Definitions

An early description of globalization was penned by the American entrepreneur-turned-minister Charles Taze Russell who coined the term 'corporate giants' in 1897, although it was not until the 1960s that the term began to be widely used by economists and other social scientists. The term has since then achieved widespread use in the mainstream press by the later half of the 1980s. Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired numerous competing definitions and interpretations.

The United Nations ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labor... although considerable barriers remain to the flow of labor... Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but it slowed down during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inward-looking policies pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries... however, the pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century..."

Saskia Sassen writes that "a good part of globalization consists of an enormous variety of micro-processes that begin to denationalize what had been constructed as national — whether policies, capital, political subjectivity, urban spaces, temporal frames, or any other of a variety of dynamics and domains."

Tom J. Palmer of the Cato Institute defines globalization as "the diminution or elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result.

Finally, Takis Fotopoulos argues that globalization is the result of systemic trends manifesting the market economy's grow-or-die dynamic, following the rapid expansion of transnational corporations. Because these trends have not been offset effectively by counter-tendencies that could have emanated from trade-union action and other forms of political activity, the outcome has been globalisation. This is a multi-faceted and irreversible phenomenon within the system of the market economy and it is expressed as: economic globalisation, namely, the opening and deregulation of commodity, capital and labour markets which led to the present form of neoliberal globalisation; political globalisation, i.e., the emergence of a transnational elite and the phasing out of the all powerful-nation state of the statist period; cultural globalisation, i.e., / the worldwide homogenisation of culture; ideological globalisation; technological globalisation; social globalisation

 

Exercise 15. Read and translate the text, then answer the questions:

1. What does the term globalization mean?

2. What aspects of life can the term “globalization” refer to?

3. Who penned an early description of globalization?

4. What do you think the term “corporate giant” mean?

5. Can you enumerate any famous corporate giants you know? In what spheres do they work?

6. What does the term “globalization” mean in an economic context?

7. Do you think it is good to remove barriers between nations?

8. When did globalization begin?

9. Why did globalization slow down during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century?

10. What does Saskia Sassen write about globalization?

11. What is Tom J.Palmer’s opinion on this fact?

12. Which aspects of life does the definition of Takis Fotopoulos touch? Which of them are the most important, in your opinion?

13. Speak out about pros and cons of globalization.

 

Exercise 16. Find in the text synonyms to the following words:

joint, chain, commerce, known, written, create, start, rival, work, delay, privatize, decrease, display, originate, inconvertible.

 

Exercise 17. Choose one heading for each passage from the text, which can reveal its main idea:

1. An early description

2. General definition of the term “globalization”

3. A widespread use of this term.

4. Re-privatization of the nation

5. Globalization as a part of the market.

6. A great exchange and reduced barriers.

 

Exercise 18. Read the next text and complete it with the words, given below: