Introduction
Globalization is a concept which is much discussed around the world. Globalization has definitely affected the lives of many nations around the world. Generally speaking, this process opens up national boundaries and allows free interaction among different countries. Globalization has been commonly viewed in the light of carrying out trade and has been characterized with international treaties for examples GATT, EU, ECOWAS among many others.
As globalization, in the light of trading, picks up it has come to the realization of nations that there is a need to develop a common system which enhances the interaction among the nations of the world. There are challenges which have been brought up by economic globalization which include the issues unfairness whereby some countries are benefiting at the expense of others. Challenges such as recessions have their effects span beyond the boundaries of one nation. This takes place probably because of the interrelatedness existing among different nations such that if one of the nation is affected then the effect flow in a chain manner to the rest of the other nations which are linked to it.
The need to smoothen interactions between nations has led to the birth of the concept of democratic globalization. Democratic globalization has been looked up as a likely solution to smoothen out the conflicts which have been brought by economic globalization. Despite the fact that democratic globalization promises a solution to all the challenges brought by economic globalization there is a need to ask whether it really is a viable and possible solution to the challenges that the world faces.
In answering this question, the definition of democratic globalization is explored and how the need for democratic globalization has come about. This paper also explores the aspect of democratic globalization by analyzing both its positive and negative effects and checking whether it would benefit the world or will have a negative impact. An answer will be given by way of conclusion.
What is Democratic Globalization?
Literature has approached the definition of democratic globalization from different angles. According to Stiglitz, democratic globalization is necessary to correct the unfairness which has been brought about by globalizing agents such as World Trade Organizations
According to Stiglitz therefore, democratic globalization is a movement meant to iron out the challenges which economic globalization has brought along; the key word is ensuring that fairness prevails in international relations. Many other authors have tied their definitions for democratic globalization to the concept of fairness. In the views of Knol: “democratic globalization goes further as its goal is to organize globalization itself in a democratic way so to get a democratic world governance” (Knol 1). Elsewhere it has been shown that some of the multinationals are worth more than the total GNP of some countries.
In such kind of a market, as described by Imade, it becomes very hard for developing nations to have any bargaining power and actually this situation is part of the unfairness that economic globalization has brought. The table below provides another good example:
It is argued that democratic globalization will therefore support the prosperity of democratic nations: “democratic globalization would make it more feasible by implementing a world “police” and “justice” against rogue governments that have no respect for Human rights” (Knol 1).
From the brief discussion above of what constitutes democratic globalization, we can make a conclusion that it is a movement that intends to ensure that nations of the world relate in a democratic and fair manner. Such kind of intentions must be empowered by some system of governance which is likely to be a democratic global government. The following sub topics have been picked to enable further discussion of democratic globalization.
War
With a globalize governance system, it expected that it will be less likely for incidences of wars to take place. This is likely to be so because it would be expected that the democratic globalized government will respond quickly to any issue which may escalate to war if not taken care of. Incidences of terrorism are likely to be eliminated as there will be no boundaries for the democratic globalized police and it is expected that by every part of the world being accessed it will be easier to maintain peace (Jack 1). Development and free trade will progress when peace prevails over war.
Fight against Poverty
Economic globalization can be viewed as a predatory process due to the fact that it benefits one region or rather particular nations at the expense of some other nations. For instance, there have been views against the formation of the EU especially from the UK. The argument has been that the UK is losing a lot to by yoking itself to other countries which are relatively less developed. According to Abbott1, the European Union (EU) has done more harm to Britain than good. Abbott argued that the natural resources, for instance, fisheries which have been preserved over centuries by the British are now open up to exploitation by other EU members.
Britain had 80% of EU fish stocks because the stocks had been carefully managed for hundreds of years. France, Spain, and Italy had virtually destroyed the fish stocks of the Mediterranean and around their coasts. Now they were destroying ours with the connivance of the British Government. (Abbott 1)
Abbott further argued that people from other EU member countries are taking advantage of the beneficial social welfare system in the UK and flooding UK which already has the highest population in Europe. This has been due to the European Charter of Human Rights which makes it “impossible to deport many people who are found to have entered the country illegally” (Abbott 1).
This is what happens when a state which taxed its citizens to preserve its natural resources and develop a welfare system which the citizens can enjoy joins such unions. It is very evident that with the rise of democratic globalization then the countries which were, so to say, forward thinking will lose out as they will have to pull others which were either indulged in corruption or too lazy to think about tomorrow. Democratic globalization will lead to the formation of one government and with a common government it is not expected that there will be issues of boundary restriction. In simple terms all the sacrifices that have ever been made by citizens in a certain regions will definitely be shared by the rest.
