Glossario
Capitalism:It is an economical and social system having as assumption private propriety. In it means of production belongs to those who have invested capitals and distribution of surplus is congruous with such physiognomy. The apparition of a definible economic system as capitalism is associated with the affirmation of determining role of capital, meaning with it the entire material means necessary to throw bases of a supported and continuous process of productive expansion characterized by making use of fixed capitals ( machinery and plants ) avaiable in concentraded forms in the hands of single transactors: capitalism does have its first implementation and accomplishment in England ( second half of the 18th century and full expansion always in England, a traditional model of capitalism, in the first half of the 19th century ). This age is commonly reffered to as conctractorial/liberal capitalism, substituted thereafter by different forms, for istance that sort of capitalism characterized by oligopoly/monopoly with gradual prevalence of financial capitalism ( second half of the 19th century when capitalism and colonialism did strongly interrelace one another ). Capitalism has cohabited, and still does, with several forms of state: from the liberal, protetionist, Keynesian, interventionist and up to neoliberist state.
Core: Wealthy countries with dominant role in world economy. Geographic equivalent of capitalist ruling class. World-system theory designation for areas that control capital, operate with leading-edge technology and free labor, are supported by strong states, can set global terms of trade and exploit regional division of labor.
Cosmopolitanism: Attitude of concern for world as whole, interest in universal principles; commonly contrasted with nationalism, particularism
Cultural Imperialism: Form of cultural hegemony enabling some states to impose worldview, values, and lifestyles on others. Term used by critics of American global influence to describe how U.S. dominates others, e.g., by disseminating ideology of consumerism, hedonistic popular culture, or particular model of free-market society.
Global governance: Rules and institutions for managing and regulating actions or processes of global import; specifically, object of international reform efforts pursuing design of democratic transnational institutions and control over economic
activity.
Globalization:
This term is meant to be the standardization of the
world market
as a whole, respect to a dominant model in which free financial,commercial
and productive movement of capitals is likely to take place,and becoming ,in
this way, independent from single political goverments. Globalization, giving
rise to an unprecedented dynamism as far as economic systems are concerned,
though, has not diminished or made it possible for the differences among the
several parts of the world to be drastically reduced or at least acceptably
balanced, but, on the contrary, it has emphasized the prerdominant function of a
standardized western capitalistic
model .
1. "[T]he inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before-in a way that is enabling
individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world farther,
faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before . . . . the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world "
(T.L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999, p. 7-8).
2. "The compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole . . . . concrete global interdependence and consciousness of the global whole in the twentieth
century" (R. Robertson, Globalization, 1992, p. 8).
3. "A social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding (M.
Waters, Globalization, 1995, p. 3).
4. "The historical transformation constituted by the sum of particular forms and instances of . . . .
[m]aking or being made global (i) by the active dissemination of practices,
values, technology and other human products throughout the globe (ii) when global practices and so on exercise an increasing influence over
people's lives (iii) when the globe serves as a focus for, or a premise in
shaping, human activities" (M. Albrow, The Global Age, 1996, p. 88).
5. Integration on the basis of project pursuing "market rule on a global scale" (P.
McMichael, Development and Social Change, 2000, p. xxiii, 149).
6. "As experienced from below, the dominant form of globalization means a historical
transformation: in the economy, of livelihoods and modes of existence; in
politics, a loss in the degree of control exercised locally . . . . and in culture, a devaluation of a
collectivity's achievements . . . . Globalization is emerging as a political response to the expansion of market power . . . .
[It] is a domain of knowledge." (J.H. Mittelman, The Globalization Syndrome, 2000)
Globalization(WhatIsIt):When coming to use the term "globalization" we usually refer to a complex economic phenomenon for which the world as a whole is/should be/could be an unic market, in which there is an exchange of goods - meant as financial estates, real goods and services - following the rules of the mechanism of demand and supply and fixation of price whereas those variables meet (Iiberism and neo-Iiberism).
Globalization, which with its multinational enterprises and joint ventures can be seen as an internationalization of capitalism, needs, and in the meantime gives rise to, an increasing omologation in the world-wide level of the demand of real goods, a standardization of anthropological-cultu ral behaviours, a crisis of the Nation - State and its sovereignty. It needs an integration in the world~wide level of activities and targets of enterprises having to supply to always more global demands but also having to satisfy purchasers' eventual particular requirements: "think global, act local", from which the neologism "glocal". Globalization, which implies delocalization of work, so that the same work is requested and transported from a place to another in the earth depending on the convenience, wouldn't be practicable without the presence of quick communications (Internet). By the way, it can be in fact noted how just the informatic techniques, not only making information pass but also determining and reinforcing demands, make, in their turn, delocalization of virtual work possible, moving it quickly from a zone to another in the world, always following the mechanism of demand and supply and price.
