Subject: GS 1
Syllabus: Effects of Globalisation on Indian Society
Questions
- The post-1990s era of hyper-globalisation is now commonly acknowledged to have come to an end. Has the new era of de-globalisation started? Comment. (250 Words, 15 Marks)
- Cultural globalisation is a process where practices of each other’s culture are adopted in daily life. Discuss whether this has the potential to homogenise and amalgamate cultures. (250 Words, 15 Marks)
Model Structure
1. The post-1990s era of hyper-globalisation is now commonly acknowledged to have come to an end. Has the new era of de-globalisation started? Comment. (250 Words, 15 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction:
- The post-1990s era of hyper-globalisation is now commonly acknowledged to have come to an end. The COVID pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine have relegated global markets to a secondary and at best supporting role behind national objectives, in particular, public health and national security.
Main body:
- End of the hyper-globalisation era of the 1990s:
- Hyper-globalisation has been in retreat since the global financial crisis of 2007-08. The share of trade in world GDP began to decline after 2007, as China’s export-to-GDP ratio plummeted by a remarkable 16 percentage points. Global value chains stopped spreading. International capital flows never recovered to their pre-2007 heights. And populist politicians openly hostile to globalisation became much more influential in many advanced economies.
- The zero-sum logic of national security and geopolitical competition was antithetical to the positive-sum logic of international economic cooperation. With China’s rise as a rival to the US and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strategic competition has reasserted itself over economics.
- Donald Trump openly proposed tilting the terms of trade in favour of American industry. “Americanism, not globalism, shall be our creed.
- De-Globalisation: According to Walden Bello and Focus on the Global South, who coined the term "deglobalisation", the objective is not to withdraw from the global economy, but rather to trigger a process of restructuring the world economic and political system to strengthen local and national economies instead of weakening them.
- It is the process of diminishing interdependence and integration between the nations. It is characterised by the decline in economic trade and investment between countries.
- It highlights the trend of several countries wanting to go back to economic and trade policies that put their national interests first.
- These policies often take the form of tariffs or quantitative barriers that impede the free movement of people, products and services among countries.
- The idea behind de-globalisation is to shield local manufacturing by making imports costlier.
- Indicators of De-globalisation: There is some evidence of deglobalization in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The economic data are mixed and indicate a stall, but not a collapse of globalisation.
- Trade Protectionism: The recent trade war between the US and China indicates a change in the attitude of AEs in protecting their interests at the cost of developing countries. Trade is not growing as quickly as before the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, which may be the consequence of a decreased investment in technological innovation.
- Immigration Control: Instances of immigration control by the US, UK and other European countries have been dominant in the past decade. The recent decision of the Trump administration to build a wall across the Mexican border highlights the emerging trend of protectionism in the free movement of people across borders.
- Brexit Movement: Brexit and ‘Make America Great Again’ are symptoms of underlying processes of de-globalisation that have already generated significant trade and investment uncertainty. This has had a concrete impact on trade & investment flows as firms and consumers are adjusting their behaviour in anticipation of further trade shocks.
- Flow of Capital: Cross-border financial flows have been reduced due to uncertainty in global policy-making and increased protectionism by AEs.
- What are the reasons for this new trend? There are several reasons behind this trend today. Some of them are:
- Unequal distribution of benefits of globalisation, rising inequalities, job loss, especially in developed countries.
- MNCs across countries and workers from developing countries benefited the most, leading to the perception that workers from developing countries have stolen jobs from developed countries. This led to demands for a stricter visa regime and relocation of industries.
- Global slowdown exacerbated the above-mentioned situation and led to an increase in demand for protectionist measures across the globe.
Conclusion:
- Thus, the era of deglobalization has begun and is fastening due to the present circumstances of COVID, Chinese hegemony, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
2. Cultural globalisation is a process where practices of each other’s culture are adopted in daily life. Discuss whether this has potential to homogenise and amalgamate cultures. (250 Words, 15 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction
- Cultural globalisation is a process of bridging cultural diversities and anomalies by adoption and diffusion of cultural practices, ideas, customs and values.
Main Body
- Globalisation of consumption patterns and adoption of different lifestyles depends on the impact of soft power of any country. This can happen because-
- Globalisation sometimes tends to convert into homogenization which can be a threat to local customs, practices, identities and knowledge.
- Many economies are driven by foreign investments which results in the establishment of companies and institutions carrying foreign values and cultures. Industries like food, clothing, music etc can have a big impact on consumption patterns.
- Cultural homogenization marginalises indigenous cultures and replaces them by the universal character of advanced capitalist countries. This is evident because English is the language of global communication and the Christian calendar is used as a global standard.
- Many foreign aids are driven by conditionalities, which impact the independent decision-making of the recipient country.
- But globalisation can have a limited impact on homogenization in cases where-
- A society which is segmented into many communities has more potential to resist homogenization because of ‘cultural autonomy’.
- An example is India where core values have not changed despite being diverse in many aspects. Rather than getting absorbed into foreign influences, India has accommodated various cultures within it thus producing a hybrid culture.
- Glocalisation is a resistive dimension of globalisation which is marked by fusion of global cultures. This can be seen at the level of music, clothing, dance, cinema etc.
Conclusion
- This approach of homogenization is making deep inroads into local and regional culture, which is seen as a threat to their survival. The result is the increasing assertion of identities to defend their indigenous cultures and regional identities against the onslaught of cultural homogenization.
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