Economic and Political Globalization

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“It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity” – Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of the United Nations

The world is increasingly global. People have never been so informed about the rest of the world. The humanity is now connected by a common imagination! This thought can be scary or even terrifying, but at the same time, is absolutely amazing, in my point of view, to think that together we have the huge opportunity to transform this world in a better place, a place where we all can live without borders or frontiers. Besides all the economics transformations that we have been living, we have been assisting to big transformations in the political side. Political globalization has a huge impact on the way that nations think, act and on the behavior of the companies and markets. Today, we have the chance to assist to the creation of a big number of international organizations that might have the power of unite nations and governments. However, will these transformations follow exactly the same steps of economic globalization? Will these two issues develop side by side? That’s what I will try explain along this essay.

First of all we should define Globalization. What is it? Where it will lead us? Well, according to the United Nations Poverty and Development Division, globalization is described as “an increasing interaction across national boundaries that affects many aspects of life: economic, social, cultural and political,” (Economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific, 1999). Therefore, globalization is the process by which the world is interconnected and which results in an integration among people, companies and governments of different nations.  

Through the improvement of international trade and the investment in technologies, it’s possible to be informed about what just happened in the other side of the world. Today what is happening in Asia it’s important in Washington or in Budapest. A car can be constructed in Japan with pieces imported from German and after that, be bought in Portugal by a Brazilian who is the owner of a multinational company. Thus, globalization reflects this continuing expansion of the markets such as the incredible increase of the free movement of people, money, goods, cultures, ideas and ideals across international borders. In the extreme, globalization which would lead us to a single global market was capable of make countries restrictedly dependent one of the others. Therefore, globalization has the power to create an impact in many areas such as economic, social, political and cultural. Globalization is generally understood to include two major themes: first, the improvement of the economy driven by the disappearance of the borders between countries that have, almost always, the power to unite the nations, to approach different people and to increase their standards of living. On the other hand, we have been seeing a huge change in institutional and politic regimes at the international and national levels. However, I think that the evolution and improvement of politics will not happen at the same level and at the same time of the economic globalization.