Globalization. In simple words. Briefly. Definition of globalization. Essence The concept of the essence and prerequisites of globalization

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1. The essence of the globalization process

In a broad sense, modern globalization represents processes of internationalization occurring in all spheres of life - economics, culture, technology, finance, communications, population migration, etc.

At the same time, the reasons causing this phenomenon, and its very origin, indicate that it is based on the rapid growth of international trade that occurred at certain historical stages. For the first time, the word “” (meaning “intensive international trade”) was used by Karl Marx, who in one of his letters to Engels in the late 1850s. wrote: “Now the world market really exists. With the entry of California and Japan into the world market, globalization is accomplished.”

A number of facts indicate this leading role of international trade in globalization processes. Thus, during the previous era of globalization, which began during Marx’s lifetime, the volume of international trade increased tenfold (for example, from 1815 to 1914, the volume of total exports of European countries increased almost 40 times). And the end of this era of globalization came precisely when, under the conditions of the Great Depression of the 1930s. All Western countries introduced measures of strict protectionism, which caused a sharp curtailment of international trade. Consequently, both modern globalization and its historical predecessors are based on intensive international trade, which constitutes the main content of this phenomenon.

2. Globalization in history

Modern Western European nations first encountered globalization at the end of the Middle Ages: a sharp increase in trade between Western European cities and countries led to the fact that already from the second half of the 12th century, according to I. Wallerstein’s definition, a “European world economy”, that is, a global economy, began to take shape. economy that covers most European countries.

However, even earlier Ancient Rus' and Byzantium encountered globalization. In particular, according to a number of economic historians, intensive international trade in the Mediterranean disappeared soon after the collapse of the ancient world, and the period of its absence continued throughout the 7th and 8th centuries. But then, during the 9th century, we again see a gradual increase in international trade, which now covers not only the eastern Mediterranean (primarily Byzantium), but also the territory of Ancient Rus'. Intense international trade between Byzantium, Russia and other neighboring countries, judging by archeology, reached its peak in the 10th-11th centuries. This is evidenced by a large number of treasures and placers of Byzantine coins found on the territory of Russia and dating specifically to this period. However, even before this, in the 9th century, globalization covered the neighboring region - the Volga region, the Caspian Sea and the states of the Arab East - it is Arab coins that predominate in the placers and hoards of coins of this period in Russia and are found in large quantities - until the end of the 10th century. The main trade route in Rus''s trade with the Arab East and Transcaucasia was the Volga and the Caspian Sea; and the intensive use of this trade route, judging by archaeology, began in the last decades of the 8th century.

Thus, during this period, two processes of regional globalization developed in parallel: one of them, associated with the Volga-Caspian trade route, began already at the end of the 8th century. and continued until the end of the 10th century; the second, associated with the trade route Mediterranean - Black Sea - river basins flowing into the Black Sea (Dnieper, Don, Dniester, Southern Bug), began in the second half of the 9th century and continued until the second half of the 12th century. The first of these trade routes was called in that era “From the Varangians to the Persians”, the second - “From the Varangians to the Greeks”.

Globalization has always been based on a market economy (capitalism). It is impossible to imagine globalization - intensive international trade - in non-market conditions, for example, under the dominance of a subsistence economy or a rigid planning and distribution system. The explosive development of international trade, which is the essence of globalization, has always been the result of spontaneous market forces, and could never be the result of any plan or distribution.

This corresponds to the opinions of historians about what the economy was like during these historical eras. Thus, many historians of antiquity wrote that the ancient era was the era of capitalism. The German historian Ed Mayer believed that in antiquity humanity passed through the capitalist stage of development, and it was preceded by the “Middle Ages.” The historian M.I. Rostovtsev believed that the difference between the modern capitalist economy and the capitalist economy of antiquity is purely quantitative, but not qualitative, and wrote that in terms of the level of development of capitalism, antiquity is comparable to Europe in the 19th-20th centuries. The same opinion in relation to the era of Russian-Byzantine globalization was expressed by the historian G.V. Vernadsky, a specialist in Russian history: “Kievan Rus can be considered, both economically and politically, along with Byzantium, another continuation of the capitalist system of antiquity, opposing feudal era".

A number of facts confirm the validity of this opinion about the high level of development of the market economy in the ancient era and testify to the unusually large scale that international trade reached during that period. For example, 264 types of different professions are known to exist in Rome, indicating an unusually high level of specialization. After all, for the existence of any profession, there needs to be a stable monetary demand for relevant goods and services. And at the beginning of the 21st century, in a number of third world countries there will not be as many professions as we see in Ancient Rome. One can cite, for example, another fact: as the English historian A. Jones notes, with references to ancient sources, even the poor in the Roman Empire did not make their own clothes, but bought them ready-made. Unlike the Roman Empire, in the modern world, even in the 20th century, one could find entire countries and regions where people in rural areas made their own clothes.

Graph 1 illustrates data on the number of shipwrecks in various periods since 600 BC. to 650 AD, based on the findings of ship remains in the Mediterranean Sea. As you can see in the graph, the number of shipwrecks increased sharply in the period from 200 BC. to 200 AD – approximately 5-6 times compared to 600-400. BC. and compared to 400-650. AD, reflecting sharply increased trade volumes. At the same time, the carrying capacity of merchant ships increased. During the period of early antiquity (until the 3rd-2nd centuries BC) and late antiquity (starting from the middle or end of the 3rd century AD), only a few ships had a carrying capacity of over 300 tons. And during the heyday of antiquity, the tonnage of large ships exceeded 1,500 tons (see Chart 1), that is, it increased 5 times, while individual merchant ships could take on board up to 4-5 thousand tons of cargo. We do not have statistics on the average carrying capacity of merchant ships during different periods of antiquity. But if we assume that during the heyday of antiquity it increased, if not 5 times, but 3-3.5 times compared to early antiquity, and at the same time the intensity of traffic of merchant ships increased 5-6 times, as can be seen from the statistics of shipwrecks, then we can conclude that trade volumes in this period were 20 times greater than in early and late antiquity.

Sources: Interest rates: M.Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Oxford, 1941, Vol. 1, p. 404; G. Glotz, Le travail dans la Grece ancienne, Paris, 1920, pp. 292, 437; W. Tarn, G. Griffith, Hellenistic Civilization, London, 1952, pp. 115-116; A. Grenier. La Gaule Romaine, in: Economic Survey of Ancient Rome. Baltimore, 1937, Vol. III, p. 491; M.I. Rostovtsev. Society and economy... vol. 2, p. 181; A.Jones, The Later Roman Empire… Vol. II, pp. 863, 868. Number of shipwrecks: K. Hopkins, Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C. – A.D. 400), Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 70, 1980, p. 106. Carrying capacity of merchant ships: G. Glotz, Histoire Greque, Paris, 1931, tome II, p. 414; G. Rickman, The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome, Oxford, 1980, p. 17; A.Jones, The Later Roman Empire… Vol. II, p. 843

There is other evidence confirming a sharp increase in trade volumes as ancient civilization developed. For example, at the beginning of the 2nd century. BC. The trade turnover of Rhodes, which was at that time the largest trading center in the eastern Mediterranean, was 5 times higher than the trade turnover of Athens at the beginning of the 4th century. BC, and at that time they were the largest trading center in the entire Mediterranean. From 157 to 80 BC the number of Roman silver coins in circulation increased 10-12 times, another significant increase in money in circulation occurred at the end of the 1st century. BC. As many economic historians have noted, this was also due to the continued growth in trade and the size of the market economy, which required more money to service.

3. Cycles of globalization and patterns in their development

3.1. Examples of globalization cycles

The study of economic history allows us to identify periods during which globalization took place in certain regions. In some cases, periods of globalization (in the same region) followed one after another, which allows us to draw conclusions about the cyclical nature of this phenomenon. Thus, in the Mediterranean in ancient times, one can distinguish the Greco-Carthaginian cycle of globalization (VI century - mid-II century BC), when the centers of the emerging global economy were Ancient Greece and Carthage, and the Roman cycle of globalization (mid-II century BC). BC – III century AD), when Ancient Rome acted as such a center. In the more ancient history of the Mediterranean and in the history of Ancient China, similar cycles can also be traced (see Kuzovkov Yu. World history of corruption, chapters V-VI). The same cycles took place in the history of Western Europe from the 12th century. Until now. During this period of time, there are 5 cycles of globalization:

1st cycle. Mid-12th century - end of the 15th century The center of the global economy is Italy and its trading states of Venice, Genoa, Florence, Pisa. The end of the cycle was marked by the beginning of the decline of the Italian states and the 60-year war between France and Spain for dominance over Italy (the war between the Habsburgs and the Valois).

2nd cycle. Mid-16th century – second half of the 17th century. The centers of globalization are Holland and the Habsburg Empire, which later split into the Spanish and Austrian empires. The end of the cycle was marked by the defeat of the Spanish-Austrian Habsburg Empire in the Thirty Years' War and the English Revolution, after which England, Germany and Scandinavia switched to a policy of protectionism and fenced themselves off from globalization with customs barriers.

So, the main pattern of the globalization cycle is a sharp increase in international trade in the initial phase of the cycle, which during this period significantly exceeds the general indicators of economic growth, and this trend, as a rule, continues in the middle phase of the cycle. Only at the end of the cycle can these indicators level off or can a collapse in international trade occur, exceeding the drop in GDP or GNP.

3.3. Inflation and cyclical changes in gold prices

Along with this basic pattern of globalization cycles, there are other patterns. Thus, the beginning of a new cycle of globalization has always been accompanied in history by a curious phenomenon in the field of monetary circulation - a general rise in prices (inflation) and depreciation of gold and silver . So, during the XIII-XVII centuries. in Western Europe there was a significant increase in the general level of prices expressed in silver and gold. Various assumptions have been made about the reasons for this phenomenon. For a long time there was, for example, a point of view that it was caused by the influx of gold and silver from the Spanish colonies in America. But this assumption contradicts the facts, as many economic historians write about. The rapid rise in prices expressed in silver began already in the second half of the 12th century, that is, several centuries before the influx of American gold into Europe, and continued throughout the 13th century. As a result, for example, the average price level for wheat in England in 1300-1319. was 3.25 times higher than in 1160-1199. Europeans did not even know about the existence of America at that time.

The main point of view in scientific circles today is I. Brenner’s assumption that the general rise in prices during this period was caused by the development of industry, the growth of trade and a sharp increase in speculative activity in the field of land ownership and finance or, in the interpretation of I. Wallerstein, “a general increase in capitalist activity” in the era of the formation of a global economy. As we can see, the first period of a general rapid rise in prices (the second half of the 12th century - the first half of the 14th century) coincided with the first cycle of Western European globalization. The second period of intensive general price growth (second half of the 16th century - first half of the 17th century), when the average level of prices expressed in silver in Western European countries increased approximately 3 times, coincided with the second cycle of globalization.

