Theorizing

Globalizati
on
(Source: Chapter 2. Globalization: The Essentials. George Ritzer. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2011)
OUTLINE
•Imperialism
1.General Learning
•Colonialism Objective:
•The Concept of Development
•Americanization To explain globalization and its
•
■ Anti - Americanism as a Global Process processes through the frames of
•Neo - Liberalism imperialism, colonialism,
•
■ Neo - Liberalism: Basic Ideas development, and
•
■ The Neo -Liberal State Americanization.
•
■ Critiquing Neo -Liberalism: Karl Polanyi 2. To examine the similarities and
•
■ Contemporary Criticisms of Neo -Liberalism differences among these
•Neo -Marxian Theories processes.
•
■ Transnational Capitalism
•
■ Empire
 Imperialism
- a broad concept that describes various methods
employed by one country to gain control
(sometimes through territorial conquest) of
another country (or geographic area) and then to
exercise control, especially political, economic,
and territorial, over that country (or geographic
area).
Imperialism
 Over time, the notion of empire, and of the
process of imperialism, came to be associated
with rulership over vast geographic spaces and
the people who lived there.

It is this characteristic that leads to the

association between imperialism and
globalization.
Imperialism
The term imperialism came into widespread use in the late
nineteenth century as a number of nations competed for control
over previously undeveloped geographic areas.

Imperialism came to have a negative connotation as it raised

about the need for political (and cultural) control by the imperial
powers.

Lenin: the economic nature of capitalism leads capitalistic

economies, and the nation- states that are dominated by such an
economic system, to seek out and control distant geographic
areas.
David Harvey: “Capitalist Imperialism”
 a “new imperialism” which has arisen,
with the United States as its prime (if
not only) representative.

 it as a contradictory fusion of
economics and politics, but the “two
processes intertwine in complex and
sometimes contradictory ways” –
political imperialism and economic
imperialism.
COLONIALISM
Creation by the colonial power of an
administration in the area that has been
colonized to run its internal affairs.
 Edward Said: “ imperialism means the
practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a
dominating metropolitan center ruling a
distant territory; ‘ colonialism ’ , which is
almost always a consequence of imperialism,
is the implanting of settlements on distant
territory”
 DECOLONIZATION
It is the process of dismantling the
hidden aspects of those institutional and
cultural forces that had maintained the
colonialist power and that remain even
after political independence is achieved.
Neo-Colonialism
It refers to the processes of control by
colonial powers over the former
colonies, and other nation - states, in a
more indirect and subtle way through
cultural and educational institutions,
Post-colonialism
 the era in once- colonized areas after the colonizing
power has departed (although post- colonial
thinking and work could already be well under way
before the colonizing power departs).

 relates to a critical issue in globalization studies

today, that of national identity, especially the
difficulty of gaining identity (as a Filipino, for
example) after the colonial powers (the Spanish,
Americans, Japanese) have departed.

 Who exactly is the Filipino today?

THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT

It refers to the post WWII global

project primarily concerned with
the economic development of
specific nations, usually those
that were not regarded as
sufficiently advanced
economically.
Import-
Substitution

This economic principle suggests

that in order to undergo
development, Southern countries
had to develop their own industries
instead of focusing on producing
for export and relying on imports
from other countries, especially
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

It is a form of investment by
an economically superior firm
in one nation- state in a firm in
another nation- state with the
intention of controlling it.
Foreign Aid
 A development project offered by developed
countries to those that were less developed which
encompassed financial assistance, technology, as
well as aid in terms of food.

 While such aid was certainly helpful in the short

run, in the longer run it often adversely affected
the ability of some countries to grow and produce
their own food or develop their own technology and
therefore led to greater economic dependency in
some less developed countries.
 Critiques of Development Theory
1.Dependency Theory (Andre Gunder Frank, 1969)
 development programs led not so much to the development of poor
countries in the South, but more to a decline in their independence
and to an increase in their dependence on the countries of the North,
especially the US.

The Promise: if the less developed countries simply follow the same
path taken by developed countries, they too will become developed.

The Fact: the developed countries were never in the same position as
the less developed countries today; the developed countries were
undeveloped while the less developed countries were (and still are)
underdeveloped.
The result is that the path followed by the former is not necessarily the
best one for the latter.
Andre Gunder Frank rejects the idea that the
solution to underdevelopment lies in the
diffusion of capital, technology, institutions,
values, and so on from the developed world
into poorer countries.

He contends that the less developed countries can

only develop if they are independent of most of these
capitalist relationships which, after all, are really the
cause of their lack of development.

It is capitalism that is the cause of development in

the developed nations and of underdevelopment in
the less developed nations.
 THE CONCEPT OF
UNDERDEVELOPMENT

it is a created form of poverty which

involves the idea that instead of bringing
economic improvement, development
brings with it greater impoverishment and
dependency.
2. World System Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein,
1974)

It envisions a world divided mainly between the

core and the periphery with the poor countries
(periphery) being dependent on, and exploited by,
the rich nation – states (core), with the developing
countries (semi-periphery) mediating the
processes.

 The development project was basically a failure

since the world clearly remained, and remains,
characterized by great inequalities.

 The whole development project came to be seen

as offensive since it tended to elevate the North,
AMERICANIZATION
It refers to the importation by non - Americans of products, images,
technologies, practices and behavior that are closely associated with
America and American culture.

4 sources of fear after Americanization and which were also

direct threats to Americanization:
1. Japanization 2. Asian Tigers 3. European Union 4. China

Today, the fear of Americanization was no longer of industrial giants, many

of which are declining (and disappearing), but rather of the impact of huge
companies in the realm of consumption such as Coca Cola and McDonald’s.

Anti-
It entails an aversion to American culture in Americanism
particular and its
influence abroad, and the rejection of American foreign policy
and a firm belief in the malignity of American influence and
 Neo-Liberalism
Liberal commitment to individual liberty, a belief in the free
market and opposition to state intervention in it.
Free Market: The market needs to be allowed to operate free of any impediments,
especially those imposed by the nation - state and other political entities. The free
operation of the market will in the “long run” advantage just about everyone and bring
about both improved economic welfare and greater individual freedom (and a
democratic political system).
Free Trade: the unlimited processes through which one can engage in profit-making
in the free market
Deregulation: the elimination of any form of restraints and control from the state regarding
the operation of the free market.

Structural Adjustment: These were the conditions of economic “restructuring” imposed by

organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF on borrowing nation - states.

Limited government: This is the concept that no government can do things as well as the
market and a government should not intervene in it.

Double Movement: Coexistence of the expansion of the laissez -faire market and the
reaction against it.
Critiques of Neo-Liberalism

Karl Polanyi: laissez - faire system

came into existence through the
assistance of the state.

Leslie Sklair: Transnational

Capitalism

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri :

 Michael
 “Empire” Hardt and Antonio Negri’s
is a far more subtle and complex network of
Empireprocesses than
global political/economic/cultural
imperialism and which are exercising a new form of control.

-A more “decentered” view of globalization; imperialism

was a modern process and perspective that was “centered”
on the nation - state (Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the
US), but the declining importance of the nation - state
requires a very different view of control exercised on a
global scale.

- To Hardt and Negri it is the power exercised by a

decentered empire today that has replaced the power
exercised by imperialism in the past.