The Globalization Syndrome

The Globalization Syndrome
Author: James H. Mittelman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2000-02-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400823692

Here James Mittelman explains the systemic dynamics and myriad consequences of globalization, focusing on the interplay between globalizing market forces, in some instances guided by the state, and the needs of society. Mittelman finds that globalization is hardly a unified phenomenon but rather a syndrome of processes and activities: a set of ideas and a policy framework. More specifically, globalization is propelled by a changing division of labor and power, manifested in a new regionalism, and challenged by fledgling resistance movements. The author argues that a more complete understanding of globalization requires an appreciation of its cultural dimensions. From this perspective, he considers the voices of those affected by this trend, including those who resist it and particularly those who are hurt by it. The Globalization Syndrome is among the first books to present a holistic and multilevel analysis of globalization, connecting the economic to the political and cultural, joining agents and multiple structures, and interrelating different local, regional, and global arenas. Mittelman's findings are drawn mainly from the non-Western worlds. He provides a cross-regional analysis of Eastern Asia, an epicenter of globalization, and Southern Africa, a key node in the most marginalized continent. The evidence shows that while offering many benefits to some, globalization has become an uneasy correlation of deep tensions, giving rise to a range of alternative scenarios.

Global Slump

Global Slump
Author: David McNally
Publisher: PM Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2010-12-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1604860650

Global Slump analyzes the global financial meltdown as the first systemic crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism. It argues that—far from having ended—the crisis has ushered in a whole period of worldwide economic and political turbulence. In developing an account of the crisis as rooted in fundamental features of capitalism, Global Slump challenges the view that its source lies in financial deregulation. The book locates the recent meltdown in the intense economic restructuring that marked the recessions of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Through this lens, it highlights the emergence of new patterns of world inequality and new centers of accumulation, particularly in East Asia, and the profound economic instabilities these produced. Global Slump offers an original account of the “financialization” of the world economy during this period, and explores the intricate connections between international financial markets and new forms of debt and dispossession, particularly in the Global South. Analyzing the massive intervention of the world’s central banks to stave off another Great Depression, Global Slump shows that, while averting a complete meltdown, this intervention also laid the basis for recurring crises for poor and working class people: job loss, increased poverty and inequality, and deep cuts to social programs. The book takes a global view of these processes, exposing the damage inflicted on countries in the Global South, as well as the intensification of racism and attacks on migrant workers. At the same time, Global Slump also traces new patterns of social and political resistance—from housing activism and education struggles, to mass strikes and protests in Martinique, Guadeloupe, France and Puerto Rico—as indicators of the potential for building anti-capitalist opposition to the damage that neoliberal capitalism is inflicting on the lives of millions.

Capitalist Globalization

Capitalist Globalization
Author: Martin Hart-Landsberg
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2013-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1583673539

“Globalization,” surely one of the most used and abused buzzwords of recent decades, describes a phenomenon that is typically considered to be a neutral and inevitable expansion of market forces across the planet. Nearly all economists, politicians, business leaders, and mainstream journalists view globalization as the natural result of economic development, and a beneficial one at that. But, as noted economist Martin Hart-Landsberg argues, this perception does not match the reality of globalization. The rise of transnational corporations and their global production chains was the result of intentional and political acts, decisions made at the highest levels of power. Their aim – to increase profits by seeking the cheapest sources of labor and raw materials – was facilitated through policy-making at the national and international levels, and was largely successful. But workers in every nation have paid the costs, in the form of increased inequality and poverty, the destruction of social welfare provisions and labor unions, and an erratic global economy prone to bubbles, busts, and crises. This book examines the historical record of globalization and restores agency to the capitalists, policy-makers, and politicians who worked to craft a regime of world-wide exploitation. It demolishes their neoliberal ideology – already on shaky ground after the 2008 financial crisis – and picks apart the record of trade agreements like NAFTA and institutions like the WTO. But, crucially, Hart- Landsberg also discusses alternatives to capitalist globalization, looking to examples such as South America’s Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) for clues on how to build an international economy based on solidarity, social development, and shared prosperity.

Globalization from Below

Globalization from Below
Author: Jeremy Brecher
Publisher: South End Press
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780896086227

Brecher, Costello, and Smith chart out a dynamic and innovative strategy for building the movement to challenge unchecked coporate globalization.