In ancient times, the same inflationary trends occurred as in Europe in the 12th-17th centuries. According to G. Glotz, in the Greek city-states the price level expressed in silver has doubled since the beginning of the 6th century. BC. until the beginning of the 5th century. BC.; it then doubled again between 480 and 404, and doubled a third time by 330. In general, over two and a half or three centuries, the general price level increased 8 times. Thus, both the period of intensive price growth (in the first centuries of globalization) and the size of their increase in relation to gold and silver (8 or 9-10 times over several centuries) in the era of antiquity coincide with what happened in Europe during second millennium AD

The same phenomena occurred in Muscovite Rus' in the second half of the 16th century. under Ivan the Terrible, when Western European globalization first reached Russia. Here, in just 20-30 years, all prices in gold and silver increased 6-8 times (that is, gold and silver depreciated 6-8 times), which caused a severe economic and demographic crisis, which subsequently developed into the Troubles ( for more details see Kuzovkov Yu. History of corruption in Russia”, paragraph 8.2).

It should be noted that in some cases, when the cycle of globalization ended in a deep crisis and the cessation of the globalization process as such (and not the beginning of a new cycle), as was the case, for example, in antiquity in the 3rd century. AD and during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the result was the opposite process to the one described above . Happened rise in price of gold and silver , which could take on the character of deflation (a decrease in the price level). This is exactly what happened in the 1930s: when the US dollar was pegged to gold, the country experienced a sharp rise in the price of gold and the dollar, which was accompanied by deflation - a significant decrease in prices for all goods. The American government tried unsuccessfully to fight both, actively buying gold in the hope of bringing down its price and even prohibiting (April 5, 1933) American citizens from purchasing gold and owning this metal. Despite all these government efforts, the official price of gold in the United States approximately doubled during the first years of the Great Depression. At the same time, if we take into account deflation: a decrease in the prices of all goods in dollars, then in relation to the mass of goods, gold has increased in price not by 2 times, but more significantly. If we also make the calculation not according to the official, but according to the “shadow” price of gold (the price of illegal purchases of gold by American citizens), then we will come to the conclusion that gold in this period actually increased in price not 2 times, but several times.

At the end of antiquity (III century AD), when the global ancient economy collapsed, accompanied by a deep economic, social and demographic crisis, the rise in gold prices became much greater than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Roman copper and bronze coins towards the end of the 3rd century. depreciated so much that citizens used bags (follis) of these coins in payments among themselves, approximately 1000 coins in each bag. And one gold solidus under the emperor Diocletian (284-305) was equivalent to 348 bags of copper coins. Since usually the price of gold can exceed the price of copper, say, 2-4 thousand times, but not 350,000 times, we see to what incredible proportions the rise in the price of gold has reached in the context of the collapse of the global ancient economy.

According to the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, at the end of the era of Russian-Byzantine globalization (XII-XIII centuries), when the collapse of previously very active international trade began, there was a significant increase in the price of silver: “the weight of the exchange mark, the silver hryvnia kun, under Yaroslav and Monomakh, which contained about half a pound of silver, from the middle of the 12th century. began to fall quickly - a sign that... silver was rising in price. In the second half of the 12th century. the weight of the hryvnia kun had already fallen to 24 spools, and in the 13th century. it falls even lower, so that in Novgorod around 1230 there were kun hryvnias weighing 12-13 spools.” So, from the XI to the XIII centuries. the weight of the silver hryvnia fell from half a pound (=48 spools) to 12-13 spools, or 4 times. If the general price level has not changed, then we are talking about a 4-fold increase in the price of silver relative to other goods at the end of the era of Russian-Byzantine globalization.

Similar trends have occurred during the modern cycle of globalization. The peculiarity of the modern cycle was that the linking of national money to gold and silver (which previously always existed) was completely eliminated by 1971, but the general features accompanying globalization remained unchanged. In the first phase of the cycle (1967-1982), all leading Western countries experienced strong inflation. Thus, between 1949 and 1965, retail prices in the United States increased by only 29%, and from 1965 to 1982 - by 100%. Thus, the American dollar depreciated by 2 times over the specified period; other currencies, such as the Italian lira and the English pound, depreciated several times during this time. However, at the middle of the cycle, strong inflation in all Western countries ceased - just as it had during previous cycles of globalization.

The dynamics of the price of gold during the 5th cycle of globalization followed the same patterns as in the above historical examples. Although there was a significant increase in the first phase of the cycle (1967-1982), it could be explained by the strong depreciation of the dollar and the fact that before 1971, with the dollar officially pegged to gold, the official price of gold could be artificially low. However, in the next two decades (1983-2002), which represented the middle phase of the cycle, the price of gold even decreased slightly (from $330 to $300 per ton ounce), despite dollar inflation in the United States of approximately 4% per year . Consequently, for the same amount of gold in the early 2000s. it was possible to buy 2-2.5 times fewer goods than in the early 1980s. However, in subsequent years, as the cycle entered its final phase, this trend toward the depreciation of gold abruptly reversed and was replaced by a trend towards its rapid rise in price. Thus, from 2002 to 2011, the price of gold increased 6 times (from 300 to 1800 dollars per ton), while the general level of dollar prices (in the USA) over the same period increased only by approximately 1.5 times.

3.4. Reducing interest (rate of profit) and equalizing prices

The study of globalization processes in history has revealed two more patterns that occur during the globalization cycle. One of them is to equalize price levels in different product markets. The other is the steady decline in interest rates, as well as rates of return and returns on capital, during the cycle of globalization:

As shown in Chart 1, in ancient times interest rates were highest - more than 20% per annum - in the period before the formation of the global economy (before the 5th century BC) and after its collapse (from the 5th century AD .). Obviously, such a high interest rate is typical for a semi-subsistence economy, and not for a developed market economy. Accordingly, as soon as in the V-IV centuries. In the Hellenistic world, a market economy began to take shape, and the percentage there dropped sharply, settling at 12%.

Subsequently, as trade volumes and the size of the global market economy grew, the interest rate continued to decline: by the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. it dropped to 10%, and in the first half of the 2nd century. BC. – settled at the level of 6 2/3 -7% (see chart 1). In the second half of the 2nd century. BC. this trend stopped and the percentage increased slightly, and in the period from the 80s to the 20s B.C. again returned to the level of 12%, which was obviously explained by the action of special factors (see below). But subsequently the downward trend in loan costs continued, and from the last quarter of the 1st century. BC. the interest rate on ordinary loans fell to 4% per annum, where it remained until the beginning of the 3rd century. AD

In the era of Western European globalization, the same decrease in loan interest occurred as was the case in ancient times (see Chart 2). The most noticeable decline in interest rates, as in antiquity, occurred already at the first stage of the development of a market economy: from 20-25% at the beginning of the 13th century. it fell to 8-12% at the beginning of the 14th century. Subsequently, the percentage dropped much more - to 3% in Italy at the end of the 16th century. - early 17th century and in Holland in the second half of the 17th century, which by that time had become not only a trading but also a financial center of Europe (see Chart 2). The famous Italian historian C. Cipolla wrote about this decrease in interest rates as a real economic revolution of the 16th-17th centuries. , exactly the same economic revolution, as shown above, occurred in antiquity.

Sources: Interest rates: R.Lopez, Chapter V: The Trade of Medieval Europe: the South, in: Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Cambridge, 1942, Vol. II, pp. 334, 344; I.Wallerstein, The Modern World-System... pp.76-77; C. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution. European Society and Economy, 1000-1700, New York, 1976, p. 213; V.Barbour, Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century, Michigan-Toronto, 1963, p. 85. Wheat prices: F.Braudel, F.Spooner, Chapter VII: Prices in Europe from 1450 to 1750, in: Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Volume IV, ed. by E. Rich and C. Wilson, Cambridge, 1967, pp. 395-400, 472-473

Chart 2 also illustrates the trend towards convergence and equalization of prices in European countries at the stage of formation of the global European economy. It shows that at the end of the 16th century. the difference in wheat prices between individual countries reached 7-7.5 times, and in the middle of the 18th century. it did not exceed 2 times. This clearly demonstrates the results of the globalization process during this period: European countries functioned less and less as separate markets and increasingly became part of a common market, part of the global economy, and their domestic prices were increasingly determined by world prices.

Charts 1 and 2 clearly show that the downward trend in interest rates and price equalization in certain periods stopped and was replaced by a reverse trend. In antiquity, this happened during the period from the destruction of Carthage and Corinth by the Romans in the middle of the 2nd century. BC. until the end of the Roman civil wars at the end of the 1st century. BC. In the history of Western Europe, this reverse trend occurred from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 16th centuries. - that is, it coincided in time with the 60-year war between the Habsburgs and Valois. The change in the main trend towards lower interest rates and leveling out prices to the opposite trend indicates that the cycle of globalization was interrupted during these periods, and after some time a new cycle of globalization began.

The very fact that wars can impede or disrupt international trade is beyond doubt. In particular, I. Wallerstein pointed out that the war between the Habsburgs and Valois, which took place mainly in Italy, disrupted the functioning of the global European economy, cutting off the countries of Northern Europe from its main center - Italy, and accelerated the process of formation of a new center of globalization in the north - in Holland. We see a similar phenomenon in antiquity: destruction by the Romans in 147-146. BC. former centers of the global economy - the physical destruction of the largest trade and craft centers (the cities of Carthage and Corinth), centers of highly developed agriculture (the grain farming of Carthage, the viticulture of Epirus), the ban on maritime trade of Rhodes by the Romans (see below), as well as the Roman conquest and civil wars II-I centuries BC. disrupted the functioning of the global economy of antiquity and led to the curtailment of international trade. But as soon as these factors ended, globalization continued - its new cycle began.

4. Shifts occurring as a result of globalization

4.1. Increased international competition

The very first and immediate result of the onset of globalization (intensive international trade) is a sharp increase in international competition. This corresponds to the generally accepted views of economists of various directions, and many examples can be given of this from economic history, from antiquity to modern times. Thus, in the era of modern globalization, under the influence of competition from Chinese imports, in recent decades in the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, and Russia, their own production of many goods (shoes, clothing, consumer electronics, etc.) has been significantly reduced, replaced by Chinese goods.

