POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: International Criminal Court, North American Free Trade Agreement, Fortune Global 500
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23 Dec 2014
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Political Science 1G06 2014 Lecture 9b: Globalization
What exactly is Globalization? What is so new and different about the
world that we have to coin a new word to describe it?
What Globalization is, arguably, not (or at least not just):
-1. Increase in international trade and investment?
- International trade and investment have increased enormously in the
last 40 years
- However, trade and financial flows are not a unique characteristic of
the late 20th century
- By some measures (trade as a percentage of GDP, capital flows/GDP),
the world was more internationally connected in 1913 than it was until
the 1990s
-2. Increasing power of Multinational Corporations?
- Some of the largest economic agents on the planet are not states but
Multinational Corporations
- Measured by revenue (Fortune Global 500) at number 27 is Walmart
with revenue of close to $480 Billion, with several other corporations
close behind
- Revenue larger than the GDP of all but 26 states
- Larger than the most significant international organizations
- Moreover, the absolute number of MNCs has been increasing rapidly
- However, MNCs are not historically unique, nor is their power as
individual actors greater now than historically
- East India Company, Hudson’s Bay Corporation, etc
- Moreover, how global are multinational corporations
- The majority of the largest corporations are headquartered in just a
few states
-3. A neo-Liberal project designed to create a free-trade world?
- Some of the key International Organizations like the World Trade
Organization and the International Monetary Fund have rules in place
that bind states into an international system framed around liberal free
trade, private markets, etc
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