George Ritzer - Globalization

A great deal of attention has been devoted, at least until recently, to the economic success attributed to globalization (Kahn 2012). It is clear to supporters that the North has gained disproportionately from globalization. There is a tendency to ignore the “losers” in the process, including not only most of the South, but also those in the North who have not been beneficiaries of these economic gains. While the losers are ignored, they are expected to take solace in the assumption that while they may not yet have gained much, they will soon, if only they are patient. Adopted here is the view that a “rising sea raises all boats” and eventually most, if not all, will be beneficiaries of globalization’s economic advances.

Another positive view associated with globaphilia is that globalization will bring with it increasing democratization. There is an assumption that economic progress leads to democracy and/or democracy leads to economic progress (Friedman 2002). In addition, there is the view that democracy itself is being spread by globalization, despite the fact that globalization has brought both democracy and authoritarian regimes (Moghadam 2013). There are various other positive outlooks associated with globaphilia including the idea that globalization is furthering the spread of “civil society” (Kellogg 2012). Civil society (see Chapter 5) involves those organizations and institutions that are separable from the nation-state and the market and that are able to represent some alternative, if not opposition, to them and their hegemony. The spread of democracy throughout the world is seen as furthering civil society in those countries that move in that direction. After all, the ability of civil society to stand up to the power of the state and the market serves to reduce authoritarianism and to foster democratization. Furthermore, globalization is seen as bringing with it global organizations, especially INGOs like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Federation, that are themselves part of global civil society. Characteristically, what globaphiliacs ignore is the ways in which globalization can adversely affect civil society through the power of some global INGOs (e.g. World Economic Forum) as well as through global processes such as the market, the emergence and spread of authoritarian regimes, nationalist populism, and military incursions. All of these can short circuit, and even destroy, democratic civil society.

In previous editions of this book, it was clear that globaphilia predominated, especially in the United States. But as of this writing, globaphobia appears to have become dominant in both the North and South. Clearly much of the criticism of globalization, especially as it relates to capitalism, has come from scholars, especially those who are more liberal and left-leaning. And while there is no shortage of more popular criticisms of globalization from not only the left (e.g. Noam Chomsky 2003, 2013), such critiques have become especially loud from the right (including a long list of European politicians). Furthermore, there are the new widespread alter-globalization movements that have their basis in critical perspectives on globalization.

Former President Donald Trump is among the list of politicians attacking globalization. Speaking at the United Nations in 2018, Trump stated: “we reject the ideology of globalism” in favor of the “ideology of patriotism” (Friedman 2018). This rejection is especially significant for its delivery to one of the institutions most known for global cooperation, the UN. Trump continued that “America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control, and domination.” He cited as examples the United States’ denunciation of the International Criminal Court, departure from the Human Rights Council, and withdrawal from the Global Compact for Migration. For Trump, this intense distrust of global institutions and an “America first” attitude also came with ongoing attacks on individual nations, making international cooperation difficult.

When we turn to criticisms from the left, there is no shortage of them either, including from such notable political figures as Venezuela’s late president, Hugo Chávez. The latter, in a speech to the United Nations in 2006, lambasted the US as an imperialistic nation endeavoring to create a world empire through globalization. In the process, Chávez called then-President George W. Bush a “devil.” At several points during his speech he held aloft a book authored by the noted American linguist, turned left-wing political analyst, Noam Chomsky (2003, 2013).

Noam Chomsky is not opposed to globalization per se. Rather, his target is neoliberal globalization dominated by the US and its economic interests (2003, 2013). To put it another way, he is opposed to corporate globalization, a process aimed at opening markets in order to maximize profits and the interests and economic well-being of investors. However, he favors globalization as it is represented by, for example, the labor movement and by the World Social Forum. In other words, Chomsky favors globalization from below rather than from above; he favors alter-globalization. Most generally, he argues that no one really opposes globalization as an overall process (which is really just about international integration); it is the specific ways in which it is presently operating that he and other left-wing critics oppose.

Chomsky is critical of neoliberal economic globalization on several grounds. For one thing, such globalization is largely sponsored by the US and is designed to further its interests as well as those of American corporations and the “haves” within the US. More generally, it works to the benefit of the North in general, and the elites there, as well. Related to this is the fact that globalization of this type benefits the few in the world, but does not benefit the masses, the “people.” Chomsky obviously favors a globalization that works to the benefit of the vast majority of people in the world, not just a select few.

Chomsky also argues that neoliberal globalization does not enhance, but rather operates to the detriment of, democracy. That is, it enhances the power of the inter-linked corporate and state leaders who exert control over the economy, and much else, without being answerable, accountable to the people. Privatization, which he sees as one element of neoliberalism, “reduces the arena of potential democratic choice” (2003: 138). Furthermore, with truly important matters usurped by those in power, the people are left to decide democratically upon relatively trivial matters: “What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities” (2003: 139).

As an American, and as a world-famous scholar, Chomsky’s stinging attacks on the US are particularly notable. He is critical of not only America in general, and of its economic actions, but also of its political and military undertakings. He was particularly critical of American actions throughout the world, such as the invasion of Iraq, during the presidency of George W. Bush. He sees these as part of an American effort to achieve hegemony in the world. But Chomsky sees the US as an extreme form of the real problem: “concentrated power,” which “pursues the war relentlessly, and very self-consciously.”

Moving beyond specific arguments such as those offered from the right (Trump) and the left (Chomsky), what are the more general criticisms of the globaphobics? As is clear from the above, a major criticism is that globalization has not had the positive effects that globaphiliacs like Friedman assume and assert. The critics tend to emphasize globalization’s negative effects on the less well-off, especially in the South. The latter are seen as losing more than they gain from globalization. Indeed, what is often emphasized is that instead of catching up as a result of globalization, many of those in the less developed world fall farther behind those in the developed world; the gap grows wider rather than narrower as a result of globalization. Thus, global capitalism, like capitalism in general, serves to benefit the “haves” while disadvantaging the “have nots”; it makes the latter’s economic situation worse rather than better, at least relatively. To put this another way, the globaphobic view is that globalization leads to greater global inequality (see Chapter 13). This is in stark contrast to at least one of the implications of Friedman’s “flat world” thesis that globalization is leading to greater global equality.