4.2. Mass migrations of people

Another consequence of globalization is mass migrations of people, which always occurred after the start of the next cycle of globalization. Thus, in the era of ancient globalization, millions of Romans and other Italics moved from Italy to North Africa. The main reason for this mass migration was that Italian agriculture, in which the majority of the population was employed, turned out to be uncompetitive compared to North African agriculture (where land productivity, taking into account two harvests per year, was 3-5 times higher than in Italy). Apparently, the same reason - the desire to find a way out of the permanent crisis in agriculture - served as the initial impetus that forced the Romans to begin the conquest of their neighbors in the Mediterranean (Carthage, Greece), after which emigration from Italy only accelerated. As a result, by the beginning of the 1st century. BC. About 2 million Romans and about the same number of other Italics emigrated from Italy.

During the 4th cycle of Western European globalization (mid-19th – early 20th centuries), a huge flow of emigration was directed from Western Europe. In total, from 1821 to 1924, 55 million people emigrated from Europe, more than half of them to the USA, the rest to other countries: Latin America, Canada, Australia, etc. Moreover, the largest emigration was from Great Britain (including Ireland) - 19 million people, approximately the same number as lived there at the beginning of this period. At the same time, as the English historians A. Milward and S. Saul point out, the main reason for emigration from Great Britain and Europe in general during this period was not the special attractiveness of America, but the dissatisfaction of the British and Europeans with their life in their homeland.

Today, in the era of the 5th cycle of globalization, which has become worldwide, the number of immigrants from third world countries in the USA, EU countries, and Russia amounts to tens of millions of people. And few will doubt that the main reason that drove and continues to drive today millions of residents of Africa, Latin America and Asia to the more prosperous countries of North America, Europe and Russia is the unsettled nature of their lives and the desire to ensure a decent existence for themselves, which they do not have them in their homeland.

The phenomenon of mass migrations in the context of globalization is explained by an inexorable economic logic - the logic of global competition, which worsens the lives of huge masses of people and causes them to strive to find “the best place in the sun.” Barring isolated examples of forced expulsion for political or social reasons, mass migrations have always occurred in history during the era of globalization, and they have always been directed from places without competitive advantages to places that have them. Thus, the USA and the EU were at the end of the 20th century. and are today not only more convenient for living, but also more competitive than most third world countries (since they already have a developed economy; institutions; a developed education system, etc.), which provides higher employment and job opportunities for immigrants, which they do not have in their homeland. In the same way, in the 19th – early 20th centuries. More than half of the emigration from Europe went to the United States, which, largely due to its economic policies, turned out to be more competitive and was able to ensure rapid industrial development and an increase in jobs that occurred at an even faster rate than the growth of the country's population.

In ancient times and the Middle Ages, globalization usually caused mass migration from north to south: in the south (in the northern hemisphere), agriculture is usually more efficient and competitive due to better natural conditions than in the north. As already mentioned, in antiquity, millions of Italians emigrated to North Africa due to significantly better conditions for agriculture there. In China since 2 AD. by 140 AD, according to official census data, the population of the northern regions of the country decreased by 17.5 million people, and the population of the central regions in the river basin. The Yangtze increased by 9 million, indicating a massive, almost total migration of people from north to south during the era of Chinese globalization.

In the era of Scandinavian-Russian-Byzantine globalization (IX-XI centuries), all European countries were flooded with Scandinavians (Vikings, Normans), who during this period emigrated in large numbers to the territory of Kievan Rus, England, France, Sicily, Byzantium, founded their settlements on Iceland and Greenland. Again, this mass migration from north to south coincided with a period of intense foreign trade (trade routes “from the Varangians to the Greeks” and “from the Varangians to the Persians”); again the inhabitants of the North found themselves in the most unfavorable position; and again the mass migration was accompanied by wars and conquests, including England, conquered by the Normans in the 11th century.

Another pattern of migration in the era of globalization in antiquity and the Middle Ages was migration from less populated to more populated places. This phenomenon was exactly the opposite of what usually happened in the absence of globalization. This is also understandable from an economic point of view: in densely populated areas, a person needs to spend less effort on survival: maintaining infrastructure, ensuring the construction and maintenance of housing, safety from external enemies and wildlife. It is also much easier and more efficient to do any business here if it is related to the provision of even the simplest services: clients are nearby and you don’t have to walk or travel far to see them, as would be the case in a sparsely populated area. And even more so if we are talking about more complex types of business related to cooperation: if different parts and parts are transported over a long distance before the finished product is made from them, then its final cost can increase very significantly. In the conditions of high competition and instability that accompanied globalization, these advantages became critical. This pattern: migration from sparsely populated places to densely populated ones continues today to remain one of the main patterns that determine the trends of migration processes in the context of globalization.

4.3. Changing economic and demographic landscape

Another shift brought about by globalization is the dramatic change in the economic and demographic landscape of countries participating in globalization. One of its main reasons is precisely the above-mentioned pattern of migration from sparsely populated to densely populated areas.

This is manifested in hypertrophied urbanization and the formation of zones of high population density and high economic activity adjacent to zones of stagnation and desolation. This phenomenon is well known to many countries of the world at the beginning of the 21st century: take, for example, the rapid economic activity of Moscow and its environs and the desolation zone starting about 200 km from Moscow. But it has been known since ancient times.

For example, in the 9th century. along the entire Baltic coast (in northern Germany, northeastern France, etc.) a number of large trading cities arose that participated in the Baltic-Russian-Byzantine trade. And this despite the fact that in these countries themselves at that time there was a very sparse population, and the largest city there was an order of magnitude smaller in area and number of inhabitants than these trading cities.

A similar phenomenon was the formation of cities in Kievan Rus. As V.O. Klyuchevsky noted, most large Russian cities in the 8th-11th centuries. was located along the main river route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", and thus a very high concentration of population formed here. At the same time, other cities that lay aside from the trade route, even during the heyday of Kievan Rus, fell into decay and completely disappeared. So they disappeared during the X-XI centuries. the city of Gnezdovo near Smolensk, Sarskoye fortification near Rostov and a number of others.

During the first cycle of Western European globalization (XIII-XV centuries), a characteristic phenomenon for Germany was “wustungen” (devastation): many areas and settlements fell into decay or disappeared, while cities in their neighborhood grew and reached large sizes. The same process during this period occurred in England and a number of other countries, and, as historians note, it was, as a rule, small towns and villages that fell into desolation and disappeared, while large cities grew. The same thing, as we know, happened in the era of ancient globalization, when some cities reached very large sizes. Thus, the number of inhabitants of Rome, even during the period of severe desolation of Italy, reached 1 million, Carthage - up to 700 thousand, Alexandria and Antioch - up to 500 thousand.

Of course, an important factor here was the availability of convenient transport links, which increased the competitiveness of both the city and its residents. That is why such rapid population growth in the context of globalization occurred, first of all, in cities located along the sea coast or along the most important trade routes: be it the cities of antiquity, Kievan Rus or medieval Western Europe.

But hypertrophied population growth due to migration occurred not only in individual cities, but also in large areas, as we see in western Europe during the second cycle of European globalization (second half of the 16th century - 17th century). Thus, in Spain, against the backdrop of the general depopulation of the country and the transformation of most of it into desert, a zone of high concentration of population arose along its eastern Mediterranean coast, which actively traded with the outside world. In Germany, where desolation also occurred and the population as a whole was almost halved, the same concentration arose along the main trade artery - the Rhine. In France, such a zone arose in the northeast, along the border with Flanders, with severe devastation of the southern regions, and in England - along the southern coast and along the lower reaches of the Thames.

Accordingly, when the influence of globalization ceased for one reason or another, as in Germany and England from the middle to the end of the 17th century. (due to the introduction by these countries of high protectionist customs barriers), then reverse processes began to occur. Historical maps of population density, published in the book of the French historian P. Chaun, demonstrate that in the second half of the 18th century. (under the protectionist system) the population of England was distributed more evenly across its territory than a century and a half earlier (when the country was under the influence of globalization). The English historian Charles Wilson notes that if before the 18th century. In the north of England, industry was very poorly developed and there was a very low level of wages among workers compared to the southern counties, but during this century industry there developed rapidly, and the level of wages rose almost to the level of the south of England and London. In Germany, over two centuries of protectionism, the same thing happened: in the 19th century we see here a fairly even distribution of the population and the absence of such uneven population density, hypertrophied growth of individual cities and imbalances in income levels, as, for example, in France, where globalization is all this time almost did not stop. As the policies of these countries changed, the directions of internal migrations again changed sharply.

At the beginning of the 21st century, after Great Britain had pursued a policy of free trade for a century and a half (with a short break) and was under the influence of globalization, the distribution of its population resembles the picture that, according to P. Chaun's population density maps, was in the first half of the 17th century V. (after a century of globalization): a hypertrophied concentration of population in the south of the country and around London, suffocating from a lack of drinking water and space, simultaneously with the desolation of its northern regions, which has been intensifying in recent decades.

The general conclusion is that the consequence of globalization is extremely uneven development different countries and regions, which is the result of intense global competition.

It should be added that the results of such uneven development are quite predictable. In conditions of global competition, that is, competition between different countries and territories, some a priori find themselves in a winning situation, others in a obviously losing situation. This is clearly seen in the example of Rome and Italy in antiquity and Scandinavia in the 8th-11th centuries, when both the Romans and the Scandinavians tried, with more or less success, to overcome the obvious loss in economic competition with their southern neighbors not only through emigration, but also by external grips. But it was not only the countries that found themselves who always won in more favorable climatic conditions , but also countries that had more advantageous location in terms of trade routes and transport, as well as countries that, by the time of the next surge in globalization, had reached highest population density . Classic examples of this kind are northern Italy and Holland, the unusually rapid flourishing of which occurred respectively during the first (XIII-XV centuries) and second (second half of the 16th - 17th centuries) cycles of European globalization. During this period, both countries had the highest population density among all European countries, which determined their leading role. Thus, according to economic historians, the population density in Northern Italy and the Netherlands in the 13th-14th centuries was about 80 people/sq.km, while, for example, in France - only 35 people/sq.km . , and even less in other European countries.

But in the first cycle of Western European globalization, northern Italy had a clear advantage, since it was located on the main trade routes of that period - along the Mediterranean Sea to the Levant and caravan routes further to the East. This was one of the reasons that allowed it to become the center of the emerging global economy at that stage. And after the opening of the sea route to India around Africa and the discovery of America, the location of Italy lost its former role: it now found itself on the sidelines of the most attractive trade routes, which moved to the Atlantic coast. Accordingly, now direct access to the Atlantic, and not to the Mediterranean Sea, has become key to success in global competition. And these benefits led not only to the rapid economic take-off of Holland, which overnight became the center of the global economy, but also to a powerful flow of migration there from neighboring countries, which, as we found out, in the context of globalization is always directed to those countries that have competitive advantages in front of others. Thus, the population of Amsterdam from 1600 to 1650, that is, in just half a century, mainly due to the influx of foreigners, grew from 50 to 200 thousand people.

