Reading No. 3.

Theorizing
Globalization
(Chapter. Globalization: The Essentials. George Ritzer. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2011)
OUTLINE
•Imperialism 1. General Learning Objective:
•Colonialism To explain globalization and its
•The Concept of Development processes through the frames of
•Americanization imperialism, colonialism, development,
•■ Anti - Americanism as a Global Process and Americanization.
•Neo - Liberalism 2. To examine the similarities and
•■ Neo - Liberalism: Basic Ideas differences among these processes.
•■ The Neo -Liberal State
•■ Critiquing Neo -Liberalism: Karl Polanyi
•■ Contemporary Criticisms of Neo -Liberalism

•Neo -Marxian Theories

•■ Transnational Capitalism
•■ Empire
Imperialism
- a broad concept that describes various methods
employed by one country to gain control (sometimes
through territorial conquest) of another country (or
geographic area) and then to
exercise control, especially political, economic, and
territorial, over that country (or geographic area).
 Imperialism
➢ Over time, the notion of empire, and of the process
of imperialism, came to be associated with rulership
over vast geographic spaces and the people who
lived there.
It is this characteristic that leads to the association
between imperialism and globalization.
Imperialism
The term imperialism came into widespread use in the late nineteenth
century as a number of nations competed for control over previously
undeveloped geographic areas.

Imperialism came to have a negative connotation as it raised about the

need for political (and cultural) control by the imperial powers.

Lenin: the economic nature of capitalism leads capitalistic economies,

and the nation- states that are dominated by such an economic system, to
seek out and control distant geographic areas.
David Harvey: “Capitalist Imperialism”
➢ a “new imperialism” which has arisen, with the
United States as its prime (if not only) representative.

➢ it as a contradictory fusion of economics and politics,

but the “two processes intertwine in complex and
sometimes contradictory ways” – political
imperialism and economic imperialism.
COLONIALISM
➢Creation by the colonial power of an administration in the
area that has been colonized to run its internal affairs.
➢ Edward Said: “ imperialism means the practice, the
theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan
center ruling a distant territory; ‘ colonialism ’ , which is
almost always a consequence of imperialism, is the
implanting of settlements on distant territory”
DECOLONIZATION
It is the process of dismantling the hidden aspects of those
institutional and cultural forces that had maintained the
colonialist power and that remain even after political
independence is achieved.

Neo-Colonialism
It refers to the processes of control by colonial powers
over the former colonies, and other nation - states, in a
more indirect and subtle way through cultural and
educational institutions, focusing on economic control
and exploitation.
Post-colonialism
➢ the era in once- colonized areas after the colonizing power has
departed (although post- colonial thinking and work could already be
well under way before the colonizing power departs).

➢ relates to a critical issue in globalization studies today, that of national

identity, especially the difficulty of gaining identity (as a Filipino, for
example) after the colonial powers (the Spanish, Americans, Japanese)
have departed.

➢ Who exactly is the Filipino today?

THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT
It refers to the post WWII global project primarily
concerned with the economic development of specific
nations, usually those that were not regarded as
sufficiently advanced economically.
Import-Substitution
This economic principle suggests that in order to
undergo development, Southern countries had to
develop their own industries instead of focusing on
producing for export and relying on imports from
other countries, especially the North.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
It is a form of investment by an
economically superior firm in one nation-
state in a firm in another nation- state
with the intention of controlling it.
Foreign Aid
➢ A development project offered by developed countries to
those that were less developed which encompassed
financial assistance, technology, as well as aid in terms of
food.
➢ While such aid was certainly helpful in the short run, in the
longer run it often adversely affected the ability of some
countries to grow and produce their own food or develop
their own technology and therefore led to greater
economic dependency in some less developed countries.
Critiques of Development Theory
1. Dependency Theory (Andre Gunder Frank, 1969)
➢ development programs led not so much to the development of poor countries in
the South, but more to a decline in their independence and to an increase in
their dependence on the countries of the North, especially the US.
➢ The Promise: if the less developed countries simply follow the same path taken
by developed countries, they too will become developed.
➢ The Fact: the developed countries were never in the same position as the less
developed countries today; the developed countries were undeveloped while the
less developed countries were (and still are) underdeveloped.
➢ The result is that the path followed by the former is not necessarily the best one
for the latter.
Andre Gunder Frank rejects the idea that the solution to
underdevelopment lies in the diffusion of capital, technology, institutions,
values, and so on from the developed world into poorer countries.

He contends that the less developed countries can only develop if they are
independent of most of these capitalist relationships which, after all, are
really the cause of their lack of development.

It is capitalism that is the cause of development in the developed nations

and of underdevelopment in the less developed nations.
THE CONCEPT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
It is a created form of poverty which involves the idea
that instead of bringing economic improvement,
development brings with it greater impoverishment
and dependency.
2. World System Theory (Immanuel
Wallerstein, 1974)
➢It envisions a world divided mainly between the core and the periphery
with the poor countries (periphery) being dependent on, and exploited
by, the rich nation – states (core), with the developing countries (semi-
periphery) mediating the processes.

➢ The development project was basically a failure since the world clearly
remained, and remains, characterized by great inequalities.

➢ The whole development project came to be seen as offensive since it

tended to elevate the North, and everything about it, especially its
economic system, while demeaning everything associated with the
South.
AMERICANIZATION
It refers to the importation by non - Americans of products, images, technologies,
practices and behavior that are closely associated with America and American culture.
4 sources of fear after Americanization and which were also direct threats to
Americanization:
1. Japanization 2. Asian Tigers 3. European Union 4. China
Today, the fear of Americanization was no longer of industrial giants, many of which are
declining (and disappearing), but rather of the impact of huge companies in the realm of
consumption such as Coca Cola and McDonald’s.

Anti-Americanism
It entails an aversion to American culture in particular and its influence abroad, and
the rejection of American foreign policy and a firm belief in the malignity of American
influence and presence anywhere in the world.
 NEO-LIBERALISM
Liberal commitment to individual liberty, a belief in the free market and opposition
to state intervention in it.
Free Market: The market needs to be allowed to operate free of any impediments, especially those
imposed by the nation - state and other political entities. The free operation of the market will in the
“long run” advantage just about everyone and bring about both improved economic welfare and
greater individual freedom (and a democratic political system).

Free Trade: the unlimited processes through which one can engage in profit-making in the free market

Deregulation: the elimination of any form of restraints and control from the state regarding the operation of the
free market.

Structural Adjustment: These were the conditions of economic “restructuring” imposed by organizations such as
the World Bank and the IMF on borrowing nation - states.

Limited government: This is the concept that no government can do things as well as the market and a government
should not intervene in it.

Double Movement: Coexistence of the expansion of the laissez -faire market and the reaction against it.
Critiques of Neo-Liberalism
Karl Polanyi: laissez - faire system came into existence through
the assistance of the state.

Leslie Sklair: Transnational Capitalism

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri : Empire

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire
➢ “Empire” is a far more subtle and complex network of global
political/economic/cultural processes than imperialism and which are
exercising a new form of control.

-A more “decentered” view of globalization; imperialism was a

modern process and perspective that was “centered” on the nation -
state (Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the US), but the declining
importance of the nation - state requires a very different view of
control exercised on a global scale.

- To Hardt and Negri it is the power exercised by a decentered empire

today that has replaced the power exercised by imperialism in the
past.