On the positive side, the less developed nations and regions are likely to benefit as they will get assistance probably under the aspect of devolution of wealth to grassroots levels by the democratic globalized government. The less developed regions will have to be developed to enhance accessibility of the entire world taking into consideration the fact that the whole world will be considered as a single state. It will be expected that through democratic globalization, the third world countries would have to be supported and developed to make them at par with the other regions. This will benefit the less developed regions at the expense of the developed nation.
In general, democratic globalization will likely lead to heavily taxing the developed countries for the benefit of the less developed countries. This is the reason why the UK has held back on the issue of the Euro currency. Democratic globalization should not be enhanced at such a time when equality among nations is quite wide as this will likely dump the world in some big financial challenges. The democratic globalized government will have to develop the underdeveloped regions to enhance trade and interactions across the world at the expense of the developed countries implying that wealth accumulated over the years will be disseminated into the third world countries.
Gender and Inequality
The issue of gender inequality becomes pronounced when referring to the developing nations and Muslim countries. Starting with the third world nations with special reference to the African states, the girl child is not given equal chances as the boy child. News all over the media houses show how female children are married off while still premature at ages when they ought to be in schools. Most of the Muslim nations do not view women as being equals of men; for instance, in Saudi Arabia a male witness is considered worth two witnesses – that is a very high level of inequality (WHO 1). Hassan has argued that:
Most Muslims — women and men — consider it self-evident that men are superior to women. Going further, they justify many manifestations of inequality as inherent in Islam. In fact, women are regarded in a number of contemporary Muslim societies as less than fully human because it is widely believed that in some contexts (such as inheritance or witnessing to contracts), one man is equal to two women. (Hassan 1)
Hassan has gone ahead to claim that killing of women in some nations is considered normal; “honor killings of women by their husbands remain common in certain Muslim countries” (Hassan 1). With democratic globalization this is likely to be phased out due to the fact that such philosophies as women being unequal to men will definitely conflict with the philosophies of the one democratic globalized government (Democratic 1).
As Hassan has suggested, these kinds of practices are carried out because people, particularly women, are kept in darkness. A globalized government will most likely free these women from such kind of slavery which in the words of Hassan is treating women as half humans (Hassan 1). It will be expected that the world government will likely garner its efforts to protect the children from early marriage and issues touching of child labor. All these efforts will likely benefit the third world countries where such issues are rampant. This will bring equality among the citizens of the world.
Ethnicity and Religion
Ethnicity and religion might pose a challenge to the efforts of democratic globalization. There are possibilities that the harmonizing of religions and ethnicities may be hard task for the government to carry out as there is likely going to be some conflicts of interests. For instance, pick the issue of Islamic religion which considers women as not being equals of men: it will not be expected of the globalized government to take this stand.
This may lead to unnecessary conflicts between the two. Still consider other nations such as Iran which believe that people should only be ruled by the sharia law and try to picture them in the globalized government. What about states which have been perpetually in war such as Israel and its neighbors? What I am trying to put across is that the globalized government will likely have too many issues to handle and solve successfully.
Terrorism
Another big question that we need ask ourselves is whether the recent historic wave of terrorism has anything to do with democratic globalization. It may be argued that the need for some states to bring about globalization may have triggered some insecurity in some countries or rather some people who may have seen it as an intrusion to their personal rights or state of sovereignty. Democratic globalization is arguably pioneered by the developed nations especially the U.S and while some of the developing countries may be for the idea others may have different opinions.
By taking the case of the Iraq war that has lasted for so long we can arguably say that while the U.S may be pursuing democratic globalization agenda, Iraqis may never see that point and in the process put up some resistance. This resistance may be assumed to be one of the causes of terrorism. Thus, it may be concluded that globalization agenda may have caused insecurities in some communities hence giving birth to terrorism. However, it is worth noting that if all the nations would view the issue on the same way then there would be no resistance and probably the idea would work for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Abolishing of Boundary Restrictions
Democratic globalized system of governance will likely abolish boundary restrictions to facilitate free movement for easy interactions. Free movement without any restrictions may give a wide room for terrorists to accomplish their evil desires. By the fact that the world will be democratically globalized will not mean that the hatred that terrorists harbor against some nations will fade out. With open boundaries it will even become hard to arrest such international criminals who will likely have dynamic means of moving around. Free movement again will likely make it possible for the terrorists to carry out recruitment around the world freely.