5. The impact of globalization on the economy, demography and social sphere

5.1. Economic instability

The intensification of wars, mass migrations, and uneven development of countries and regions are sufficiently indicative to already get an idea of ​​the impact of globalization on the life of human society. However, this influence is not limited to the above. Another consequence or pattern of globalization is sharply increasing economic instability . It stems even from the very fact of mass migration, as well as from the fact that increased competition and the influx of new or cheaper goods force the population to continuously reconsider both their consumer habits and their participation in production. As a result, huge masses of people, in the course of migration or changes in lifestyle, radically restructure their participation in the international division of labor: in those industries where they previously acted only as consumers, they begin to act as producers, and vice versa. This leads to powerful shifts in supply and demand for many goods and constant and difficult to explain price changes.

This instability can be illustrated by many examples; Particularly revealing are those that compare the situation in countries that have been influenced by globalization with the situation in those countries that have protected themselves from it through protectionism. Thus, from the end of the 17th century, when England pursued a policy of protectionism in relation to its agriculture, sharp fluctuations in grain prices and mass hunger, which were previously as frequent as in other countries of Western Europe, disappeared. At the same time, in France and Spain, which did not pursue such a policy, sharp fluctuations in grain prices, accompanied by massive famine, continued throughout the 18th century.

Similarly, after the start of the modern (5th) cycle of globalization in the late 1960s. The instability of world prices has sharply increased. World oil prices, which until the early 1970s. practically did not change and demonstrated amazing stability, from then until now they have demonstrated equally amazing instability, sometimes changing 2-4 times over the course of a year or two to three years. The same applies to world prices for most other types of raw materials: their amplitude of fluctuations in recent decades is incomparably greater than the amplitude of fluctuations in commodity prices in the decades (1950-1960s) preceding the beginning of the modern cycle of globalization.

Economic instability and uneven development in the era of globalization concerns not only individual sectors of the economy, the prices of individual goods and individual provinces, but also the economic development of countries as a whole. The rapid prosperity of Holland in the 16th-17th centuries was followed by an equally sharp decline and degradation. At the beginning of the 19th century. The Prussian ambassador to Holland wrote that half of the population of Amsterdam was below the poverty line - that is, living in poverty. Before this, in the 17th century, the same fate befell the previously prosperous cities of northern Italy: Venice, Florence, Genoa. The unprecedented economic development achieved by Great Britain in the early to mid-19th century, when it became the “workshop of the world,” gave way to economic stagnation and the loss of its leading role in the world economy within just a few decades after the transition in the mid-19th century. from a policy of protectionism to a policy of free trade. There are a number of other examples of no less dramatic deterioration in the economic situation of certain countries in the context of globalization (Poland, Spain, France in the 17th-18th centuries, Scandinavia, Rus', Byzantium in the 11th-13th centuries, etc.). In the conditions of modern globalization, we also see the beginning of the decline of countries that until recently were the undisputed leaders of the world economy (USA, Western Europe), and the promotion to world leaders of countries (China), which until recently were the periphery, the backward agricultural outskirts of the world economy.

5.2. Declining birth rate and population growth

Economic instability, as well as increased competition in the era of globalization, have a detrimental effect on fertility and demographic growth. All eras of globalization have been characterized by a decline in fertility and population growth, and in many cases during these periods there was a population decline (for more details, see the section “Demographic Concept”).

5.3. Increased speculation at the expense of economic growth

In economics, another consequence of globalization, along with increased global competition and instability, is the growth of speculation, primarily in goods. The very sharp increase in foreign trade during these periods is largely speculative in nature, since, as has been shown, it is many times faster than the growth of production, and in many eras of globalization it occurred against the background of the decline of the latter. The growth of commodity and other speculation to the detriment of the development of production is one of the characteristic consequences of globalization:

Thus, a characteristic feature of the first five centuries of Western European globalization (XIII-XVII centuries) were sharp price fluctuations. Grain prices could rise or fall 4-5 times over the course of a year or two years, and, according to French historians, in France during the 16th century the amplitude of their fluctuations reached 27 times. Economic historians see sharp price fluctuations as one of the main reasons for the mass famines that periodically recurred in Western Europe during these centuries. The population was always a loser from such price hikes, since they could not plan their expenses, the level of necessary savings, or even the price of bread several months in advance; as a result, a significant part of them went bankrupt and joined the ranks of the lumpen proletariat. But trade speculators were always winners, since price conditions were their profession, and strong price fluctuations made it possible to make huge profits by purchasing goods at low prices in one place and reselling them in another. But, of course, commodity speculation on a large scale was possible only under conditions of intensive foreign trade, which made it possible to transfer masses of goods from one place to another and profit from differences in prices and shortages of goods.

At the same time, as already mentioned, after the introduction of a system of protectionism in Great Britain and Germany at the end of the 17th century. both the sharp price fluctuations and widespread famines subsequently disappeared there, although they continued in France, Spain and other countries that pursued free trade policies. In particular, S. Kaplan, I. Wallerstein and other authors believe that the sharp increase in grain speculation, which caused a shortage of bread and mass famine in France in the second half - the end of the 18th century. was one of the reasons that caused the French Revolution of 1789.

In the last two cycles of globalization, along with commodity speculation, financial speculation has also taken on a large scale. It is no coincidence that the Great Depression, which put an end to the 4th cycle of globalization, began with the stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929, which, in turn, was the result of an unprecedented rampant speculation in the financial market. For a number of years leading up to the Great Depression, the United States was gripped by a real “stock fever,” when not only professional stock market players and financiers, but also millions of ordinary Americans participated in investments in the stock market, often of a speculative nature - the acquisition of Florida land options in counting on their speculative growth; the acquisition of shares in investment trusts, which were essentially “financial pyramids”; purchase of securities on credit provided by a bank or broker, counting on speculative profit, etc. After the onset of the Great Depression, investment trust shares depreciated by a factor of 100 or more, as did investments in other speculative assets, in contrast to investments in shares of manufacturing companies, which proved much more resilient and, by the end of the Great Depression, had almost regained their previous value.

An even greater surge in financial speculation is observed in the era of modern globalization. Generally the general pattern of any era of globalization was and is the growth of trade and speculation with a slowdown in the growth rate of the real economy : industry, agriculture and other sectors. All the largest global and regional production crises and any prolonged depressions occurred or began precisely in the era of globalization: the “crisis of the 14th century” and the “crisis of the 17th century” in Western Europe, the European depression of the 1860s - 1880s, the Great depression 1929-1939 and others. The modern cycle of globalization, already in its initial phase, was accompanied by the recession of 1967-1969. in Western Europe and the USA and the major world crises of 1974-1975. and 1980-1982 (although in the previous two decades there was not a single serious crisis in these countries), continued with a series of major regional crises in the 1990s (South-East Asian countries, countries of the former USSR) and the global financial crisis of 2008.

Of course, the entry of the economy into a period of crises in the era of globalization is reflected in the rate of economic growth, which decreases or fades out completely; At the same time, there is a further increase in the volume of international trade and speculation, both commercial and financial. Before the start of the modern (5th) cycle of globalization, Western economies were growing at an unprecedented rate. US GDP from 1940 to 1969 increased by 3.7 times, which is an absolute record for the country. Western Europe also experienced unprecedented economic growth after the war, coupled with extremely low unemployment. Average annual GDP growth rates during 1950-1970. in general, for all countries of Western Europe they amounted to 4.8%, and in Germany they were significantly higher. Unemployment in the 1960s on average in Western Europe was 1.5%, but in Germany it was even lower - only 0.8% of the country's working population.

Since the late 1960s, when the modern (5th) cycle of globalization began, this trend towards increasing economic growth and decreasing unemployment has reversed and the opposite trend has emerged. Thus, the economy of West Germany in 1967 was hit by an economic crisis for the first time in the post-war period, and unemployment, which had previously been consistently less than 1%, rose in 1967 to approximately 2%. In the United States, unemployment rose to 3% by 1969, and by the end of 1970 it reached a record level of 6% for the post-war period; annual inflation in the country during the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s was 1-1.5%, and in 1969-1970. reached 5.5%. In the 1970s the situation continued to deteriorate. If on average for 1960-1970. the unemployment rate in France, Germany and Great Britain was 1.4%, 0.8% and 1.6%, then by 1976 it reached 4.4%, 3.7% and 5.6% in these countries, respectively, and in the USA it was 7.6%.

Average annual growth rate of GNP in Western industrialized countries (%)

1960 - 1970	1970 - 1980	1980 - 1990	1990 - 2000
5,1	3,1	3,0	2,2

Source: Lomakin V.K. World economy. M., 2002, table 14.1

Already in the 1970s, after the beginning of the modern cycle of globalization, the rate of economic growth in the industrialized countries of the West decreased by almost 2 times, and this downward trend continued in the future. Unemployment increased several times, reaching by the early 1980s. in some of these countries an unprecedented level of 10%.

20 years later, by 2009-2011, this level of unemployment from “unprecedentedly high” turned into “normal” - average for these countries, and in some countries (Spain, Portugal, Greece) unemployment reached 20% and even 40%. As for industrial growth, it has essentially stopped in recent decades - the deindustrialization of the United States and Western Europe has begun, the process of decline of industrial enterprises or the transfer of production to other countries. All economic growth in these countries in the last two decades has occurred only due to “virtual” sectors: services, financial sector, Internet, telecommunications, etc.; there was no growth in the real sectors of the economy.

If we talk about the world economy as a whole, then here, too, after the start of the next cycle of globalization, process of attenuation of economic growth rates . Thus, the average annual growth rate of world GDP per capita in the 1960s was 3.5%, in the 1970s it decreased to 2.4%, in the 1980s - to 1.4%, in the 1990s - to 1 .1%, and in the 2000s, apparently, decreased even more, and this despite the fact that population growth in the world by the beginning of the 21st century also decreased significantly.

Thus, all available evidence (which is discussed in more detail in The Untold History trilogy) supports the conclusion that globalization and economic liberalization promote increased trade and speculation at the expense of economic and industrial growth. This conclusion is shared by a number of modern authors:

Thus, I. Wallerstein writes in relation to the history of the development of capitalism in Western Europe that, in contrast to protectionism, which plays an important role in the state achieving long-term advantages, it serves “to maximize short-term profits by the class of traders and financiers.”

Many other authors: D. Stiglitz, G. Reisegger, D. Harvey, argue that trade liberalization destroys industry and does not allow new industries to develop, and point to the hypertrophied development of the financial and speculative sphere in the conditions of modern globalization.

5.4. Globalization and social sphere

Of course, the attenuation of economic growth rates has a very significant impact on the situation of the population - after all, the average standard of living of the population is determined precisely by basic economic indicators (national income, gross domestic product), and not by indicators showing an upward trend, such as the dynamics of international trade volumes or the scope of global financial transactions. Moreover, all cycles of globalization have typically been accompanied by sharp increases in inequality in income distribution, so in many cases The standard of living of the bulk of the population during the cycle of globalization not only did not increase, but decreased :

Thus, in Ancient Greece, the average wage of an unskilled free wage worker increased from 1 drachma per day in the 5th century. BC. up to 1.5 drachmas per day in the 4th century. BC. But during the same period, the price of bread increased 2.5 times, so real wages decreased by almost 2 times during the first century of ancient globalization. It is known that at both the first and second stages of Western European globalization in the 2nd millennium, there was a sharp decline in the real incomes of the bulk of the population of England. Thus, from 1208 to 1225, real wages in England decreased by 25%, and by another 25% from 1225 to 1348. By the end of the 15th century. (the end of the first stage of globalization) it again recovered to approximately the same level, but then began to decline again: from 1501 to 1601, the average real wage of English carpenters fell 2.5 times. And finally, with the beginning of the era of protectionism in England, it began to grow again, doubling in 1721-1745. compared to 1601

These data on the decline in the standard of living of the population in England during the 1st and 2nd cycles of European globalization are consistent with data for other Western European countries provided by economic historians. As F. Spooner points out, during the second half of the 16th century. – beginning of the 17th century wages in European countries lagged behind price increases, and overall the general standard of living in Europe was steadily declining, which he confirms with a number of data for England, France, Germany, Austria and Spain. According to the calculations of the French historian J. Delumeau, in order to earn a hundredweight of grain, a hired worker in France at the end of the 15th century. had to work 60 hours in the middle of the 16th century. this required already 100 hours, and in the last third of the 16th century. – already 200 hours. Consequently, during the second cycle of globalization in France, the real wages of workers fell by more than 3 times.

During 3-5 cycles of globalization (XVIII - early XXI centuries), there was also a decline in the standard of living of a significant part of the population, which reached its peak in the middle and end of the cycle and caused social protests, revolutions and the growth of terrorism. Thus, the active involvement of France in international trade during the 18th century. (3rd cycle of globalization) and the gradual liberalization of the foreign trade regime in the country in the second half of the century were accompanied by impoverishment of the population and mass hunger, and the complete liberalization of the foreign trade regime in 1786-1789. ended with mass unemployment and the famine of 1788-1789. and the French Revolution of 1789

The beginning of the 4th cycle of Western European globalization (1820s - 1920s) was also marked by a deterioration in the situation of the population in Western Europe and a series of revolutions in 1848-1849. The subsequent long economic depression in Europe in the 1860s–1880s. caused a new wave of social unrest (the growth of the labor movement, the Paris Commune of 1870, the emergence of mass socialist parties, the First and Second International, etc.) against the backdrop of a decline in the standard of living of a significant part of the population.

The end of the 4th cycle of globalization was marked by the Great Depression, which was accompanied by mass unemployment and poverty that affected large parts of the population of North America and Europe. Thus, from 1929 to 1932, the US national income fell from 80 to 40 billion dollars, industrial production also decreased by 2 times. 45% of industrial workers lost their jobs; in total, by the end of H. Hoover’s presidential term (March 1933), more than 15 million people, or 30% of the working-age population of the United States, were unemployed. In Germany, by 1932, the fall in industrial production was 39% compared to the 1929 level, and unemployment reached 40% of the working population.

The break between the 4th and 5th cycles of globalization was marked by an unprecedented increase in the well-being of the population in Western countries and throughout the world, which was a consequence of unprecedentedly high rates of economic growth and unprecedentedly low unemployment (see above). In the 1960s There is a widespread belief among Western economists that a “welfare state” has been built in the USA and Western Europe, that there will be no more crises, and the capitalist economy will provide the residents of these countries with a steady increase in well-being.

However, after the start of the 5th cycle of globalization in the late 1960s. these theories were quickly forgotten, and the illusions quickly disappeared. Not only crises and mass unemployment have resumed, but also a deterioration in the living standards of the population, not only in the countries of the third and former second world, but also in the most developed countries of the West. Thus, the number of US residents who found themselves below the poverty line, according to even official American statistics, reached 11.2% by 2000, and 15.1% in 2010, while in the 1960s there were practically no such people it was completely. Every seventh American today receives food stamps, whereas previously there were only a few such people. Unemployment in the US in the 1960s was only about 2%; in recent years, official unemployment there has remained at 9-10%; its real level is much higher. Thus, the unemployment rate U6 calculated in the USA, in contrast to the usually mentioned U3 indicator, in 2011-2012. was 15-16%.

In third world countries the decline in living standards and unemployment rates are much more significant; In many countries, the majority of the population fell below the poverty line. As E. Reinert writes, “even the most outspoken supporters of globalization agree that most of sub-Saharan Africa has become impoverished over the past 25 years.” According to D. Harvey, unemployment in Latin American countries in the 1980s averaged 29%, in the 1990s it was already 44%; Today, in many third world countries, unemployment is 70% or more.

5.5. "Cumulative effect"

In general, when talking about the impact of globalization on the economy, demography and social sphere, it is necessary to take into account the “cumulative effect” that results from this influence in all these areas. Thus, the negative trends that have begun in the field of demography (aging population) after several decades will begin to have a constant negative impact on the economy and social sphere, which is already the case in most European countries. The growing social stratification of society and the impoverishment of the population as a result of globalization have an equally bad impact on the economy. After all, mass demand for industrial and agricultural products is created not by individual businessmen and speculators who enrich themselves through trade and financial transactions, but by the entire population of the country; and if its effective demand falls more and more, then there are no conditions for economic growth, but, on the contrary, there are all conditions for continued economic stagnation:

John Maynard Keynes, in one of his works, pointed out that population aging, due to the tendency of older people to consume less and save more for a rainy day, causes a decrease in demand for consumer goods and leads to a cessation of economic growth. And since most of the funds are put aside in the form of savings, but there is nowhere to invest this money (since the economy is not growing), the consequence could be an unprecedented drop in interest rates. Half a century after Keynes expressed these thoughts, events in Japan fully confirmed them. As a result of the cessation of growth of the Japanese population and its aging, the country’s economy, which was associated with the “Japanese miracle” back in the 1970s, has stopped growing since the early 1990s, and interest rates have remained at zero there for more than two decades.

No less, and perhaps more, influence on economic growth in Western countries is exerted by the impoverishment of the bulk of the population, causing a general reduction in demand. This causes a chain reaction: production is curtailed - a significant part of the population finds itself unemployed - the population and enterprises are unable to pay off previously taken loans - a mass of individual defaults leads to a general banking and financial crisis. In turn, the financial crisis creates uncertainty and further aggravates the economic crisis. This is exactly how events unfolded during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and this is exactly how they have unfolded in recent years, after the financial crisis of 2008.

5.6. Globalization and the rise of monopoly

In order to use these methods, traders needed military power, so they either created their own (private) colonial armies and flotillas, or used the military power of their state. With this military power they protected their trade monopoly and prevented other merchants from using their trade routes. Hence the continuous trade wars that took place between all countries actively participating in foreign trade.

If we try to create a general description of how international trade developed during the era of globalization, we will see that it was an almost continuous series of monopolies established over world trade flows by one or 2-3 leading trading powers:

era	Region of globalization	Country that has established a trade monopoly
II millennium BC	Eastern Mediterranean	Crete (Minoan Kingdom)
V-IV centuries BC.	Eastern Mediterranean	Athenian state
V-III centuries BC.	Western Mediterranean	Carthage
II century BC. – III century AD	Mediterranean	Rome
XII-XIV centuries	Mediterranean	Venice, Genoa
XV-XVI centuries	New World	Spain
XV-XVI centuries	Africa, South and Southeast Asia	Portugal
XVI-XVII centuries	Baltic, North Sea	Holland
XVIII century	New World, Africa, Asia	France, Great Britain, Holland
XIX century	New World, Africa, Asia	Great Britain

The fact that in all the above cases it was about trade monopoly , which did not allow any competition, is well known; there is plenty of historical evidence of this. Thus, Carthage, in its heyday, prohibited all foreign ships from sailing into the Western Mediterranean - to the shores of Africa, Spain and Sardinia, and any foreign ship encountered there was captured or sunk (this trade monopoly of Carthage was even stipulated in its trade agreements with Rome in the 5th century . BC.) . Rome in the 2nd century BC. destroyed his trading competitor, Rhodes, which had previously monopolized maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean. The Romans introduced bans on many types of trade for Rhodian merchants, and also, in order to completely undermine their trade, created a competing trading center on the island. Delos in the Aegean Sea near Rhodes. Venice, in the era of its power, prohibited Byzantium from maintaining its fleet and destroyed any Byzantine trade, military and even fishing vessels that could undermine its trade monopoly in the eastern Mediterranean. Spain, in its heyday, prohibited any foreign ships from sailing to the coast of Latin America, which were immediately destroyed or captured by the Spaniards; and all territories in the New World, Africa and Asia were divided between Spain and Portugal in accordance with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries. control over world trade routes was divided mainly between Holland, France and England, between which there were endless trade wars. Finally, by the 19th century, England firmly captured the “palm”, putting all world trade routes under its control. The British fleet in that era became the real master of the oceans and seas of the planet. Thus, British warships often checked the contents of the holds of any foreign ships and often simply captured them. For example, during the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain captured about 1,000 American ships and held them along with their crews, explaining this by the need to blockade the European continent, where the French ruled. But even after the end of the wars with France in 1815, she continued a similar practice in relation to American merchant ships. According to the English historian D. Grigg, in the 19th century “the world’s oceans were British lakes, and the world’s markets were British fiefdoms.”

Thus, international trade itself in the era of globalization has always been the clearest example of monopoly. The modern era is no exception - today we can also give many examples of trade monopolies that exist in the markets of certain goods and monopolize the corresponding channels of foreign trade supplies.

