To What Extent Does Globalisation Help Economic Development?
Mehdi Al-Katib
AHE Int. Politics – Development
26/03/11
To what extent does globalisation help economic development?
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and former World Bank Chief Economist defined globalisation as “Fundamentally, the closer integration of countries and people of the world which has been brought about by the enormous reduction of costs of transportation and communication, the breaking down of artificial barriers to the flow of goods, services, capital, knowledge, and to a lesser extent people across borders.
Development has traditionally been viewed in materialist and economic terms. The
Liberal view of development is a materialist definition based upon economic growth which is simply an increase in production of the economy and is supposedly done through
‘modernisation’ which is structural reformation of the economy away from reliance on primary sector raw material and agricultural production dependency to manufacturing and ultimately service sector production. Environmentalists, ecologists, neo-colonialists and dependency theorists see this form of ‘development’ as domination and exploitation. These left-wing schools of thought would take the liberal definition of development as given but criticise its desirability.
Neo-colonialists view the development of the West as coming about through the ravaging and exploitation of the global South through imperialism and economic neo-imperialism allowing wealthy owners of capital to extort their wealth off the backs of the peripheral poor workers in developing nations. Andre Gunner Frank, a neo-colonialist summed this up neatly arguing,
“Development and under-development are the opposite sides of the same coin” as developed nations benefit by exploiting the developing nations’ resources and capital.
In the developmental politics context, globalisation can be attributed to what is known as the ‘Washington Consensus’ implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
AHE Int. Politics – Development
26/03/11
To what extent does globalisation help economic development?
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and former World Bank Chief Economist defined globalisation as “Fundamentally, the closer integration of countries and people of the world which has been brought about by the enormous reduction of costs of transportation and communication, the breaking down of artificial barriers to the flow of goods, services, capital, knowledge, and to a lesser extent people across borders.
Development has traditionally been viewed in materialist and economic terms. The
Liberal view of development is a materialist definition based upon economic growth which is simply an increase in production of the economy and is supposedly done through
‘modernisation’ which is structural reformation of the economy away from reliance on primary sector raw material and agricultural production dependency to manufacturing and ultimately service sector production. Environmentalists, ecologists, neo-colonialists and dependency theorists see this form of ‘development’ as domination and exploitation. These left-wing schools of thought would take the liberal definition of development as given but criticise its desirability.
Neo-colonialists view the development of the West as coming about through the ravaging and exploitation of the global South through imperialism and economic neo-imperialism allowing wealthy owners of capital to extort their wealth off the backs of the peripheral poor workers in developing nations. Andre Gunner Frank, a neo-colonialist summed this up neatly arguing,
“Development and under-development are the opposite sides of the same coin” as developed nations benefit by exploiting the developing nations’ resources and capital.
In the developmental politics context, globalisation can be attributed to what is known as the ‘Washington Consensus’ implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and