What is globalization?

1. Globalization is a new phenomenon that has been gaining prominence in the world since the 1980s, and it is a fundamental feature of the present era.

There is no uniform definition of globalization. Generally speaking, from the point of view of material form, globalization refers to the transboundary flow of goods and capital, which has gone through the stages of transnationalization, local internationalization and globalization. The transnational flow of goods and capital is the initial form of globalization. In this process, there are corresponding regional and international economic management organizations and economic entities, as well as transnational exchanges, collisions, conflicts and integration of culture, life style, values, ideology and other spiritual forces.

On the whole, globalization is a multifaceted concept with economic globalization at its core, encompassing the interconnections, influences and constraints among countries, nations and regions at multiple levels and in multiple fields, such as politics, culture, science and technology, military affairs, security, ideology, lifestyles and values, etc. "Globalization" can be defined as the process by which all countries, nations, regions, and peoples are linked to each other in the world. "Globalization" can be summarized as the globalization of science and technology, economy, politics, rule of law, management, organization, culture, ideology, interpersonal communication and international relations.

2. Globalization is a provocative word. Advocates envision that it will bring unprecedented progress and prosperity to the entire world; critics assert that it will bring poverty, war and even cultural genocide to developing countries. What is globalization? Are we really experiencing unprecedented globalization? What has globalization brought us in the past?

What is globalization?

Globalization is the process by which the flow of material and spiritual goods breaks through regional and national boundaries to affect life in every corner of the planet. Globalization also includes the movement of people across borders. Human mobility is the highest degree of integration of material and spiritual mobility.

Technological progress is the driving force behind all social change, and advances in transportation and communication technology are the backbone of globalization. Advances in transportation facilitate the globalization of people and material goods, while advances in communications facilitate the globalization of spiritual goods. Of course, the roles of the two types of technology are often inseparable. The Internet mobilizes capital, and ships spread the spirit.

Technological progress aside, globalization is the globalization of capital, and the globalization of the "ism" of capital, that is, the globalization of the primacy of profit - a nature of globalization that Marx discussed 150 years ago. Except in times of war, capital is in a frenzied pursuit of profit on a global scale, 24 hours a day, and it never tires. So globalization so far has manifested itself in the expansion of the market economic system throughout the world. All other aspects of globalization, including the internationalized ****productivist movement, are derived from the globalization of capital. If the expansion of the world market is inevitable, so is globalization. Since globalization affects life in every corner of the planet, people certainly want to have their own distinct positions. The complexity of the issue of globalization lies in the fact that different things can produce different results in different spaces and at different times. There are an infinite number of variables in these four categories. Since people can't predict all the variables, they have to rely on ideology to determine their positions.

For many supporters, globalization is an ideology based on the ideal of a common world. To support globalization is to respect the "law of the market" and to follow the trend of history. For many opponents, anti-globalization is an ideology based on the ideal of a world of equality. Anti-globalization means opposing the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, and opposing hegemony. Ideological tendency is human nature and an important driving force for human progress. However, the author does not want to talk about ideology here, but only wants to discuss the matter.

We are experiencing unprecedented globalization?

Is globalization in the era of the "Sunset" empire inferior to that of the United States of America? If McDonald's and KFC represent globalization, Chinese restaurants have been around the world since the last century, and their popularity today is far greater than that of American fast food. I suspect that today's globalization has been exaggerated by the rapidly expanding "press".

The current globalization is largely the result of rapid advances in communications technology, not transportation technology. From the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, there was a qualitative leap in transportation technology, represented by ships, railroads, automobiles and airplanes, and the international exchange of people and goods increased geometrically. Immigration was easy, entry was not strictly regulated, and passports were optional. The Americas began to be filled with immigrants in that era, and it was then that the Chinese began to change to Western-style clothing, Western-style ink and pen, carrying foreign guns, living in foreign houses, using foreign fires, using foreign nails, as well as going to the South Seas, breaking into the West Seas, and going to the East Seas.