As for a country trade monopoly, similar to the trade monopoly of Carthage, Spain or England in the corresponding eras, we do not see it in the conditions of modern globalization. But instead of a trade monopoly, we see another monopoly - a currency monopoly. The leader of the modern global economy, the United States, promptly ensured that its currency was used as a global means of payment (this was recorded in the decisions of the Bretton Woods International Monetary and Financial Conference in 1944). And then, in 1971, he canceled the peg of the dollar to gold and the exchange of dollars for gold at a fixed rate (which was provided for by the decisions of the conference). This actually meant the monopoly right of the United States to uncontrollably print world paper money and pay with this money for all goods of international trade. Accordingly, with these printed dollars, the United States pays for all its imports, which have long far exceeded exports, and lives at the expense of the rest of the world, remaining the richest nation, not caring at all about what will happen in the future with the trillions of issued paper dollars. Thus, we see that the leader of modern globalization manages just fine without a world trade monopoly; he has a much better one - currency monopoly .

In the real sector of the economy: industry, agriculture, there are also many examples of monopolism that arose or intensified under the influence of globalization. As already mentioned, due to uneven climate, population density and other factors, some countries always found themselves in more advantageous conditions when globalization emerged, while others found themselves in less advantageous conditions. And those countries that found themselves in the most advantageous position could use it to create a monopoly, which often happened. Thus, North Africa in antiquity, thanks to its unique capabilities in agriculture, monopolized the production and export of grain throughout the Mediterranean region, which was accompanied by the decline of Italian agriculture, the mass emigration of Italians to Africa and the desolation of Italy that began already by the 1st century. AD

For the development of industry the above competitiveness factors: favorable warm climate, high population density, natural transport routes , - are even more important than for the development of the economy as a whole. Thus, the famous English economist K. Clark cites precisely these factors as determining the successful development of a market economy. According to E. Reinert, since 1500, economists have written about these factors as important for the development of industry, and cites a number of authors. Only thanks to their presence (in the context of globalization and free trade) can one country acquire natural competitive advantage over other countries and create on this basis industrial monopoly . An example of such a monopoly in the modern world is China, which has all this set of factors and, thanks to them, has the lowest production costs in the world. At the end of the 20th – beginning of the 21st centuries. China, largely thanks to these natural advantages, turned into the “workshop of the world” and flooded the whole world with its cheap goods.

In addition, the very fact of the presence of a developed industry, and the lack of it in neighboring countries, can also become the basis for an industrial monopoly. In the era of the 4th cycle of globalization (19th century), such an example was England, which by that time had completed the industrial revolution and, thanks to globalization, had become the “workshop of the world.” As the German economist Friedrich List wrote in 1841, “A nation such as England, whose industry is far ahead of that of other countries, maintains and expands its industrial and commercial supremacy best by free trade"(emphasized by Liszt). The role of free trade in maintaining the English industrial monopoly is evidenced by the following statement by a representative of the Whig party in the English Parliament in 1846: as a result of free trade, “foreign countries will become valuable colonies for us, despite the fact that we will not have to bear the responsibility for governing these countries.” .

England maintained this industrial monopoly throughout almost the entire 19th century. - until the USA and Western Europe at the end of the 19th century. did not protect themselves from globalization through protectionist policies and did not create their own advanced industries.

The examples given above concerned the monopoly of individual countries in trade, industry, and agriculture. But the same examples of monopolism, strengthened by globalization, can be cited in relation to one or more companies that have monopolized entire sectors of the economy.

The main mechanism contributing to the enhancement industry monopoly , are mergers and acquisitions, which always increase sharply in the context of globalization. Thus, if in 1959-1968, before the start of the modern (5th) cycle of globalization, an average of 39 mergers and acquisitions took place annually in West Germany, then in 1969-1979. this figure increased almost 10 times – to 354. At the same time, we see the beginning of economic crises and declines in production (1967-1969, 1974-1975, 1980-1982), which indicated the attenuation of investment activity, and the rate of economic growth in developed Western countries in 1970-1982. e years decreased by almost 2 times compared to the 1960s (see above). Thus, already in the first decade of the current globalization cycle, the tendency towards the attenuation of productive investments - in production, new technologies, etc. - was clearly evident. and a sharp increase in investments aimed at buying up other companies and creating various kinds of financial and industrial groups and other monopolistic conglomerates.

These trends continued in the future, as the process of globalization became more powerful and began to cover more and more countries. According to data cited by economic observer of the Financial Times newspaper M. Wolf, in 1995 there were 9,251 mergers and acquisitions in the world and their volume amounted to $850 billion, and 11 years later, in 2006, the number of such transactions was already 33 141 and their volume is 3.9 trillion dollars. Thus, mergers and acquisitions during this time increased almost 5 times, while the volume of investments around the world during this time increased in current prices by less than 2 times - and in constant prices almost did not increase at all.

It is known that during the previous (4th) cycle of globalization, preceding the Great Depression of the 1930s, the process of concentration and monopolization of industry was just as intense. This gave V.I. Lenin the basis at the beginning of the 20th century to conclude that the era of monopoly capitalism had begun. Soon after Lenin, A. Berle and G. Means in the USA, Hilferding in Germany and other Western economists came to the same conclusions - about the extreme concentration and monopolization of industry. An example of the role mergers and acquisitions played in this is J. Goldschmidt, who was involved in mergers and acquisitions in Germany and earned so much money from them that he became the owner of one of the largest banks in the country - Danat Bank (Darmstaedter- und National Bank ) . It was this bank, keen on mergers and acquisitions and speculation in industrial assets, that went bankrupt in July 1931, intensifying the economic and financial crisis in Germany. A. Berle and G. Means, who studied the processes of monopolization in the United States in the decades preceding the Great Depression, found that only in the period from 1919 to 1929. at least 49 of the 200 largest US companies ceased to exist as a result of mergers and acquisitions.

Here are just a few examples of industry monopolies that emerged at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. as a result of mergers and acquisitions: absorption of Western European automobile concerns (Opel, Rover and others) by their American and Japanese competitors; the formation of the giant American ConocoPhillips (as a result of the merger of two large American oil and gas companies); formation of the giant Bavarian-Austrian-Italian banking holding UniCredit; merger of French automakers Peugeot and Citroen; the merger of several Italian banks to form Banca Intesa, the formation of the English pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and the German Bayer-Schering (both were created as a result of the merger of two large national pharmaceutical companies); the unification of all Russian aluminum companies into a conglomerate called “Russian Aluminum” (Rusal); formation in the United States, on the initiative of President Clinton, of the global aluminum cartel led by Alcoa.

6. Features of modern globalization and its prospects

Modern globalization as a whole is developing according to the same laws as its predecessors. But there are also features:

1. The scale and spread of modern globalization far exceeds anything that came before. In the past, there have always been countries and regions that did not feel the impact of globalization; in the modern world there are no such countries and regions left. The size of international trade flows, as well as the size of population migrations in the modern world, far exceeds what they were even during the previous (4th) cycle of globalization, not to mention earlier cycles.

2. Financial transactions and speculation have reached unprecedented levels. Thus, the total volume of financial transactions in the world from 1983 to 2001 increased almost 60 times, while the volume of world GDP during the same period increased only approximately 2 times. The total volume of financial transactions in 2001, according to D. Harvey, amounted to about 40 trillion dollars, of this amount, it is estimated that only 0.8 trillion dollars (2%) were necessary to support trade and investment, the remaining 98% financial transactions were purely speculative transactions. According to G. Reisegger, US GDP in the early 2000s amounted to only 0.5% of the volume of financial and foreign exchange transactions in American financial markets, and the US GDP itself, according to him, “only less than a third consists of ready-made products, and more than 2/3 are services, often in the virtual economy." Thus, the world economy has found itself at the mercy of speculative financial capital, the volume and power of which is enormous compared to the capital concentrated in the real sector.

3. International payments use monetary units (dollar, euro) that are not tied to gold, as was the case during previous cycles of globalization. On the one hand, this contributes to faster growth of international trade - since the United States and Western Europe do not need to spend gold to import the goods they need, they can only print more paper money - dollars and euros - and pay for these imports. On the other hand, the use of unbacked paper money (dollar and euro) in settlements creates a potential threat of collapse of the entire system of international payments and curtailment of international trade.

4. In previous cycles, globalization largely spread through the colonization of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America (through the British, French, Spanish and other colonial empires). In the modern world, where there are no colonial systems, globalization is spreading through the system of international organizations (WTO, World Bank) and through direct political and military intervention of the USA and NATO (“color revolutions”, military interventions, bombing of “undesirable countries”, etc. ). This creates a threat of further growth of military conflicts and a zone of political instability in the world. In the modern world, there is almost no region left that is not affected by social explosions, revolutions and the growth of terrorism: the Near and Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Southeast and South Asia, Latin America, the countries of the former USSR. However, in the future we can expect a further expansion of the list of countries affected by political and social instability and military conflicts.

5. The decline of previous centers of globalization (USA, Western Europe) and the rise of new ones (China) is happening too quickly in comparison with previous cycles, which threatens to aggravate the military-political situation and the Third World War. Thus, the First World War arose as a result of the rapid rise of Germany as the new center of the global economy and as a result of the rapid decline of the old center - Great Britain and its ally France.

The study of the patterns of development of globalization allows us to predict the following probable development of events within the current cycle of globalization:

Global financial crisis 2008-2009 and stagnation in 2010-2011. will develop into a new Great Depression, which will affect most countries of the world;

Increasing problems with US debt will give rise to a “flight from the dollar”, which will lead to the collapse of the international payment system and the entire global economy, causing a chain reaction in all countries and aggravating the global economic crisis;

The United States will unleash a series of new regional wars in order to establish control over strategic resources, strengthen the position of the dollar and fight global competitors; it is possible that they will escalate into a major military conflict (World War III);

Gold and silver will increase in price many times over, and holders of dollars and shares will lose their savings as the global monetary, financial and economic crisis deepens;

Negative trends in the economy can be reversed by the transition of large states (Russia, India, China, continental European states, etc.) from liberal economic policies to protectionist policies with the implementation of structural economic reforms and the construction of a regional economic model as a counterweight to the global one.

