Is there any alternative to globalisation?

Pro globalisation

Supporters of globalisation argue that it can be rolled back and point to the period between the first and second world wars as evidence. The increase in world trade as a proportion of world GDP was proportionately greater between 1870 and 1914 than it has been since 1975. That expansion was stopped, not just by the first world war, but by the loss of support for free trade which followed. Tariffs and controls on capital were imposed around the developed world. This led directly to the 1930 depression and indirectly to the second world war.

There is clear danger in the gathering strength of opposition to globalisation that it could be halted again. The consequences of a decline in world trade would immediately be felt with rising unemployment throughout the trading world. The poorest countries of the world would also be affected by a fall in aid and opportunities for trade.

A weakening of the institutions of the global order, such as the WTO, would leave them unequal to the task of adjudicating between nations. The fate of the League of Nations at the end of the 1930s provides a parallel example of the cost of weak international institutions.

It is not clear what alternate form of economic production to the corporation the opponents of globalisation have in mind. However the sharing of risk in the limited liability corporation has proven a robust framework for the development of innovation, wealth and the advance in global living standards.

Although trade and economic integration could be undone by concerted political opposition, it is not possible to turn back the globalising influence of communications technology.

Links:

"A speech by Joseph Nye, Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, entitled "Globalization and its Discontents", that traverses, in brief form, aspects of the 'inevitability' debate - http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/nye.html


In a speech delivered in 2000, the director general of the World Trade Organisation, Mike Moore, considers the consequences of a backlash against liberalism.
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/spmm_e/spmm39_e.htm

Anti globalisation

What if the tide could be rolled back? What would those who oppose globalisation want to see? There is a wide range of opponents to globalisation, some of whom have quite different visions, ranging from Marxist revolution to less defined objectives, such as the ‘end to poverty’.

However there is a current of opponents who favour devolution of power from the global to the local. This view is well expressed in an alternative framework by the US based International Forum on Globalisation http://www.ifg.org/beyondwto.html. Local government and institutions should be strengthened and global institutions weakened. Whatever can be done at a local level should be.

The mandate and powers of the WTO should be significantly reduced in accordance with the following observation of Indian scholar/activist Vandana Shiva: "The future is possible for humans and other species only if the principles of competition, organized greed, commodification of all life, monocultures, monopolies, and centralised global corporate control of our daily lives enshrined in the WTO are replaced by principles of protection of people and nature, the obligation of giving and sharing diversity, decentralisation and self-organization enshrined in our diverse cultures and national constitutions."

Global trade and investment rules should be subordinated to national and local governments' decisions about conditions on investment within their borders. Every government has the right to set development priorities, protect the commons, set performance requirements on investment, control financial speculation and curb capital flight.

Global trade rules should be subordinate to global environmental agencies and agriculture should be eliminated from global trade rules to allow countries to pursue food security and sustainable farm policy.

There should be a fund created to alleviate poverty with revenue raised through a tax on currency transactions, along with other forms of global taxation.

Links:

A prolific writer on life after capitalism is David Korten, who argues for a rediscovery of communities that are self-organising and cooperative. http://iisd.ca/pcdf/

There has been a series of ‘declarations’ by non-government organisations and political groups opposed to globalisation, outlining some elements of their alternate visions.

"WTO - Shrink or Sink!" The Turn Around Agenda is a declaration sponsored by the Ralph Nader affiliated Public Citizen.
http://www.canadians.org/campaigns/campaigns-trade-brussels.html

A declaration by a group of non-government organisations outlined some principles for an alternative to globalisation at the 2000 United Nations General Assembly entitled NGO Vision for an Alternative Framework
http://www.wtowatch.org/library/admin/uploadedfiles/NGO_Vision_for_an_Alternative_Framework.htm

The Asia Europe Dialogue on Alternate Political Strategies produced a declaration, entitled, Paving The Way To A New World: Let Us Globalise The Struggle.
http://www.ased.org/resources/appeals/global/bangkok.htm

Campaigners at Bretton Woods Project (http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/) continue to scrutinise global institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund after the events of September 11. To this kind of coalition there is no alternative but to oppose globalisation - http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/reform/2502.html

British newspapers The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/ - and The Observer - http://www.observer.co.uk/global - both maintain special reports on globalisation. Both are skeptical. Will Hutton most so in the former and the latter opens with articles discussing "Is there an alternative?"

In Dissent magazine, Susan George puts the case that "Another World is Possible". Go to http://www.dissentmagazine.org/archive/wi01/george.shtml

For an anti-statist academic perspective on alternatives to globalisation see the recent conference paper "IGO's and Civil Society Actors: Must the Potency of One Yield the Impotence of the Other?" at http://pro.harvard.edu/papers/017/017009PaceGerald.pdf