GLOBALIZATION
The world today has been described as a ‘global village’, this stems from Marshall Mc Luhan’s concept that ‘the globe has been contracted into a village by electric technology and the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time’.
A closer examination of globalization will indicate that indeed the barriers of space, time and borders which once existed have now disappeared or are disappearing.
Globalization has been described as the rapid increase in cross-border economic, social, technological exchange under conditions of capitalism, which also, influences all spheres of our life: culture, business, trade, politics, environment and even our mentality. It connects different countries and makes their interaction easier.
The globalization of the world economy is reflected in many ways. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) simulates free trade between countries which allows firms to trade more easily and move around the world. A result of this increased mobility is the increasingly large scope of money and capital markets and general regulations on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Globalization implies that there are forces that are global, objective and universal which restrict not only diversity, but also the scope for national governments’ policy formulations. An example of this, are the conditions of the IMF loan to the British Labour government in 1976 which led to a greater role for the private sector and forced the government to implement policies contrary to their manifesto.
Additionally, a growing inter-independence through technology is bringing people together. People are better able to communicate with, understand, and learn from each other using technology as a standard tool.
Globalization is characterized by challenges such as environmental degradation, over-population,