THE CONCEPT OF GLOBALIZATION
Globalization is defined as the increasing process of interdependence and interconnectedness between different political, social and economic components of the world. It is the way in which the world is seen as the global village. Globalization has become a worldwide system because it integrates people across their the national borders, making the world operates as a village and therefore making free movement of people, goods, capital and information. The process of globalization is largely facilitated by rapid advancement in technology growth trade and competition.
Historical background of globalization
The world’s interconnectedness and interdependence between its different social, political and economic components started as far back as during the European mercantile period (15000- 1750) and has continued up today.
During the mercantile period, European merchants crossed their borders and conducted trade in other parts of the world like Africa, Asia and Latin America. The event of slave trade and the exportation of Africans from their continent to other continents, notably the America, linked with Africa more and more with outside World. All these activities were demonstrations of globalization at that time.
Driving forces of globalization
The process of globalization is a result of various factors. Such factors include the following
1. advancement in science and Technology
the development of science and technology has contributed greatly to the development of global interconnectedness, interactions and integration of World societies into the global village. The development of science and technology has enabled (technologist) to design and make things like machines which simplify human’s activities for example the development of information and communication technology. (ICT) has contributed much on the globalization process. The development of science and technology which marked the initial stage of integration between Europe, American and other external World like Africa had eventually changed the world in to a global village.
2.Advancement in education
Education has contributed greatly to the development of science and technology and integration of people from distant places. Education process has marked the point of no return towards the integration of different people from different nations and culture in the world. From the 20th century, revolutionized education marked intensive integration of people in universities, colleges and international conferences. Through interactions and integration, most people adopted culture from other people and thus beginning of cultural liberalization.
3.Social and political liberalization
This process has its root from the liberal democratic principle. Liberal believe that freedom of an individual is the main principle of life that people are supposed to have. The freedom of individual principle has thus fostered the development of globalization in social and political aspects
Social liberalization is widely spreading due to the advancement of information and communication technologies like TV, e-mail, cellular phones and internet technology.
Politically, the integration of politics in the global scale has fostered the development of globalization. Traditionally polities have been undertaken within national political systems but due to globalization the national governments have ultimately responsible for maintaining the security and economic welfare of their citizens as well as protection of human right.
Aspects of globalization
globalization as an economic, political and social phenomena is associated with the following major aspects
Information technology an communication
Globalization is characterized by advancement of information and communication technology, this sector has expended drastically within the last few years especially by the last quarter of twentieth century. In that period people witnessed global s nglish-swahili/distribution” target=”_blank”>distribution f media images through computer screen, radio, newspapers, televisions and mobile phones. Development of information and communication technology went together with the rise of biggest information companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco. The rise of these companies, indicate quick advancement of technology.
Modern communication technologies brought by globalization
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Fig. 5. Cellular phone
Movement of people
There have been increasing movements of people from one country to another. These people include tourists, immigrants refugees, business travellers, scholars and diplomats, who move from one country or continent to another. Most migration occurs between developing countries but there is also a flow of migrants to economically advanced countries from poor countries hence making the world interconnected
Spread of ideas and ideology
Spread of knowledge ideas, information and ideologies have been integral aspect of globalization. Direct foreign investment brings physical capital, technical, managerial and marketing skills as well as global economic policies in the production process. The spread of these technical know how go hand in hand with diffusion of political ideologies, for instance multiparty democracy which have become worldwide use.
Free market economy
Globalization has brought about the international political economy through international financial institution policies and international trade. Free market ( neo liberalism) has become a dominant economic ideology of the world. The main emphasis of free market economy (economic liberalism) is to minimize the direct involvement of government in economic production
Finance
There is also a global flow of money often driven by interconnected currency. Stock exchanges and commodity markets. The flow of money is also facilitated by international financial institution such as IMF and the World Bank assisted by multilateral banks which have branches almost in every part of the World thus allows smooth money transaction all over the world.
The rise of intellectual property
The rise of intellectual properties or items in this case includes patents, copyrights of movies, computer software, compact discs, advertisements and financial services.
Privatization
Refers to the policy of transferring assets and activities of public sectors to the private sectors or individual. Privatization is one of the Structural. Adjustment programs result’s which has been emphasized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and donors from abroad, particularly western countries like, Britain, France, USA, Denmark and German
The origin of privatization policy.
The ongoing economic crisis of the development countries and their growing dependance syndrome are some of the factors that have contributed the introduction of privatization
However, the policy started in 1980’s and gained significant public notice at the global level during the same decade (1980’s) when Britain’s ) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took deliberate and extra efforts to advocate the necessity of shifting public or government activities to private actors so as to increase production and efficiency in the economic sectors and restructure the prevailing conditions in countries like Tanzania.
Under the conditional ties of the World Bank, governments of the developing countries began experimenting various forms of market reforms including setting most of the public assets to private sectors, deregulating and contracting their public services to private providers.
