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Globalization can be altered by Political Action
Globalization is the integration of governments, people or businesses convening an international influence that attracts international transactions. Globalization and politics are intertwined domains that affect each other in different measures. During the first wave of globalization, countries were merged into regions making them 54, a decrease making them from the initial 125. The second wave, on the other hand, has witnessed an increase in the number of countries cumulatively up to at least 190 by 2016 (Gancia, Ponzetto & Ventura, 2016). The influences of political action on globalization date back in history. Political factors such as decolonization, war, the USSR breakup and changes in the worldwide currency values alter the scope of globalization. Therefore, political action can alter-globalization making it slow, rapid or preventing it from taking place.
Political globalization is also a factor that affects the scope of globalization. When the worldwide political system becomes synonymous in terms of complexity and size, the aftermath is better relationships amongst countries. Rifai (2013) argues that developing countries are in the processes of devolving their countries to come with government structures that are similar to superpower countries. The need for these changes emanates from political issues such as graft over corruption and promotion of equity within the country. Significantly, these countries tend to come up with intergovernmental organizations that promote closer relationships. Through these organizations, nations promote intergovernmental which is literally a regional integration (Rifai, 2013). Thus, naturally, political globalizations convenes and effective environment for globalization.
Multilateralism, as promoted by the US, is a political action that influences globalization. According to Rifai (2013), countries have capacitated non-governmental organizations to regulate their governments. Most activist NGO’s are international only that they have branches in different countries. Therefore, it is possible that when playing the role of a watchdog, NGO’s consult with their peers in other countries to arrive at decisions. Ideally, the NGO’s influences the government in a manner that an international presence is represented, giving room for the development of a global civil society (Rifai, 2013). As a result, the political sphere of the countries is shaped by the NGO’s allowing for regionalization, a sign of globalization.
The international political dimension has transformed from the rest on force philosophy that either categorizes something as useful or a threat. Thus, the politics of military security is facing extinction as countries are focused on politics are driven by economy and social issues (Rifai, 2013). The concept of interstate relations has been replaced by the IMF, World Bank, and other international organizations which have become the key actors. In this scenario, countries relate with each other with no limitations pertinent to power. Despite some developing countries having weak governance, the international political scope governed by democracy leading to the inclusion of all countries. Therefore, the developing countries are capacitated to access markets in developed countries and by virtue of imports and exports, globalization thrives.
During the colonial period, the different reasons for the colonies to take over other countries were political. These reasons include exploitation of natural resources, finding cheap labor from slaves and economic distress. Colonies that had similar demands collaborated especially during the world war and when the colonized countries started fighting for independence (Redner, 2017). The coming together, in this case, results from political actions. The abrupt increase of countries from the 50s to 200 within a period of three decades was due to decolonization (Gancia et al., 2016). This is reverse globalization whereby regions such as Africa divided up into 56 countries with limited integration and transactions. Colony relinquishment by the Europeans was a political action that had an implication on globalization.
In 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) broke up due to political actions. The Republicans sought independence and the capacities to govern themselves leading to a creation of 15 countries from the one large region (Segbers, 2017). The bigger picture in this dissolution is the disagreements that the 15 countries had about political power and governance. After the separation, each country laid down own set of laws governing borders and the land. Such policies cut out other countries who believe in something different from making interactions thus destroying globalization.
Similarly, political temperatures such as fights between prominent leaders in a country affect globalization negatively. For instance, Sudan became peaceful only after a secession that gave rise to South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan. Moreover, due to the clashes, other countries withdraw their relations from the fighting nation due to fear of being partisan, a cut on the benefits they enjoyed or project economic impacts (Awan, 2016). War in countries is driven by politics. Some parties feel oppressed by the government about some policies and events. For instance, during the election period, when the citizens discover the president-elect is not the one who garnered the majority of votes, they tend to fight depending on ethnic lines. Significantly, World War II marked an end in the poor economic and political integration between nations. However, globalization was still limited due to the political fragmentation after the increased number of countries (Gancia et al., 2016). Therefore, some political influences are detrimental to the developments of globalization.
The advancing trade opportunities influence the global political structure. Simon (2016) argues that borders can be very costly since they hamper globalization. Countries are changing their political structures to promote globalization by terminating the borders or minimizing their costs. As a result, there have been incidences of non-monotonic evolution of the sizes of countries. A political decision to maintain borders allows for globalization however slow. This is because trade and other interactions will be limited to some factors such as the range of goods. However, the decision to merge localities ratifies one government that convenes trade with no limitations.
The economic competition between countries is a significant driver of globalization. Countries have become more sensitive to political influences on the economy. Thus, different governments are forming international alliances whose benefits are mutual. These alliances include the formation of trade areas such as COMESA and Commonwealth (Gancia et al., 2016). Despite the existence of boundaries within the countries, they trade freely with no border limitations. This is a nuance of globalization.
The advancements in technology have made borderless transactions more feasible promoting economic globalization. The global economy is driven by big transactional firms such as Microsoft and Yahama, and developed countries such as the US play dominant roles in the market. Currently, it is common for developing countries to seek loans from superpowers such as the US, China, and the World Bank, with agreements on how they will both benefit (Simon, 2016). For these activities to take place, countries are making political decisions that would make them eligible them to transact thus an opportunity for globalization.
To some countries, especially those still undergoing development, the conditions for capital flows and free-market as set by supranational bodies such as the IMF and WTO are overwhelming. Arguably, these developing countries are bound to political actions so that they may fit into the international domain (Rifai, 2013). As a result, these political changes make the developing countries vulnerable to weak economic state. To evade these struggles, developing countries are promoting trade amongst themselves as others pull out from the IMF. These are political actions that relieve countries from interdependency and over-dependence. Therefore, political action regulates globalization, making it sprout out with unprecedented energy in cases when there are limited barriers to international trade or slow it down when countries fall victims of oppression through their political decisions.
The changes in global trade as the service industry takes over the goods industry is a significant change in globalization. Incumbents in the international trade domain rely on their goods such as autos, oil, and aerospace. Significantly, each country faces political challenges that destroy the revenue generating capacities of these goods. For instance, Kenya has recently discovered oil in Turkana region. However, due to the legal obligations as demanded by the government through different regulatory bodies, mining the oil and refining it has become a huge cost that even the revenues that would be acquired may not recover (Johannes, Zulu & Kalipeni, 2015). Contrary, governments have limited hold of services within the global economy. Some of these services are virtual hence untouchable by the negative political actions. When the government realizes the potential of services in mining revenues, they tend to promote them through ratification of policies that promote service delivery. Clearly, the dependability of globalization on trade goods has shifted to service goods, credit to political actions.
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