Question

Was there a globalization backlash? Explain.

Answer 1

Attacks are on globalization. Donald Trump's electoral victory, the Brexit vote and the rise of aggressive nationalism in continental Europe and around the world are all part of a backlash to globalisation.

In each instance, by voting to roll back economic, political, and cultural globalization, citizens have upset the political order. Support for Brexit came largely from those worried about their jobs and immigrant entry. Likewise, the U.S. Midwest the industrial heartland hurt by global competition was the linchpin of the victory of Donald Trump

It was initially more a pledge than a reality. Communism still controlled extensive stretches of territory. And fiscal tensions arose as the new trading system relied on fixed exchange rates, with currencies tied to the U.S. dollar, which at that time was tied to gold. It was only with the collapse of fixed exchange rates in the late 1960s and the unmooring of the dollar from the gold standard that capital could be easily moved around the world.

The Western political and economic elites argued that free trade, global markets, and production chains that snaked across national frontiers would ultimately raise all living standards. But as no alternative vision has been offered, a gulf has grown between these elites and the mass of blue-collar workers who have seen little improvement from economic globalisation.

In countries like the U.S., where economic dislocation unfolds with weak safety nets and limited government investment in job retraining or continuing and life-long education, the backlash against economic globalization is most marked.

Globalization has now become the catchword embracing the rapid and often disturbing social and economic change of the past 25 years. No wonder there is a significant backlash to the constant change-much of it is economically and socially disruptive and destabilizing. When traditional identity categories evaporate rapidly, there is a profound political and cultural uneasiness.