Under this situation, therefore privatization gained widespread interest and become an acceptable policy, to government policy makers, services providers as well as public planners
The objectives of privatization
i. To create more market oriented economy where those privatized firms will participate in the stock market.
ii. To improve economy through increased productivity and efficiency of the privatized parastatal
iii. To secure and enhance access to foreign markets, capital and technology through attracting managerial and technological resources from the private sector
iv. To broaden share and ownership through equal provision of public services to all levels
v. To reduce the over whelming and challenging increase of public debt
vi. To promote the spirit of self-reliance
Measures taken to enhance privatization
i. To improve the operational efficiency of enterprises and their contribution to the national economy by selling them to private investors
ii. To reduce the burden of parastatal enterprises dependence on the government budget by selling them to private investors
iii. To expand the role of private sector in the economy and permit the government to concentrate on the provision of social services like health, education and infrastructures.
iv. To ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage wider participation in the ownership of private companies and management of business by selling and letting private investors engage in production
Advantages of privatization
i. It has increased flexibility due to reduction of bureaucratic complexity and procedures which have in turn lead to an improvement of the national economy
ii. It has reduced costs resulting from improving and increase efficiency in production through competitive process
iii. Privatization has led to the improvement and rise of competition among the existing organization
iv. It has met the demands beyond the current government capacity. The private sectors ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage competitions which increase the level of productivity and efficiency
v. Privatization provides clients with more choice of options where they can be more satisfied in terms of contract, salaries and working conditions
Disadvantages of privatization
i. Privatization has led to an increase in unemployment rate among the indigenous people. This has been the case, because most of the private investors are the people from outside. When any public enterprise is privatized it is accompanied with massive redundancy of the previously local working personnel and employment of new workers from the investors home country
ii. It has led to the fall in agricultural sector due to the withdrawal of the government from providing agricultural incentives to the peasant/farmers.
iii. It has increased temptation to reduce quality of goods and services by some dishonest investors in order to reduce costs and maximize profit
iv. Privatization has increased the rate of moral erosion due to its policy of free trade. The private for example such goods like pornography pictures and other related firms or VCD /DVD have greatly affect the younger generation
v. Privatization policy has increase the rate of poverty to people especially those living in rural areas due to the decline in agriculture production. Rural people depend on agricultural production for better to the decline in agricultural production. Rural people depend on agricultural production for better quality of their life. But due to privatization their standards of living has been deteriorating because of the falling prices of their agricultural produce
Trade liberalization
Trade liberalization refers to the reduction of tariffs and trade barriers to permit more foreign competition and foreign investment in the economy. It is a term which describes complete or partial elimination and reduction of trade barriers such as quotas and tariffs. Trade liberalization sometimes refers to free trade. Free trade is the unrestricted flow of goods and services between countries , and is a name given to economic policies and parties supporting increases in such trade. Tanzania introduced trade liberalization as from mid 1980, following the IMF and World Bank. Conditional ties for giving aids to the needy nations.
Democratization process
Globalization is associated with global political reforms under the process called democratization. The democratization process is looking at the following basic principle.
Free and fair political competition
There is a need for having peaceful, free and fair competition between different political parties that want to control the government in order to maintain such competition, there ought to be the following requirements
Firstly, permanent party organization at the local and national levels. No opposition party can exist without continuous and permanent struggle against the ruling party. The goals of these parties should not be linked with personal interests of particular party leaders
Secondly, there ought to be continuous contact of leaders in all levels of a given political party. Thirdly, there should be a determination of party leaders to hold political offices. Fourthly, there should be a determination of the party to gain popular acceptance for its programmes. Fifthly, there must be constant search for more members. Such requirements can exist only in a multiparty system. Therefore, a mono-party system cannot be democratic. It is a rejection of democracy and leads to a dictatorship.
Tolerance
This is the ability to bear with something unpleasant or annoying. Tanzania is composed of different races, tribes and religious groups. In this society Africans from the majority when compared with other racial groups. As the rights of the small groups of persons does not depend on the number of people in the group the majority group has a duty to respect convictions and ways of life of the minorities
Citizen participation
Participation is the major role of citizens in democracy. It is both their right and duty. Citizenship participation includes standing for elections, debating issues, voting on elections gathering for community meetings, joining parties and organization, protesting and paying taxes. All these activities strengthen a democracy
Equality
In democracy all people are equal. This means people are valued equally. They have equal opportunities. No one is discriminated against. Moreover; groups are free to maintain their different cultures, personalities, languages and beliefs. When the majority deny rights to or destroy their opposition, they are also destroy democracy
Accountability
In democracy, elected and appointed officials ought to be accountable to the people. They must make decisions and perform their duties according to the wishes of the people, but not for their own interests.
Smooth transfer of power
In democracy there is a well established and transparent system of transferring power from one political party to another.
Economic freedom
In democracy, people must have economic freedom. This means that the government allows people town private property and businesses. People can chose work and join trade unions. There should be free markets whereby state should not control the economy.
Control of the power abuse
In democracy, elected and public officials are prevented from misusing their powers. The most common form of power misuse is corruption. This occurs when officials use public funds for their own benefit, accept bribes in order to render services, or exercise power illegally. Protection against abuse of power has been achieved through various methods. For example, having independent courts. With power to take action against corrupt officials; allowing for citizen participation in elections, and checking police abuse of power.
Incorporation (inclusion) if a bill of rights in the constitution
A bill of rights is a list of rights and freedom guaranteed to all citizens in a country. Many democratic countries incorporate bill of rights in the constitution. In those countries, the courts have the power to enforce these rights. A bill of rights in the constitution. In those countries, the courts have the power to enforce these rights. A bill of rights limits the power of government and impose obligations on individuals and organizations.