The powers of such movements cannot be underrated taking into consideration the fact that most of them place their missions’ objectives above their lives. The democratic globalized system of governance will risk contradicting its core objective if it restricts people from a given regions to move freely therefore meaning that opening up of boundaries will be one grave mistake.
Inefficiency
A democratic globalized system of governance will likely be very structured due to the fact that it will have so many issues to handle. It will likely be very huge and as a result will likely have many organs to enable it carry out its duties. In such kind of a system where it is hard to get to the top officials, there will be possibilities of significant issues being ignored and not paid attention to. This may likely make it hard for some decisions which may require the attention of top officials being delayed. Democratic globalized government will likely experience diseconomies of large scale.
Development
It is imperative to appreciate the fact that one of the major reasons behind the need for globalization is because of its potential to bring about overall development in all the participating countries. Proponents of democratic globalization idea argue that it will lead to harmonization of leadership ideologies, cooperation and interaction among all countries hence opening up of markets and investment opportunities to all members. This is believed to bring overall development to all countries in the long run. It may be the best option for the developing countries that instead of depending on developed countries for financial aids, they will actually get support from the whole global community as a whole.
But it is worth noting that whereas globalization may benefit the developing countries it may have a negative economic effect in the developed countries. It is claimed that “the United States has long been riding the crest of the wave of globalization but is now experiencing its downsides; what is good for multinational capital is no longer good for the US” (Pieterse 4).
Post-colonialism
With the wound of colonialism not yet healed in some countries it may be hard to still go back to those countries to sell the idea of democratic globalization since they are likely to take it as post-colonialism. Illiteracy levels may impede the understanding of the idea of a globalized democratic economy in some regions leading to vetoing down of such an idea by citizens in such regions. In addition since the prime movers of the democratic globalization idea are the developed countries they will definitely overshadow the ideas from the weaker societies and this is likely to take us back to the colonial times.
However, the presence of stronger economies with stronger political influence may be taken as one of the benefits of democratic globalization since new leadership ideas which seem to be lacking in some of the developing countries will be introduced and this will definitely benefit such countries. An ideal democratic globalization according to Smith is the one that consists of “a much more diverse array of individuals, organizations, and government official and agencies that work to promote alternatives to global capitalism in various ways” (Smith 1). Such a democratic globalization move will certainly benefit the developing countries.
Human rights
It can generally be argued that the respect and integrity accorded to the community or generally the level of maturity of human rights vary from one country to another. Democratic globalization is likely to harmonize the issues of human rights which will be an advantage to those countries where such levels may otherwise never have been achieved in times to come. This can clearly be seen on a report by Siroen “the integration process is anchored to democratic values even in the countries with an authoritative or autocratic tradition. European Union encourages a country like Turkey to democratize its institutions” (Siroen 2).
It is also argued that “economic growth might indeed contribute to improved human rights practices” (Smith 3). The issue of sovereignty is sometimes taken for granted and sometimes leaders cause internal wars and conflicts. Democratic globalization may overshadow the sovereignty issue as we will all be expected to move towards one common goal of one harmonious global community. This is likely to go a long way in minimizing internal conflicts (Scholte 1).
International relations
Democratic globalization is expected to make the world one global community where good international relations among all countries will be the first priority. However, this may not be actually realized owing to the fact that democracy may bring a variety of thoughts and ideologies some of which might be conflicting thus putting the international relations in jeopardy. However, if all the nations would have the goodwill and read from the same script then democratic globalization will enhance international relations. In addition different democratic ideologies combined together might generate genius ideas that might enhance international relations.
Monopoly of world democracy
Democratic globalization is most certainly going to result to commonness of democratic and leadership ideologies as countries try to get into consensus and in harmony which is arguably the key pillar of such an idea. This is likely to mean that when such a pool of ideas is not the best for the community then the whole global community is likely to suffer. Frey and Eichenberger raised similar concerns as they claim that “even a representative democratic world government could not provide true democratic governance” (Frey and Eichenberger 3).
There is a possibility that a monopoly of world democracy may have some negative consequences. There are possibilities however that the system may end up abusing its mandate and act in a way that may seem to be dictatorial. For instance the Muslims prefers to be led by the sharia law which is part of their religion; a democratic globalized system will have to overlook this factor of “sharia law” and this might be viewed as being insensitive or rather dictatorial thus losing legitimacy.
