Globalization as phenomena
For the last two or more decades, the World economy has been subject to powerful forces or globalisation - a tendency which has been increasing or intensifying in recent years. Globalisation is measured in three different dimensions:
flows of goods
flows of capital
flows of people [1.]
Advances in communication and transportation technology, combined with free-market ideology, have given goods, services, and capital unprecedented mobility. Northern countries want to open world markets to their goods and take advantage of abundant, cheap labor in the South, policies often supported by Southern elites. They use international financial institutions and regional trade agreements to compel poor countries to "integrate" by reducing tariffs, privatizing state enterprises, and relaxing environmental and labor standards. The results have enlarged profits for investors but offered pittances to laborers, provoking a strong backlash from civil society. This page analyzes economic globalization, and examines how it might be resisted or regulated in order to promote sustainable development.…