7. Study of globalization by modern Western science

The books in the “Unknown History” trilogy provide many facts indicating that there is no objective study of globalization in the West:

Too little has been done by Western science in the field of studying the processes of globalization in history, which would help to correctly assess the prospects of modern globalization. Essentially, the only serious research in this area is the work of I. Wallerstein on the “European world economy” of the 12th-19th centuries; however, no one bothered to analyze, generalize, or, let alone develop, these works, written back in the 1970-1980s;

There is no scientific economic theory of globalization in the West;

The very essence of globalization as intensive international trade is distorted, it is argued that the word “globalization” itself was coined only in the 1980s, which calls into question the historical parallels of modern globalization;

Historical facts indicating the impact of globalization (free trade) on demography and the economy are suppressed or distorted;

Any reference to the impact of globalization (free trade) and protectionism is removed from economic and demographic works:

“... in the liberal economic science that prevails today, there is no clear understanding of either the process of globalization itself or its consequences... This fact is recognized ... by the famous American economist D. Stiglitz, who has published several books on globalization. He writes, for example, of the “flawed economic theories” used by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which for several decades have required many countries to become more involved in globalization processes (p.17). The latest event is the powerful global financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 against the backdrop of globalization, which is compared to the Great Depression of 1929-1939. and which came as a complete surprise to liberal economics, only confirms this. There are many examples of how the discipline has deliberately ignored research into the impact of globalization and protectionism on the economy for many decades. For example, at a major international seminar of economists and economic historians in 1963, dedicated to the problems of economic growth, not a single passage in the reports was devoted to this burning topic. In the transcript of the seminar, I was able to find only two short random remarks on this topic, which were exchanged between the Japanese and German professors (see: Chapter XIII). And from the report of the economic historian D. North on the industrialization of the United States, which was based on his article published in the collection of the University of Cambridge, all facts and phrases concerning the role of protectionism in American industrialization were thrown out (; 2, pp.680-681). In other modern economic books or collections you will also not find any serious studies of the impact of protectionism or globalization on the economy and economic growth.

Exactly the same situation exists today in demographic science, which has abstracted itself from studying the influence of these factors on demographic growth. Meanwhile, it is known that in the 18th century, humanity was convinced that protectionism leads to accelerated population growth: this was an axiom recognized by almost all European states. Although all demographers in the West should know this fact, just as doctors should know who Hippocrates is, not a single modern Western demographer, as far as I know, has dared to test this axiom. Even in the 2006 special issue of the demographic journal Journal of Population Research, dedicated to globalization (which is resoundingly entitled “Globalization and Demography”), there is not a word on the above problem, it is simply a collection of articles describing modern world demographic trends: population aging, widespread falling birth rates, etc., which are already well known to everyone. The reason is simple: if one of the Western demographers actually tried to test the 18th-century axiom on the available historical material, he could put an end to his future career as a scientist.

Why this happens is not at all difficult to understand. Globalization has become, since the 1960s, the main policy direction of Western states and the main idol to which the leaders of these states have since prayed. Accordingly, the word “protectionism” has become almost a dirty word both in the mouths of Western politicians and in the mouths of liberal economists. If any country today decides to introduce an increased import duty - even Russia, which is not a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), then everyone will begin to unanimously scold it, accusing it of almost abandoning a market economy in general and of striving to build an authoritarian one. economy. What kind of objective study of globalization or, conversely, protectionism and their consequences for the economy and demography can we talk about given such politicization of this issue?

It is not surprising, therefore, that even economic historians are forced to write about this problem in the language of half-hints or even refuse to draw any conclusions themselves, even vague ones. And those economic historians: I. Wallerstein, C. Wilson, P. Bairoch and others - who dare to draw such conclusions, hide them in the thickness of their voluminous works, never bringing them to the conclusion ( p. 165-166, 184; pp. .233-234)" (Kuzovkov Yu. World history of corruption, paragraph 18.4).

“Despite the fact that the entire current Western ideology is built on the praise of globalization, no Western economist has ever seriously considered this phenomenon - with numbers and facts in hand, using data from at least the last few centuries. So, we see that a completely unfamiliar and unexplored path of development (globalization) has been imposed on humanity, which, quite possibly, leads it to the abyss. And a strict taboo has been imposed on any research on this path” (Yu. Kuzovkov. Globalization and the Spiral of History, Chapter XIII).

“In general, before convincing their countries of the need to continue their participation in globalization, political leaders would do well to understand what consequences this policy will lead to. And as was shown above, there was no objective analysis of globalization as a historical, economic and social phenomenon until recently. Moreover, as many facts show, conscious attempts are being made to prevent such an analysis and the dissemination of its results. Therefore, in the end, we have a terrifying picture: humanity launched a project called “globalization”, without knowing the patterns of development of this phenomenon and without trying to understand them. It’s the same as if a child decided to fly an airplane and took off into the air on it, without having the slightest idea of ​​what to do with it next and how to land it on the ground.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that ignorance of the laws of development of human society, primarily its economic and social development (and globalization is among these laws), can actually contribute to the onset of a global catastrophe in the 21st century. Man has almost deciphered his gene and is about to create or clone his own kind; solved a number of mysteries of the Universe and got ready to explore space, learned to manage nuclear energy, created perfect electronic systems and artificial intelligence. But he still cannot (or does not want) to study the laws of the functioning and development of human society in order to take these laws into account when forming public policy. Therefore, humanity today is increasingly reminiscent of a child who decided to fly a plane in the air” (Yu. Kuzovkov. Globalization and the spiral of history, afterword). See, for example: F. Lot, La fin du monde antique et le debut du moyen age. Paris, 1968, pp. 72-73; G. Glotz, Histoire greque, t. 3, Paris, 1941, p. 15; G.Salvioli, Le capitalisme dans le monde antique, Paris, 1906

C. Wilson, England's Apprenticeship, 1603-1763, New York, 1984, p.344

R.Lopez, Chapter V: The Trade of Medieval Europe... p. 306; P.Chaunu, La civilisation... p. 254

L.Genicot. On the Evidence of Growth of Population in the West from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries, in: Change in Medieval Society. Europe North of the Alps, 1050-1500, Ed. by S. Thrupp, New York, 1964, p. 23

I.Wallerstein. The Modern World-System II... p. 45

E.Wrigley, R.Schofield, The Population History of England, 1541-1871. A Reconstruction, Cambridge, 1981, pp. 340-341; P.Chaunu, La civilisation… pp. 383, 388-389; Milward A., Saul S., The Economic Development... p. 42

C. Wilson, The Economic Decline of the Netherlands, in: Essays in Economic History, ed. by E.Carus-Wilson, London, 1954, p. 263

J.Delumeau. Chapitre 15. Renaissance et discordes religieuses, 1515-1589, dans: Histoire de la France. Des Origines a nos jours, dir. par G.Duby. Paris, 1997, p. 388

S.Kaplan, Bread, Politics and Political Economy in the reign of Louis XV, Hague, 1976, Vol. 2, p. 488; I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System III. The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s, San Diego, 1989, pp. 86-93

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Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus

Private educational institution

BIP - Institute of Law

Course work

“The concept and essence of globalization. Origins and preconditions of globalization"

Prepared by: Balyuk Sergey Olegovich

4th year student of the specialty Political Science

Scientific supervisor: Vyacheslav Vikentievich Benkovsky

Introduction

1. The concept of globalization

2. The essence of globalization

3. Causes and preconditions of globalization

4. Subjects of globalization

5. Stages of world globalization

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Globalization is a rather complex, multilateral process that affects all spheres of human existence, and introduces fundamental changes to some of them. The emergence of a new trend in global development, expressed in the concept of “globalization,” confronts modern scientists with a wide range of not only as yet unresolved tasks, problems and questions, but also ways and means of solving them. Particular attention should be paid to the economic, legal, social, spiritual and moral components of world globalization processes. Thus, we are talking about developing a specific strategy to counter not just the numerous negative aspects of globalization processes, but also its outright threats and “challenges.”

Meanwhile, the concept of globalization corresponds to so many different, sometimes contradictory phenomena, processes, and trends that have become more or less widespread on a global scale. Hence the variety of interpretations, the multitude of “globalizations” (i.e., theories explaining it). In addition, there are methodological and ideological reasons for such ambiguity in the understanding of globalization. Researchers touch upon one or more aspects: economic, political, cultural, the so-called global problems of humanity (environmental, international crime), various sources, driving forces are called, i.e. primary, basic factors of globalization, again in various combinations. Some authors consider the processes of globalization to be spontaneous and inevitable, others - directed, and others suggest a combination of both trends.

In this work I will try to touch upon such issues as the concept of “globalization” and “globalism”; clarification of the prospects for the development of the national state in the course of globalization; knowledge of trends in globalization of the world, assessment of the degree of its irreversibility and usefulness for the world community; forecasting the fate of the nation state in globalization.

globalization nation state world

1. The concept of globalization

The term “globalization” began to be used in social sciences relatively recently. The concept of globalization was used at the conceptual level in 1981 by J. McLean, who called for “to understand and explain the historical process of increasing globalization of social relations.” In its modern sense, the term "globalization" arose in the mid-1980s, and its impact on the intellectual climate of the last decade of the 20th century. turned out to be exceptionally strong; in the early 1990s M. Waters, one of the most famous specialists in this field, noted that “just as the main concept of the 1980s was postmodernism, the key idea of ​​the 1990s may be globalization, by which we understand the transition of humanity into the third millennium.” . The appearance of the definition of the term “globalization” is usually associated with the name of the American sociologist R. Robertson, who in 1983 used the concept of globality in the title of one of his articles, in 1985 gave an interpretation of the concept of globalization, and in 1992 outlined the foundations of his concept in a special book. R. Robertson defined globalization as a series of empirically recorded changes, heterogeneous, but united by the logic of transforming the world into a single whole.

Subsequently, this concept began to be interpreted as a process of development of political and economic relations on a global scale, the historical evidence of which was numerous facts of a new stage in the development of the world. Gradually, with an increase in the volume of scientific knowledge, systematization and comprehension of information about ongoing world events, an understanding of the essence of this concept apparently began to come, which led to the creation of new theoretical models of world development (S. Huntington, F. Fukuyama, M. Friedman, A. Giddens, etc. .). The problem field of “globalization” began to emerge more and more clearly, the constituent elements of which were such concepts as “globality”, “globalism”, “global problems”, etc.

Semantically, the concept of “globality” is associated with the Latin word globus - globe, emphasizing that the object of existence of the “living space” of humanity is our entire planet Earth, and the problems of its life activity are planetary and relevant for everyone, that is, global. This concept is also associated with the world-system approach, in which the central concept is “the world as a whole” and which began to actively develop in the 1970s. Globalization (from Latin globus - ball, French global - universal) is an objective process of formation, organization, functioning and development of a fundamentally new world-wide, global system of power based on deepening interconnection and interdependence in all spheres of the international community.