The Economic and Political Dangers of Globalization

The Economic and Political Dangers of Globalization
Author: Dipak Basu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 303079895X

This book explores the economic and political impact of US aggression and the rise of China. Charting the impact of globalization from the Greek and Roman Empires onwards, the contemporary challenges posed by globalization is analysed in relation to both multinational companies and Wall Street banks. The influence of the World Trade Organization is investigated, with a particular focus on how it has created a Washington consensus throughout the world. This book aims to provide a non-Western perspective on global capitalism and the dangers it creates. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in political economy, economic history, and development economics.

Constitutionalizing Economic Globalization

Constitutionalizing Economic Globalization
Author: David Schneiderman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2008-03-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1139470094

Are foreign investors the privileged citizens of a new constitutional order that guarantees rates of return on investment interests? Schneiderman explores the linkages between a new investment rules regime and state constitutions – between a constitution-like regime for the protection of foreign investment and the constitutional projects of national states. The investment rules regime, as in classical accounts of constitutionalism, considers democratically authorized state action as inherently suspect. Despite the myriad purposes served by constitutionalism, the investment rules regime aims solely to enforce limits, both inside and outside of national constitutional systems, beyond which citizen-driven politics will be disabled. Drawing on contemporary and historical case studies, the author argues that any transnational regime should encourage innovation, experimentation, and the capacity to imagine alternative futures for managing the relationship between politics and markets. These objectives have been best accomplished via democratic institutions operating at national, sub-national, and local levels.

Resisting Protectionism

Resisting Protectionism
Author: Helen V. Milner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 1988
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0691010749

Milner explores the similarities between the economic conditions of the 1920s and the 1970s, where both Western Europe and the U.S. had high unemploymnet rates and sizeable agricultural and industrial overcapacity. She draws on evidence from six U.S. industries in the 1920s, six U.S. firms in the 1970s, and six French industries in the 1970s, and concludes that in the 1970s both nations had corporations with international market interests than they had in the 1920s. She believes that in modern industrial nations, the corporate sector plays an important role in policy determination, and that any move toward protectionism would be at the behest of large corporations with international interests. ISBN 0-691-05670-6: $29.50.

Confronting Globalization

Confronting Globalization
Author: Timothy A. Wise
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2003
Genre: Free trade
ISBN: 9781565491632

* Illustrates how Mexican communities cope with NAFTA’s effects * Written by a team of US and Mexican collaborators * Shows importance of trade regulations on poor communities worldwide How is the current model for economic globalization affecting both the poor and the environment? Confronting Globalization extends a sweeping treatment of contemporary Mexican politics as they investigate the country’s tumultuous experience under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The contributors relate globalization’s untold stories: its social and environmental costs, and the grassroots quest for alternative paths. They reveal to us how vulnerable people in rural communities are choosing to defend themselves and promote their own homegrown alternatives in the face of adversity.

Resisting Economic Globalization

Resisting Economic Globalization
Author: D. Schneiderman
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2013-05-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1137004061

There is at present much disenchantment with the rules governing international investment. Conceived as a set of disciplines establishing thresholds of tolerable state behaviour, dissatisfaction has precipitated acts of resistance in various parts of the world. Resisting Economic Globalization explores the magnitude of the legal constraints imposed by these rules and institutions associated with the worldwide spread of neoliberalism. Much contemporary theorizing has given up on national states as a locus for countering the harmful effects of economic globalization. Though states provide critical supports to the construction and ongoing maintenance of transnational legal constraints, David Schneiderman argues that states remain crucial sites for resisting, even rolling back, investment law disciplines. Structured as a series of encounters with selected critical theorists, the book contrasts theoretical diagnoses with recent episodes of resistance impeding investment law edicts. This novel approach tests contemporary hypotheses offered by leading political and legal theorists about the nature of power and the role of states and social movements in facilitating and undoing neoliberalism's legal edifices. As a consequence, the foundations of transnational legality become more apparent and the mechanisms for change more transparent.

Globalization and Its Discontents

Globalization and Its Discontents
Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2003-04-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0393071073

This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. When it was first published, this national bestseller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank. Particularly concerned with the plight of the developing nations, he became increasingly disillusioned as he saw the International Monetary Fund and other major institutions put the interests of Wall Street and the financial community ahead of the poorer nations. Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come. Rarely do we get such an insider's analysis of the major institutions of globalization as in this penetrating book. With a new foreword for this paperback edition.