POLS 374 Foundations of
Global Politics
Lecture 2: Globalization Debates (pt. 2)
September 28, 2006
Professor Timothy Lim
California State University, Los Angeles
E-mail: tclim@calstatela.edu
http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/tclim
Globalization Debates
What to do?
What specific policies or policy courses
should be adopted toward globalization?
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Globalization Debates
What to do?
 The author tells us that there are at least
four broad lines of policy response:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Neoliberal
Rejectionist
Reformist
Transformist
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Globalization Debates
Neoliberalism
 What is neoliberalism?
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 Premised on the idea that markets are the most
efficient and effective means of organizing an
economy and society
 Liberals believe that free markets, while not
perfect, are the best means possible to increase
prosperity, liberty, democracy, and peace for the
greatest number of people
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 The emphasis is on free markets

“Free” means limited or no interference in any market
operations by government through regulations or laws,
or through non-market activities that limit or otherwise
constrain competition.

Practically speaking, this means that liberals are against
any form of protectionism or any type of state subsidy.
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 Liberalism closely associated with famous
economists such as Friedrich von Hayek and
Milton Friedman
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 The logic of liberalism tells us that all factors of
production and consumption should be allowed
to move within and across border with complete
freedom. This includes capital, goods, service,
money and labor.
 As the author notes, however, few neoliberals
are willing to argue strongly that labor be able to
move within and across borders with complete
freedom.
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 Neoliberals are not anarchists
What does
this mean?
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 It means that neoliberals do not advocate no
government, only very limited government.
 Practically speaking, this means that the
government role should be limited to making
sure that there is sufficiently strong legal and
institutional framework to allow markets to
emerge and develop; governments must also
guarantee property rights and contracts
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 One more important point …
 Many neoliberals argue that when some
societies or countries are reluctant to
“liberalize” that they should be forced to
This pictures depicts Indonesia’s former
dictator, Suharto, signing an agreement with the
IMF. In order to receive IMF funds, however,
Suharto had to agree to far-reaching economic
and political reforms designed to “liberalize”
Indonesia. For more info, click here.
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Globalization Debates
What is Neoliberalism?
 One last point …
 Neoliberalism is the dominant policy line: it is
the policy advocated by the United States
government and most of its allies; it is the
policy advocated by major international
financial organizations, such as the IMF and
World Bank, and it is the main principle of the
WTO
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Globalization Debates
Rejectionism
 Rejectionists span the ideological spectrum:
some are radical environmentalists, while others
are right wing nationalists.
 Their common perception is that globalization is
inherently harmful and dangerous: whatever
good it does is limited to small groups of elites.
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Globalization Debates
Rejectionism
 Rejectionists call for de-globalization, which can
mean several things:
Economic nationalists, for example, advocate a delinking
from global economic activity
Religious fundamentalists prescribe going “local” to
retrieve original beliefs and practices of faith
Radical environmentalists advocate a return to the
“simple life” of premodern society
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Globalization Debates
Rejectionism
 Rejectionists, as a group, are the most strongly
opposed to globalization, and, as the author
explains it, they are the only group that might be
appropriately classified as “anti-globalization”
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 Reformists are not anti-globalization; instead,
they are “alter-globalization”
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 They do share with rejectionists a deep suspicion
of neoliberalism: they agree that neoliberalism
has the potential to inflict major cultural,
ecological, economic, political and
psychological harms
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 They do not reject capitalism per se, for they see
neoliberalism as an extreme form of capitalism.
 Instead, they believe there is a middle ground: a
form of capitalism that can both encourage
economic efficiency, but also promote stability
and equity, while also limiting damage to the
environment, minimizing violence, and
enhancing democracy.
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 The intellectual father of reformism is John
Maynard Keynes
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 Practically speaking, reformists advocate a type
of “managed capitalism”: for example, they
believe in controls on the cross-border
movement of resources when such constraints
would reduce market volatilities, social
inequalities, and environmental costs.
 They also believe that governments need to
exercise control over corporate power: to keep
corporations from becoming too big (e.g., antitrust measures)
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 They believe in guaranteeing minimum
standards: living wages, no child labor, health
and safety regulations, etc.
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 Because most of these things can only be
achieved through the state, reformists argue that
states continue to be very, very important: at the
same time, reformists understand that many
states are too weak to be effective on their own,
which means that the creation of a global
authority is also necessary
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Globalization Debates
Reformism
 A “global authority” doesn’t mean a world
government, but the use of already established
international organizations
 These organizations, too, must be reformed: they
must be made more democratic so that they
represent the voices of ordinary citizens across
the world, and not just the voices of the elite in
the most powerful countries
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Globalization Debates
Transformism
 Transformism and reformism appear similar on
the surface, but transformists do not believe that
reformists go far enough: it isn’t enough to
tinker with capitalism and with international
organizations; instead, there needs to be a
fundamental transformation that transcends
prevailing social structures with radically new
arrangements.
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