Even with the flow of capital, I'm afraid the old days may not have been far behind. 100 years ago there were a lot of Chinese people depositing, withdrawing and borrowing money in banks run by foreigners. Currency was freely convertible then. Capital export was seen by Lenin as one of the main features of traditional imperialism. Today's globalization is said to be reflected in "financial capital" flows on an astonishing scale. Every day, more than $1 trillion is gambled and speculated on the world's financial markets, and the annual global "hot money" amounts to $400 trillion. But what can that mean? Today's international trade volume is only 8 trillion dollars. How can international financial gambling affect life in every corner of the world? Capital is one of the three elements of the economy, and its fundamental significance is to promote the efficiency of the combination of labor and means of production. But how much efficiency does the "capital" used for international gambling promote? The backbone of globalization is industrial and commercial capital, not "gambling capital".

The use of electricity, the rise of radio, the telephone, the popularization of the press, and later the age of television were not necessarily less significant advances in any of these communications technologies than the Internet. Thus, the globalization of spiritual products in the past was no less significant than today, and the diversification of spiritual products was no less significant than today. Otherwise, how did the ideas of democracy, the ideas of the ****-producers, and even other ideologies of various kinds spread throughout the world in the 19th and 20th centuries? In addition to huge amounts of "financial capital", today's globalization is said to be reflected in the flourishing popularity of the Internet. The Internet has made the transfer of information fast and easy. But having information is obviously not the same thing as having knowledge, and an increase in the amount of information does not necessarily increase the diversity of ideas. The concepts of Americans today are no more pluralistic than they were during the Vietnam War, nor are they more pluralistic than they were in India. The concepts of the Chinese intelligentsia today are not even necessarily more pluralistic than they were in the Warring States period 2,300 years ago. Was not Peking University in the 1920s much more diversified in terms of ideas than today's universities? Chinese people are certainly more diverse in their ideas now than they were 20 years ago, but that's not a result of the Internet.

The two world wars plus the Cold War, which stretched over 80 years, cut off the world's globalization process, making the international exchanges that began to resume after the Cold War seem sudden and novel. I am not a historian, but I would not be surprised if some historian told me that in the last century and the early years of the last century, there was a higher degree of international exchange of people, materials, capital and spirit than there is today.

Of course, I am not saying that the globalization of the future will not exceed the globalization of the past.

What does globalization bring?

Whether or not we are in the midst of an unprecedented process of globalization, past experiences are instructive. The historical experience of globalization can be divided into four broad categories: moral issues; issues of gain; issues of convergence and divergence; and issues of internationalism and nationalism. The following four characteristics of globalization correspond to these four issues.

1. Globalization that lacks the morality of the rule of law. Marketization within any country matures as the rule of law matures. International marketization, however, does not take place under the rule of law and cannot "mature". As long as there is no world government, the so-called rule of law in international markets is simply not possible. When the legislature, the judiciary and the executive are all under one roof, only idealists can hope for fairness, and only those who are best able to profit from unfairness can talk about how fair the international order is. Without a global government governed by the rule of law, so-called "global governance" cannot be the governance of international justice.

2. Globalization without the ability to predict national gains and losses. It is very difficult to talk abstractly about the conditions under which one gains or loses from globalization. Strong countries, weak countries, large countries, and small countries can all gain or lose. Traditionally, China was defeated by globalization, but it also rose from globalization at a rapid pace. The British Empire rose from globalization and fell from globalization. The United States, although it has been the biggest beneficiary of globalization, is now showing a tendency to be lukewarm to globalization, because the United States is beginning to feel the cost.

3. Globalization that stimulates the pursuit of differences. The "convergence" caused by globalization is shallow, but the "pursuit of difference" caused by globalization is profound. The pursuit of difference is the most profound characteristic of the age of globalization. The capital of globalization is inhumane; it brings about radical social changes, stimulates the rise of various ideologies, and is inevitably accompanied by fierce conflicts between social groups, ideologies and even nation-states. In the past, globalization brought prosperity and progress, but also revolution, civil war and "world war".