By losing legitimacy the democratic globalized system may be viewed as being terroristic. By the fact that the democratic globalization movement is being spearheaded by the developed countries, there are possibilities that the former colonies may view this whole process as post colonialism. Lastly there is the risk of creating a monopoly of world democracy. Monopoly in politics especially in relation to leadership may be very disadvantageous as it may eventually give no room alternative expression of views since the system of governance will be centralized.
Conclusion
Economic globalization has enhanced growth which has been viewed to be unhealthy because it only benefits one side – the developed countries. As a result of the one sided benefit, economic globalization has been termed as an unfair system which does not create a platform for fairness and equality. The lack of fairness and equality at the international market has triggered the democratic globalization movement.
This movement has an aim of ensuring that nations of the world interact freely and in a fair manner which can be achieve by creating democratic globalized institutions whose aim will be above that of benefiting some specific states but rather to serve all the nations of the earth. The democratic globalized system of governance will aim to turn multinationals to being democratic globalized institutions. This kind of system will be expected to iron out some of the challenges which have been brought along by economic globalization.
Apart from just ironing out the challenges of economic globalization, there are more benefits as well as challenges which will likely surface as the democratic globalized system of governance tries to bring order and fairness at the international market. For instance, democratic globalization will definitely reduce the number of wars around the world as it will likely act swiftly in response to regional crises.
It is also expected that this form of governance will be instrumental in the development of the third world countries which have been on the receiving end of economic globalization though this is likely to be accomplished at the expense of wealthy created by the developed countries. Gender and equality may be another challenge for the system as it will have to ensure equal treatment of all genders especially in regions where women are regarded to be inferior. In developing nations, the systems will be faced with the challenges of eliminating child labor and ensuring that the girl child has equal access to education as the boy child.
Democratic globalization will likely enhance the abolishment of restriction of movements across different regions. This will greatly empower people as it will be possible for to freely move to different regions. However, free movement may also act as a trigger for terrorism activities to spread around the globe. There is a likelihood that in such a free movement status terrorists will likely move around recruiting members to accomplish their own selfish interests.
Conclusively, it can be argued that democratic globalization will likely benefit the world in some aspects while at the same time there are dangers involved implementing such an idea. Implementing such a system will likely face many challenges as discussed above. In order not to miss out on the benefits, there is a need for the body to come up with ways to ensure that it gains legitimacy especially in countries which are former colonies and the Muslim countries.
It is also very significant for the movement to have a well-structured constitution which has proper and effective internal check systems which will make it impossible for the governance system to turn tyranny. The globalized system of governance will likely have to develop a detailed structure for devolvement of power to ensure that issue such as terrorism do not take root at the grassroots levels. The implication that this article has brought across is that despite globalization facing challenges, it has high chances of offering the solution to the woes of economic globalization.
Works Cited
Abbott, David. Globalization in Great Britain. The August Review. Web.
Democratic. Theme: Democratic globalization. Forum for a new World Governance, n.d. Web.
Frey, Bruno and Eichenberger, Reiner. Democratic Governance for a Globalized World. 2002. Web.
Hassan, Riffat. Members, One of another: gender Equality and Justice in Islam. University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Web.
Imade, Lucky. Globalization. International Studies center, 2003. Web.
Jack, Smith. Social movements for global democracy. New York: Cengage, 2008. Print.
Knol. Democratic Globalization. Knol. Web.
Pieterse, Jan. Towards Democratic Globalization. New York, Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Scholte, Jan. Globalization: a critical introduction. London, UK: Palgrave McMillan. Print.
Siroen, Jean. Globalization and democracy. Dauphine, 2003. Web.
Smith, Jackie. The Struggle for Global Society in a World System. Smith, n.d. Web.
Stiglitz, Joseph. The Future of Global Governance. World Governance, 2004. Web.
WTO. Globalization. Jannerderveen, n.d. Web.
Footnotes
- Dr. David Abbott was born and raised in Southampton, England. He is a medical doctor and active in politics. Spent 25 years in America, where he raised a family and practiced medicine in Oregon. In 2000, Abbott returned to Winchester, UK in order to join UKIP’s campaign for the freedom, independence and prosperity of all Brits. He ran for MP (Member of Parliament) in the 2005 General Election in England.