Essay on Globalisation and Development for Students

To take the treatment of development and globalization, it is first maintained that development which, in its initial stages in the 1950s was very much a part of the modernisation discourse, has entered a post-modernist stage. At the end of the Second World War, when several former colonies emerged as independent countries with membership in the United Nations, it was felt that something should be done for the development of these nations.

Misinterpretation of Globalization as Colonialism

It was then that most developing countries suffered economic stagnation and political oppression Self-sufficiency and centralisation did not produce prosperous, united countries. Instead, they produced more than 100 weak,22 misgoverned countries which, by the 1990s, needed to be rescued by the IMF The collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of Deng in China showed that mere Socialism was not the solution so developing countries began moving in a new direction, globalisation. Why did the post-independence leaders in developing countries go so badly wrong? Mainly because they equated globalisation with 19th-century colonialism. They failed to see that in the late 20th century, globalisation was not a political conquest but an economic partnership, creating unprecedented opportunities for the poor to rise. This faulty interpretation led to faulty policies aimed at de-globalisation.

Evolution of Globalization: From Colonialism to Decolonization

The Third World leaders knew that globalisation in the 19th century had produced alien rule, poverty, and transfer of wealth to colonial power They assumed that 20th century globalisation would do the same. They went wrong in several ways. In the 19th century globalisation represented colonialism In the 20th century globalisation has been the era of decolonisation. The capital has flowed the other way, through aid and foreign direct investment to the developing countries Globalisation has yielded GDP growth rates of up to 10% in many developing countries creating huge opportunities for the poor In recent decades, the fastest-growing countries have all been in the Third World, mostly in Asia but also in Africa (Botswana, Mauritius). Income per head is now higher in Singapore ($24,740) and Hong Kong ($ 25,920) than in their erstwhile colonial master, Britain (S 24,430).

Globalisation has shifted millions of manufacturing jobs from high-income to low-income countries. The share of manufacturers in the exports to low-income countries rose to 53 percent in 2000, and the share in East Asia was a whopping 83 percent. Developing countries now have their multinationals, who accounted for 30.2% of all foreign direct investment in 1997 Globalisation is a two-way street. Factories are shifting from rich to poorer countries provided the latter have decent policies institutions and infrastructure The poorer the country, the greater its wage advantage. So, globalisation has made poverty an advantage for the first time in history That is revolutionary A new study by Prof. Sala-1-Martin of Columbia University, shows that the number of people living on under one dollar a day has fallen from 550 million in 1970 to 350 million in 1999 Never in history has poverty fallen so rapidly Poverty remains stubbornly high in Africa Most countries there have not created the institutions of policies needed to climb onto the globalisation bandwagon.

Conclusion

Many have been autocratic kleptocracies. No wonder they have failed.All opportunities carry risks. Globalisation has created unprecedented opportunities and unprecedented risks too. The World Trade Organisation, World Bank, and IMF, should be an issue of concern to any serious human being The significant threats to democracy, democratic participation, and fundamental human right posed by increasing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of an extreme minority of the world’s population cannot and should not be ignored. The ‘withering away’ of the state in many developing countries, the increased role of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in running both the global economy and national economies, and the weakening of such global democratic forums as the United Nations, are all challenges to the creation of the world order in which every human being has the opportunity to live a life of dignity, free from want, prosecution, and fear.