only in few areas. When this new continent was discovered, trade managed to expand and new raw materials were added.
It is strange to observe that even at that time, there was a model that persists today, the countries with more economic power ended up imposing their culture as predominant, their ideas will be opened during the following centuries and the transit of goods will flow from one side to the other. of the Atlantic in an uneven way. Few things have changed in this sense in the 21st century.
Other analysts speak of globalization at the time the Internet was born, in 1969. From this date, the focus accelerates, communications from one end of the planet to the other are much easier, trade is even more internationalized (we can buy and sell anywhere in the world), cultural and ideological exchange is favored, social networks, digital newspapers, electronic commerce and a series of new tools appear.
First ideas of globalization in the world
The globalization process dates back to the second half of the 20th century, although there is an extensive literature that refers to its embryonic stage at the beginning of trade and international payment methods approached by the Greeks, going through the era of renaissance, when founded the mercantilist doctrine. Many researchers consider that the theory that initiated the regulation of international trade and that "opposes" the principles of globalization, by virtue of the establishment of entry barriers, is the basis on which international trade rests, which gave way to trade integration.
The blocks, which later configured the elimination of economic barriers and the mobility of productive factors in the world, as an evolved phase of international trade, to observe the globalization that now invades the world.
Countries that started the globalization movement
Historically, it can be said that the first countries to initiate the globalization process were the colonial powers of Spain and Portugal, who from the 15th and 17th centuries started their first businesses, these countries were joined by Holland, England and France. These countries during that time intensified their trade of raw materials throughout Europe, this whole process allowed the connection of regions that were previously isolated, starting globalization.
Characteristics of globalization
Globalization has become a consequence of capitalism in the quest to expand international trade, consumption and production. In addition to this, technological development and the internet are key to globalization.
Its main characteristics are:
1. Industrialization: Thanks to globalization, the industrial sector of economically strong countries is constantly developing and thus favors Latin American and Asian countries that have not yet achieved it. Because it has generated greater international economic integrity and job creation.
2. Free trade: With the growth of globalization and the emergence of free trade agreements for goods and services between countries regardless of whether they are from the same continent, whose objective is to expand markets and the growth of the economy and productivity.
3. World financial system: This was internationalized and world capital markets originated. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have the greatest responsibility for decision-making and financial policy making.
4. Connectivity and telecommunications: The development of technological communications and the internet are very important pieces to achieve globalization. That is, citizens, businessmen, politicians, and many more, are in a constant search for fast and borderless communications, in order to exchange knowledge and share information, culture and technology between different countries and regions.
5. Economic globalization: This refers to the expansion of different economic activities, which has generated an accelerated exchange of goods, services and merchandise at the national and international level. Due to this, a variety of market regulations have been created in order to analyze the economic activities of the world or of a particular country.
6. Migratory movement: This movement was driven by globalization, millions of people migrate from their countries of origin in search of better jobs and quality of life. Large multinational corporations and companies began expanding their facilities worldwide, thus generating new jobs and the transit of people between countries, according to their training, knowledge and the disposition of the person.
7. New world order: After the globalization process, a new world order, new treaties, new policies and commercial, technological, cultural and economic connections are proposed, with the purpose of determining international control. An example of this is, politically, the establishment of regulations to define an order, freedoms and rights to trade. In the economic sphere, new markets were opened with free trade with the purpose of economies between nations and in cultural globalization, exchange of customs, traditions and values is carried out.
The good and the bad of globalization
As stated previously, globalization is a process of global convergence that encompasses various factors and therefore presents good and bad points that will be developed below.
Good aspects of globalization
The extent of communication
One of the great achievements of globalization is the advancement in communication technologies. The start-up and consolidation of social networks and the possibility of contacting a person anywhere in the world in real time have been key points. Likewise, companies manage to carry out all their processes in a streamlined way to increase their sales, in the case of students and researchers they can communicate directly and access new knowledge.
Disappearance of economic borders
One of the positive points for the global economy is the freedom of movement of capital and goods between nations. The fact that the same product with the same manufacturing characteristics can be consumed in different countries is one of the symbols of commercial globalization.
Cultural exchange
Communication allows cultural exchange. This shared knowledge enriches everyone, both in the field of ideas and in the economic sphere. In the history of mankind, there has never been a greater transfer of cultural values than today.
Language exchange
The cultural absorption that favors social networks is one of the factors that helps in linguistic exchange around the world. On the other hand, the appearance of online platforms that transmit television series, becoming a phenomenon of global cultures. Video games, cinema and music are even more global since thanks to them, English has become the most widely used French language in recent decades, while noting that Spanish has been gaining ground.
Extension of human rights
The dissemination of the values and rights established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (UN) has not stopped growing. Signed in 1948, this declaration was completed with agreements and protocols up to the International Bill of Human Rights. Globalization works here in two main ways: as a disseminator of these rights and as an instrument of control against their violations.