4. Promote the globalization of nationalism and national boundaries. There is no doubt that internationalism in all its forms and manifestations has arisen from globalization in recent times. But globalization has brought with it stronger nationalism, passports and customs, barriers to human interaction, "inviolable" national boundaries, more sophisticated weapons and stronger national defense. In the past, globalization was not won by internationalism, but by nationalism, especially nationalism. Today, we are witnessing the rise of a "United States of Europe" doctrine, the use of European currencies, the consolidation of European borders, the establishment of European customs, and the unification of European defenses. What is the stimulus for this new "Western European nationalism"? Which of the United States, which of Japan, which of Western Europe ...... is still talking about internationalism? Who can say that globalization eliminates national borders when the battlefield for the security of borders has been extended to outer space? Once upon a time, the Olympics and the World Cup, which were set up for universal joy, actually became national gladiatorial arenas, and the competition between nations even became the capital of competition within nation-states.

Conclusion

For the sake of "economic efficiency," people have moved from the vast, scattered, self-sufficient countryside into the cities. They lived in close proximity to each other and depended on each other, but they could only survive by competing with each other, competing with each other, competing with each other, competing with each other, competing with each other. People in the city do not look different, but everyone from the bones in the pursuit of difference. Only different to survive in the competition to stand out. The cruel market competition makes more and more "villagers" gradually become people who lack moral sense and lose the concept of justice, and they worship all the "civilization" brought by capital, or they simply worship capital itself. People naturally forget that the lives of the Afghan poor are equal to those in the World Trade Center. They will burn candles for the more than 2,000 "civilized" lives in New York, but they will never think of burning incense for the more than 4,000 "barbaric" martyrs in Afghanistan. Humanity can openly claim that selfishness and predation of the weak are in its nature and lead to "the greatest happiness for the greatest number". Such human beings have no choice but to replace the fence separating families with security gates made of steel, and to replace the elders mediating neighborhood disputes with police officers armed to the teeth. As the poor, sprawling global village became the prosperous, tiny global city, their respective "national interests" rightly became the supreme rule of international relations, and force naturally became the prerequisite for security and order

When internationalization began to tend to refer to such a process, today's globalization is used to distinguish between a series of trends, many of which became particularly pronounced after World War II, and which have become more pronounced since then. many of which became particularly prominent after World War II. They include:

growth in the number of common standards worldwide, e.g., copyright law

increase in international trade at a faster rate than the growth of the world economy

increase in the number of shares in the world economy controlled by multinational corporations

development of the global financial system

more international cultural influences, e.g., through the Hollywood export of films

decrease in cultural diversity

growth of international tourism

growth of information resources available through technologies such as the Internet and the telephone

growth of immigration, including illegal immigration

Many of these trends are viewed positively by a wide variety of globalization-supporting organizations, and in many cases, globalization is actively promoted by governments and others. Globalization is actively promoted by governments and others. For example, there is the economic theory that comparative advantage makes free trade a more efficient allocation of resources and is beneficial to both parties involved in the trade.

The barriers to international trade have been considerably reduced since World War II through many international organizations such as GATT. In particular, the World Trade Organization (WTO), which evolved from GATT:

Enhancement of free trade

Commodities: reduction or elimination of tariffs; establishment of free trade zones to reduce tariffs

Financing: reduction or elimination of financial controls (which can affect the development of trade)

Reduction or elimination of subsidies to local industries (to achieve fair trade)

Intellectual property protection

International organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, have led to a considerable reduction in barriers to international trade since World War II. >

Intellectual property protection

Harmonization of intellectual property laws between countries (typically, adding more restrictions)

Recognition of intellectual property restrictions across national borders (e.g., patents granted in China can be recognized in the U.S.)

There is also a lot of anti-globalization movement awareness that these are harmful.

Globalization in Question

There is still an academic debate about whether globalization is a real phenomenon or just a figure of speech. While the term has been widely used, some scholars contend that the phenomenon has occurred in other periods of history. In addition, many note that phenomena that give credence to the idea that we are in the midst of a process of globalization, such as the growth of international trade and the increasing role played by transnational corporations, were not formulated at the time they were first established. That is why many scholars prefer to use the term "internationalization" rather than "globalization". Simply put, the difference between the two is that the role of the state is more important in internationalization. In other words, globalization is deeper than internationalization. Therefore, these scholars argue that national boundaries are far from disappearing, and therefore full globalization has not yet begun, and probably will not - internationalization has never become global, historically speaking.