Historically speaking, globalization is the last phase, because it comes after the others, not because it is definitive , of modernization that, begun with the discovery of America, has passed through various moments characterized by capitalistic system, which, in its evolution, has affirmed itself nowadays as the referral standard model against other possible models.
Unification of the world, by the tendencial point of view of an unic market, does not delete (many scholars instead think it favours) disparities among its areas or those in the single entities: it happens because economic mechanisms in a liberistic point of view do not depend on social re-baIance nor on resources. ]ust think of actual crisis of Welfare State, caused by the economic internationalization and the neo-liberism that distinguishes it.
Market:
It is the place in which demand and supply do have their common operating
field.When demand and supply meet one another, the prices
of them both are definitely made up, and production factors (by then
becoming goods as well) and the exchanged quantities definitely settled down. In
economy, with the term of market, we generally refer to an abstract, ideal place.
Capitalism is a market system. Since the price is the result of acting between
demand and supply, it comes to becoming the most effective indicator of what is
commonly happening in every market and as exchanges are expected to be feasible
in a practical and fast way, currency becomes essential since, by means of it,
the value of goods,which are to circulate rapidly, are measured. Moreover, we
can speak of local, city,regional ,international markets, of wholesale and
retail markets.
Multinational
enterprises: The
multinational enterprise phenomenon does have its starting point after the end
of the second world war furtherly
following suit remarkable investments from the U.S.A. into the European
reconstruction and the new tendency of commerce seen as an unstoppable
international business network.
Such phenomenon,first of all, steadly and constantly over the last ten years,
has been acquiring an overall and predominant dimension. M.E. are oligopolist
enterprises (note 1) characterized by large dimensions:they operate not only
inside their home country ,as far as sales,investments,credits and the use of
labor(manpower) are concerned,but potentially everywhere. M.E.,moreover, do not
represent the pure extension of already established enterprises,but they are ,
more often than not,fresh new economic institutions with remarkable influences
on politics(cfr. in the glossary states,nations and their crisis) thus changing
the previous ways of production.The success of such enterprises is to be
focussed on the so called flexibility,that is to say in the followings:
-reduction
of labor costs obtained through less cost labor delocalization.
-reduction
of transport costs by means of the installation of companies in the vicinity of
the production of raw materials or where products are initially bought.
Demanding
and obtaining tax rebate from those
states that generally hope in one pushing ahead
function of multinationals. Influence on politics of host states so that
social conditions may remain stable being able to assure the company’s
business success. Moving outside the home state of any polluting workings for
the high cost they imply and,consequently seeking new territories generally
represented by those poor countries that cannot be allowed rigorous legislations
under an ecological view point. The behaviour of Multinationals in the
production of new products on the market in other parts of the world of
production ,is characterized in general by the following phases:
1st
phase:products needing high technology ,are launched on the market of developed
countries(first comer) in which they were produced.Such products,because of
their high opening prices are, then, sold to a limited and targeted public and,
concurrently,their costs cut down thanks to further adjustments. 2nd
phase:mass production-The product so far absorbed by the home market is exported
whereas it may be possible to obtain even higher prices exploiting the so called
novelty factor.
3rd phase:maturity stage-The home market is completely satured and
needs other products.The company,furthermore, decides to transfer its production
abroad where,on the other side,it is requested all the time, and where it can
make use of a minor labor cost.
4th phase:It may happen that the
product origin country becomes,in turn, its importer from third countries
where the product has a lower cost.
Note
1:Oligopoly is a particular form of imperfect competition in which the market is
dominated by just a few big companies. Each of them has the ability of
influencing the market since covering an important part of the supply. This sort
of market is what characterizes the present capitalistic system.
Neoliberalism: Late-twentieth century variant of theory that competition among businesses in market with limited state regulation best fosters growth; specifically, advocacy of free enterprise in competitive global markets and movement of goods and capital unburdened by tariffs and regulations; commonly, term of opprobrium used by critics of capitalist ideology to denote emphasis on market expansion as value in itself, held to cause destruction of "collective structures which may impede the pure market logic".
New International Division of Labor: Spread of different stages of manufacturing to locations in different countries, to exploit differences in factor costs and economies of scale; more generally, since late 1970s, process in which especially Asian countries assume key roles in certain industries (cf. commodity chains).