Question

What are the challenges of globalization? What do its critics argue and are they right?

Answer 1

Globalization refers to the process of social change in which geographical and cultural barriers among the countries are reduced. Some of the challenges of globalization are as follows:

1. Disadvantage for the poorer countries - It has been observed that poorer countries are at disadvantage because they cannot compete with the richer and more developed countries. This is because poorer countries deal in the export of agricultural commodities the demand for which is inelastic.

2. It also leads to exploitation of the cheap labor available in the poorer countries because of lack of protections in poorer nations.

3. Unskilled workers are unable to find work in this race while skilled and people working in the service sector are at an advantage. This has increased the level of inequality in these nations.

4. Surplus of cheap labor and increase in the number of companies has led to weakening of the labor unions around the world. This has impacted the workers negatively.

The critics argue that though there are some challenges associated with globalization, but open trade helps nations in developing their comparative advantage and initially adopting protectionist policies for developing nations can help in coping with the increase competition. Also, there are various laws these days to protect workers and labor reforms have also helped in reducing exploitation. Thus, critics are right that globalization might have some challenges but these can be reduced in the long run with proper policy implementation.