Question

Discuss the effects of globalisation on markets and governments over the 20th century.

Answer 1

Globalisation is a concept that, in the lead-up and after the turn of the millennium, has become a fierce and recurring topic of debate. It's been called a required, even unavoidable, mechanism over the long history of the idea that would cure all the ills of the world, if we just accept it. Others saw it as a purely negative process which enriches the few while the many suffer.

Large companies with global aspirations have been around for quite some time: the numerous East India Companies traded between Europe and India from as early as the 17th century, sometimes becoming active in the politics of the day. After World War II, however, new technology and liberalised trade enabled businesses to grow much larger than ever seen in history in a 2017 list of the 100 largest economic institutions in the world, only 31 positions were held by governments. The other 69 companies had been multinationals.

These corporations owed much of their growth to the facilitating role of trade agreements such as GATT, which made it possible to move goods around the globe much more cheaply. Companies in the US, Europe and Japan have also benefited from mid-century domestic developments that have seen banks invest heavily in industrial stocks, thus promoting mergers that have consolidated capital stocks

Consequently, foreign trade remains the strongest force of globalization, as nations forge trade-based alliances that influence the supply of goods to and from that market, from intermediate products produced in emerging economies to sophisticated luxury goods. Ultimately, this has a trickle-down impact on a host of other issues, including the nations making up communities.

Today , globalization stands at a crossroads; the rise of new nationalism, as exemplified by US President Donald Trump, supports an anti-immigrant, protectionist stance that is also strongly opposed to the ideals of globalization. At the same time , information technology has brought us closer together than our forebears would have thought possible, globalizing the commerce of globalization. Business and policymakers will need to work together to reform and control the global economy to address these problems , in order to stymie the traditional trend of globalization towards unequal costs and benefits across regions. The interconnected existence of the globalized economy means , for example, that issues created in developed economies may have knock-on effects for developing countries.