Bad aspects of globalization
Foreign interventionism
Some believe that one of the negative points of globalization is a certain decrease in national sovereignty. This is because the countries are so interrelated socially, economically, politically and culturally that any deviation from the general guidelines is viewed with suspicion. Interventionism is a characteristic feature of the new times. It can be said that the fact that the international community makes a country respect the human rights of its citizens is a positive aspect, but if one group of countries forces another to adopt economic policies that go against the well-being of the majority of the its citizens, it would become a negative thing for its population.
Loss of national identity
There are also those who see in globalization the danger of losing national identity, since societies are increasingly similar to each other, with the same cultural tastes, fashions, etc. It may be necessary to debate whether these national identities are static or have always evolved. In this second case, the problem would be more in the uniformity than in the transformation. Rather than change, what is worrying is that this change will bring all countries to the same place, to the same lifestyle.
Increase in unemployment in developed countries
One of the most negative aspects analyzed by experts in regard to economic globalization is the flight of national companies to foreign countries where production costs are lower. As a result of this relocation, there have been two negative consequences, one is that jobs disappear, increasing unemployment in developed countries and the second, the precarious employment situation and the loss of rights that were part of the so-called state. of well-being.
Concentration of capital in large multinationals
By increasing their profits and their possibilities to compete, large multinational companies are the favored and winners of this model of economic globalization, but small national companies and self-employed professionals have seen their income decrease. For their part, workers have lost purchasing power. In a global perspective, it can be seen how the concentration of capital in a few hands also impoverishes countries. Many nations have a lower gross domestic product than the turnover of large companies, which puts their states in an inferior position.
The connection of worlds and cultures under the haunting eye of the market
Latin America has undergone a modern transformation process from the 1980s to the present, with the application of market laws in all environments of life. There have also been very profound changes in the political, economic, agricultural, social, technological, legal, mental, etc. structures of the region. These changes have generated transformations in the systems of life, education, work, organization, production, competition, etc., in most of the Latin American continent.
But these statements have not only impacted the economic and political base of Latin American societies, but above all, they have had a strong impact on the cultural, informational and spiritual structures of the region. Given the overwhelming historical reality, the problem is no longer asking whether or not Latin America accepts the cultural and informational globalization that was imposed and that crossed the world at the end of the 20th century; However, it is now recognized that for better or for worse, to begin the new millennium, communicative globalization is an irresistible fact in which they are already incorporated as communities and of which it is not possible to get rid.
Analyzing this reality, it can be said that the application of the market rules of culture and collective information in Latin America, especially in electronic media, has led to the most important structural transformations of society.
The erroneous conceptualization of the border. Xenophobia and Racism
The borders that are known today respond to the transition from the absolutist state to the nation-state, although this transition took several more decades in some western European countries, such as Germany, where at the end of the 19th century it became a state under the empire German, specifically between the years 1871-1918.
After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, borders in most of the western world began to be seen as strategic, diplomatic and political delimitation lines.
In the American continent, specifically in the northern part, there are several processes of territorial reorganization that respond to the expansionist policy of the United States. In the 19th century, for example, the United States government bought or exchanged territories with the European colonial empires (English, Spanish, French) and with its southern neighbors, Mexico. Specific treaties are signed that allude to the current geopolitical conformation of North America, such as the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo or the Treaty of La Mesilla.
In post-revolutionary Mexico, beginning in the 1920s, laws began to express, explicitly, the idea of racial restriction. Even the explanatory memorandum of the 1926 law specified that, "the danger of physical degeneration for our race, required the possibility of selecting immigrants."
Starting in 1923 and especially in 1924, the moment of the beginning of restrictive US immigration policies, some groups of immigrants knocked on the doors of Mexico.
Although President Calle (1924-1928) declared that the policy of opening would be extended to “all immigration to men of good will and who somehow contributed to the country a contingent full of intelligence, effort and capital, in the same way, refers to the need to exclude those who could become a burden to society or a threat to customs, or who are simply unadaptable to the environment, that is, to a mestizo Mexicanness threatened by immigrants unfit to assimilate to the national type.
Technological advancement in transportation, whether by land, sea or air, has allowed more people to travel from one end of the world map to the other, as it is now more economical and feasible. Through the media one can find out about the changes and scenarios that are happening on another side of the world, communicate with people from different countries, among others. It can be said that new technologies show greater speed of movement, greater acceleration of information, introducing synergies that enhance the globalization process.
It should be noted that many people and organizations doubt the achievement and benefits of globalization. These tend to demonstrate and request that low-income countries can achieve economic development different from that promoted by large international organizations.
When speaking of globalization in Mexico, it should be stated that it has been a pioneer among emerging markets, in addition to being a factor of world stability in recent decades. It has acted in the elimination of geographical and ideological barriers and contributes to the exchange of goods and services, as well as people, ideas, information and capital, through globalization they have defeated, since the culmination of the Second World War, the conflicts in large proportion.
In addition to this, it has contributed to the increase in global per capita GDP (macroeconomic productivity income) and has reduced poverty.
