SEQ Test
Has globalisation brought more
benefits or ills to countries around
the world? Explain your answer.
LORMS 1
• L3: Explains one perspective, benefit OR
ill with clear link to issue. [5-7]
• L4: L3 + Explains other perspective.
BOTH perspective, with clear link to issue.
[8-11]
• L5: Reaches a balanced conclusion based
on the relative significance of the factors.
[12-13]
LORMS 2
• Thematic:
If both perspectives are present:
L4: 5-11
Social max. 2 marks (5-6)
Economic max. 3 marks (7-9)
Environment max. 2 marks (10-11)
Analysis for benefits
• Economic:
• Example: Improvement in standard of
living → Analysis: Benefits people
because they can have greater
educational opportunities to equip
themselves with useful skills and have
access to better healthcare facilities which
can enhance their physical well-being and
quality of life.
Analysis for benefits
• Economic:
• Example: Mobility of talent → Analysis developed
countries benefit as they are able to source for
overseas talents, to make up for shortfall of local
talents in specific areas. Developing countries can
also benefit as MNCs open branches in these
developing countries and send their multi-national
talent team there, which facilitates a transfer of
technology and skills, thus helping local workers and
local economy to develop further, and in turn to
become more attractive to investors. As the country
develops, its people also benefit from it as the
infrastructure is improved and there is greater
convenience and higher standard of living.
• Partly explains Singapore’s rags to riches story.
Analysis for benefits
• Social
• Example: Increase awareness of foreign
culture → Analysis: Globalisation
promotes greater cultural understanding
and reduces xenophobia and minimises
discrimination of the ‘other.’ In turn
promotes greater harmony between
different cultural groups.
Analysis for benefits
• Environment
• Example: Environmental management →
Analysis: Globalisation facilitates transfer of
green technology from developed to developing
countries, which helps to reduces pollution, as
developing countries no longer have to follow
the same environmentally destructive path to
becoming a modern industrialised nation, as the
current industrialised nations did, during the
industrial revolution (19th century). Transfer of
green technology makes sustainable
development possible. Reduction of pollution
removes the detrimental effect that pollution has
on people’s health. Improves quality of air which
in turn improves quality of life.
Analysis for ills
• Economic:
• Example: Increase competition among
nations → Analysis: May lead to
developing countries driving down labour
cost in order to attract MNCs. This results
in sweatshop labour, where production
workers work long hours, often under
terrible work conditions, and for very little
pay. Detrimental to their physical and
mental well-being.
Analysis for ills
• Economic:
• Example: Widening income gap between rich
and poor → Analysis: May cause feelings of
jealousy and injustice to arise, which may take
the form of demonstrations, such as those seen
in rural China and the current situation in
Thailand, where the rural poor ‘the Red shirts’
have pitted themselves against the elites whom
they accuse of fattening themselves at the
expense of the rural poor. This results in political
instability, which would definitely affect the
investor confidence in the country, thus leading
to a possible economic decline in the country,
which affects the population adversely, as their
livelihoods are threatened.
Analysis for ills
• Social
• Example: Loss of local culture → Analysis: Loss
of local culture and the creation of a
homogenous culture may lead to a sense of
rootlessness, among the younger generation.
Some of whom may be attracted to radical
ideologies such as radical Islam which gives
them a greater sense of belonging and purpose
in life, and have committed atrocities in the
name of brotherhood and ‘holy war’ on American
cultural imperialism.
Analysis for ills
• Environmental:
• Example: Environmental degradation →
Analysis: Globalisation has led to permanent
damage to the environment, as seen from the
extinction of animals due to deforestation and
the clearing of their habitats for economic use.
Air pollution is also detrimental to people’s
health and may mean that increasing number of
people may suffer from respiratory related
problems.
Conclusion: Ills > benefits
• Need an argument: E.g. long term environmental cost,
short term economic gains?
• Need to illustrate: Although air travel has facilitated
greater convenience as TNCs use it to transport goods
and personnel, thus bringing economic benefits in the
form of increased profits, this has resulted in long term
environmental cost of global warming, as air travel
releases carbon into the air, hence trapping heat and
causing the ice caps to melt. The corresponding rise in
sea levels threaten the survival of low lying land such as
Singapore, Venice and the Maldives. Huge long term
environmental cost as global warming is irreversible.
Currently we can only hope to manage it, but cannot
completely eradicate the problem.
Conclusion: Ills > benefits
• Another argument: Globalisation has benefitted all, but some
benefit more than others, and what matters in people’s minds
is the relative, rather than absolute, comparison.
• Need to illustrate: Although people as a whole have benefitted
economically from globalisation, through the transfer of
technology and the creation of jobs, what matters is their
relative advancement vis a vis their counterparts in other
countries. The advancement in mass media and the high
ownership of television all around the world has made the
disparity in wealth even clearer and has made the people who
perceive of themselves as having the shorter end of the stick
feeling very discontented with their social betters. This latent
discontentment is potentially highly potentially subversive and
governments must step in to prevent it from breaking out in
mass demonstrations and lashing out at MNCs and the rich
who are perceived to be exploiting the people.
Conclusion: Benefits > Ills
• Argument: Globalisation has brought about more ills in
the short run, but has the potential to bring benefits in
the long term.
• Illlustration: Initial phrase is very costly, but it requires
time for economic benefits to trickle down to the other
classes. With time, governments will be better able to
deal with the ills of globalisation and to come up with
laws to regulate it, such that it will benefit the people. I.e.
Put in place fines to prevent factory owners from
polluting rivers (by depositing their waste there), or to
come up with more equitable laws to reduce wealth gap.
Globalisation has the potential to bring both benefits and
ills, and its ultimate impact on the people is very reliant
on the quality of government. Good governance will
ensure that their countries are better able to benefit from
globalisation and to mitigate the ills that globalisation has
brought about.
Conclusion: Benefits > Ills
• Argument: Globalisation has brought more benefits than ills.
Disadvantages are relative rather than absolute. Brought
progress to people, and nothing comes without a price.
Disadvantages in the initial phase, but as countries become
more attuned to globalisation they are better able to
leverage its benefits and minimise on its ills.
• Illustration: Making efforts to solve the initial problems that it
created. Globalisation enables connectivity among countries
through international organisations and conferences e.g.
Kyoto Protocol and recent Copenhagen Summit, shows
increasing commitment to mitigate global warming.
Moreover, due to mobilisation of talent, talented scientists
from around the world have been able to work together to
find alternative sources of power, such as solar, hydroelectric power which are less harmful to the environment.
Moreover, the invention of cars that run on electricity rather
than on fuel may become more popular in years to come,
and help to mitigate the problem of air pollution resulting
from greater affluence.
Economic terms
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Trade unions + Union workers
Productivity (Economic)
Trade Imbalance
Gross Domestic Product
Gross National Product
Recession + Depression
Inflation + Deflation
Shrinking economy
Economic indicators (e.g. Growth, Balance of
Payments, Unemployment rate)
• Revaluation/devaluation of currency
• Economic sustainability
• Flexible workforce