Globalization: Social and Geographic Perspectives
SOC 279 – Midterm Exam
Professor Nicole Hala
Spring 2010
Key Terms: Briefly define 5 out of 8 terms, and provide appropriate examples (8 pts each, 40 total)
BOOM-BUST CYCLE / DETERRITORIALIZATION / THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION
INDUSTRIAL UPGRADING / SOPHISTICATED FRAUD / STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE
US HOUSING BUBBLE / WASHINGTON CONSENSUS
Short Response: Respond to 6 out of 9 in a short paragraph (10 pts each, 60 total)
1) In their article, "The Hidden Promise: Liberty Renewed," John Micklethwait and Adrian
Wooldridge discuss the economic benefits of globalization, but they give special attention to its
political and cultural benefits. What are the political and cultural benefits of globalization? (Make
sure to distinguish between political and cultural benefits, i.e., provide an example of each).
2) Who are communitarians and what is it about globalization that worries them, according to
Micklethwait and Wooldridge? ("The Hidden Promise: Liberty Renewed")
3) Amartya Sen ("How to Judge Globalism") believes that both extreme positions in the debate on
globalization (i.e., "pro-globalization" and "anti-globalization") wrongly assume a "foundational
dichotomy between two disparate civilizations," the East and the West. He insists that we need to
move beyond the East-West dichotomy. Explain his argument.
4) In Amartya Sen's view, globalization has great potential and has brought prosperity to many parts
of the globe. However, Sen admits that the poor have not received their fair share of the benefits.
Sen does not believe the market economy itself is the problem, as many anti-globalization
protestors contend. What produces the unequal sharing of the benefits of globalization, according
to Sen? ("How to Judge Globalism")
5) How does Samuel Huntington characterize "culture" and cultural differences in his article, "The
Clash of Civilizations"? And what does he say about the relation between cultural differences
and politics?
6) What happened to inequality among individuals across the world in the last decades of the
twentieth century, according to Wolf (in "Incensed about Inequality"), and how does he explain
the trend he describes?
7) In "The Declining Authority of States," Susan Strange describes a shift in the "state-market
balance of power." What does she mean by this and how does technology relate to this shift, in
her opinion?
8) In "Globalism's Discontents," Joseph Stiglitz describes East Asian countries as cases of
"beneficial globalization." "By contrast, the countries that have, by and large, had globalization
managed for them by the International Monetary Fund and other international economic
institutions have not done so well," according to Stiglitz. How does he account for this contrast?
9) Stiglitz, in "Globalism's Discontents," describes what he calls "An Unfair Trade Agenda." What
does he mean by this? What are the key features of this "agenda"?