Globalization

Globalization
By Sharon White

At the beginning of this century the world society has faced with various crisis phenomena and their consequences of different character: international, systematical, social and economic, political, ecological etc. Such processes also take place in social and cultural, religious and inter confessional relations, in difficult interaction of moral standards and politics. World society is facing a problem of integral comprehension of the society development in new conditions, when human interests become dominant in international life, although it is still overwhelmed with contradictions regarding class, national and ethnical, group levels. The paradox of the situations lies in the fact that globalization of social processes and of human interests are closely connected with civilization crisis.

The term Globalization is a highly controversial one and there are many debates associated with it. One of the key debates is the extent to which it has really taken root or not; is with or without historical precedent.

On one hand, people argue that we live in an era that is highly globalize and has no historical precedent. The argument is that there have been a number of changes over the last twenty five years which now mean that borders don’t really matter, governments cannot control economic flows in the way that they could previously, and companies, particularly multi national companies (MNC's), don’t have any particular allegiance to any one country. These are the elements of the argument suggesting that globalization has happened in the last twenty five years or so, which is really different from what we have experienced before.

On the other side of the spectrum, the view is that this is not an accurate description of the world in which we live on the basis of a number of different things. The view is that when we actually look at some measures, dimensions, or indications of globalization carefully, then one will notice that actually they are not as widespread, and not as powerful as many portray or assume. As a result, i do not simplistically agree to the question above. I will look carefully at a number of indications qualifying the two pictures of globalization, concluding with a middle-ground view of the debate.