Scientists most often pay attention to the intensification of international relations and contacts, to the well-known convention of modern national borders; in second place is the development of communications that unite different parts of the world; then the cross-fertilization of cultures is noted, as well as the fact that many social and political decisions acquire the ability to directly and directly affect situations that arise far beyond the boundaries of the community whose problems they are intended to serve. Thus, a picture of the world arises in which all its parts and all the processes occurring in it are interdependent and interdependent. Economists, for their part, note the intensification of international financial transactions, the significantly increasing openness of markets, the increase in the volume of international trade and foreign direct investment, the development of Western standards of consumer culture, and so on; as a result, they come to the conclusion that in modern conditions large companies become subjects of processes that span the entire world, and the decisions made by their management directly affect the global economy as a whole. Globalization is seen as a transnational approach to the organization of a global system, which is based on global trends and institutions, as a process of dissemination of information technologies, products and systems throughout the world, bringing with it economic and cultural integration. Supporters of this process see in it opportunities for further progress, subject to the development of a global information society. Globalization is the export and implementation of the modern Western, socio-economic and cultural model throughout the world. Globalization refers to the enormous increase in the scale of world trade and other processes of international exchange in an increasingly open, integrated, borderless world economy. Thus, we are talking not only about traditional foreign trade in goods and services, but also about currency flows, capital flows, exchange of technologies, information and ideas, and the movement of people. This is the economic interpretation of the concept of globalization of the world.

Representatives of other sciences in defining the concept of globalization also show one-sided approaches. Globalization is the process of rapid formation of a single global financial and information space based on new, mainly computer technologies (M. Delyagin). V. Mikheev defines globalization as “the development of economic and political interdependence of countries and regions to a level at which it is possible and necessary to raise the issue of creating a single legal field for both economic and political management.” Globalization is presented both as a process, and as a new ideology, and as a stage in the development of human civilization, and as an inevitable stage of historical dynamics. According to British Minister for International Development C. Short, “globalization” means “the growing interdependence and interconnectedness of the modern world..., which is reflected in the spread of global norms and values, democracy and global agreements and treaties, including international agreements on environmental protection and protection of human rights." In this definition, the key words are also interdependence and interconnectedness, which characterize the development of international relations on a planetary scale. Croatian political scientist K. Jurisic expresses a slightly different point of view: “Globalization is a reflection of the phenomenon that consists in the impossibility of separating international politics from domestic politics. The real choice facing governments... is not how to resist globalization, but how to manage it." Emphasizing the increasing interdependence of world and national politics, K. Jurisic, at the same time, considers the key expression - management of globalization processes. W. Beck believes that “globalization” refers to processes “in which states and their sovereignty are woven into a web of transnational international actors and subject to their power, their orientation and identity.” In accordance with this figurative definition by U. Beck, transnational international actors should include such participants in globalization as: national states, TNCs, the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. The relationships established between them and the interdependencies that arise form a “web” or hierarchy of the modern world structure.

According to the American researcher T. Friedman, globalization is “the indomitable integration of markets, nation-states and technologies, allowing individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach anywhere in the world faster, further, deeper and cheaper than ever before.” Globalization means the spread of free market capitalism to virtually every country in the world. Globalization has its own set of economic rules, which are based on the opening, deregulation and privatization of national economies in order to strengthen their competitiveness and increase their attractiveness for foreign capital." Understanding globalization as a multidimensional phenomenon, B. Badi talks about its three dimensions: 1) globalization as a constantly ongoing historical process, 2) globalization as the homogenization and universalization of the world, 3) globalization as the destruction of national borders.

There are many definitions of globalization in which the authors idealize this phenomenon. “Globalization is a process of unification and integration of humanity, accompanied by an increase in the quality of life and level of well-being of mankind, acceleration of economic and political development of countries, increased exchange of technological, scientific and cultural achievements between different countries and peoples” (V.I. Dobrenkov); “globalization is the worldwide spread of the liberal capitalist model with its inherent combination of political and cultural values” (P. Rutland); “Globalization is a process of intensive exchange in the technical, political, sociocultural, production and financial spheres of public life, associated with the internationalization of economies on the basis of scientific and technological progress and a deeper international division of labor.” The Moscow Institute of Globalization Problems understands globalization as the relationship between the “information revolution,” primarily the development of the Internet, and the “integration of financial markets.”

Definitions of the concept of world globalization have also been published by representatives of anti-globalist forces. Globalization is represented by V.L. Inozemtsev with a theoretical construct designed to reflect the formation of a unipolar world, moreover, as a fair, if not ideal, world order. The concept of “globalization” refers to the process of exacerbation of the entire complex of global problems and the increase in planetary interdependence of various countries and regions of the world (A.I. Kostin). According to the famous Russian philosopher and political scientist A.S. Panarin, “globalization can be defined as the process of weakening traditional territorial, sociocultural and state-political barriers (which once isolated peoples from each other and at the same time protecting them from disorderly external influences) and the formation of a new, “non-protectionist” system of international interaction and interdependence” . Among the indisputable facts in defining the modern world as a global A.S. Panarin attributes the fact of the growing interdependence of countries and peoples, the intertwining of their histories, the increasing influence of external factors on internal national development, the gradual formation in some dimensions of a single economic, informational, scientific, technical and other “spaces.”

Thus, the multiplicity of meanings of the concept of globalization indicates that: firstly, “globalization” is a social reality that is characterized by various parameters, and secondly, “globalization” is a complex and versatile process, as a result of which there is an increase relationships between various world structures, cultures, nations and peoples, as well as between individuals.

The closest word in meaning to the concept of “globalization” is “global”, which means: 1) relating to the territory of the entire globe, covering the entire globe, worldwide; 2) comprehensive, universal, universal.

As a result, we can say that globalization is indeed a process that covers the entire globe, or a worldwide process. It follows from this that the word “globalization” in itself does not mean anything, because it is devoid of any content. In fact, the word “globalization” only becomes meaningful when the subject of globalization is specified. It is necessary to distinguish between spiritual, information technology, political, economic, social, legal, cultural and some other aspects of globalization processes.

2. The essence of globalization

Globalization is presented both as a process, and as a new ideology, and as a stage in the development of human civilization, and as an inevitable stage of historical dynamics. All these definitions have a right to exist. With their help, one can explain certain processes depending on the tasks and methodological settings of the researcher. But it is already becoming clear that many definitions that base only the economic aspect are gradually becoming obsolete. Shifts within individual disciplines and the development of an interdisciplinary approach form the prerequisites necessary for the development of a generalized or transdisciplinary image of globalization. In addition, it should be noted that various processes characterizing the general phenomenon of globalization are becoming the subject of study of global studies. Global studies develops the latest ways of studying the world - an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cognitive method, which dictates the need to consider the world in its various dimensions, followed by their synthesis in a single model of the global world.

In the diverse definitions of the essence of globalization, common features are found, which boil down to the following:

a) this is an objective natural-historical process that characterizes the internal needs of the development of modern civilization, which manifested itself with the greatest intensity in the last quarter of the 20th century;

b) this is a systemic process, manifested in the multiplication and complication of social connections, the action of which leads to supranational and supranational

integration primarily in the field of economics, engineering and technology, information,

politics, law, management and the emergence as a result of a certain complex system that begins to function as a single organism with its own structures

and institutions;

c) during this process, problems arise that affect the foundations of the existence of humanity (society and the individual), the solution of which is impossible through local efforts (so-called global problems);

d) the unfolding of the globalization process in modern civilization has

influence on the life of society (formation of new needs, conditions and forms

communication, value orientations, forms and methods of self-identification of individuals and social groups), on the lifestyle and mentality of people;

e) special relationships are emerging between globalization as a qualitative characteristic of the level of development of modern civilization and statehood. WITH

on the one hand, new forms and methods of state functioning are emerging,

On the other hand, preconditions arise for the withering away of statehood.

In reality, globalization is in no way a “natural” process that grows evolutionarily with the development of the structures of world capitalism in new technical conditions. Globalization is often defined as a spontaneous process, which also serves as an additional justification for the objectivity of this process. According to M.N. Marchenko, globalization “is an objective, not inspired by anyone from the outside, a natural process.” A.S. Pigolkin made a categorical conclusion that “globalization is as objectively inevitable as the collapse of the clan organization of society that took place in its time with its collectivism and universal equality.” In fact, the most important system-forming feature of modern globalization is its pronounced controllability.

Globalization is manifested in the fact that political, legal and socio-economic processes in one part of the world determine what happens in all other parts of the world. At the same time, we observe a unidirectional, stable tendency for the West to dictate its will to the East. “A relatively small number of industrialized states (the G7, the USA, Japan) have an increasing influence on the development of civilization,” stated A.S. Pigolkin. “They determine the policies of the main interstate associations and the fate of the planet. The lot of other states is to adapt to the conditions , formed practically without their participation." Space is being compressed, time is being compressed, geographic and interstate borders are becoming more and more transparent and easily surmountable. The speed and dynamics of historical changes are increasing unusually.

Thus, the globalization of the world is a dialectical process of social reality, characterized by increased interconnection and interdependence between subject and object. At the same time, “globalization” is determined by the deep transformation of the processes of internationalization of the economic, cultural and political life of mankind, their sharp acceleration and deep qualitative transformation (G.V. Rublev). Consequently, “globalization” determines the dynamics of world development, as a result of which a single political, economic, informational, social and legal space is formed with new levels of integration, integrity, interdependence, etc. With this consideration, “globalization” is a transitional period of humanity to larger system-forming social units, both regional (continental associations - conglomerates) and global (world community, World Government). The result of this transition period largely depends on the driving forces, forms, methods and mechanisms through which it will be implemented. Globalization processes are influenced by a large number of deep transitional transformations occurring in various spheres: spiritual-cultural, political, economic, social and legal.

Globalization cannot be viewed in static terms; it is a dynamic, stage-by-stage process, which is characterized by a temporal extent, stages and an ever-accelerating pace of development. Humanity has entered another transitional, hyper-dynamic era, briefly referred to as the “era of globalization.” This period is full of various kinds of changes, which are generally anti-systemic in nature.

Globalization is also distinguished from internationalization; These are interconnected, but qualitatively different processes. Internationalization presupposes the expansion of something previously purely internal beyond the initial framework; or the unification of the actions of several subjects of world culture, economics and politics around common tasks, goals, and types of activities. It is, in principle, universal in terms of the subjects and space covered, although it does not involve all participants in international activities. Globalization denies the national as something hopelessly outdated and hindering its victorious march. Transnational corporations as agents of globalization are essentially supranational, supranational, and extranational institutions.

Globalization can be called a process of total integration. However, it is fundamentally different from all forms of integration that previously existed in world history. Humanity has so far been familiar with two forms of integration:

1. Some strong power forcibly tries to “annex” other countries, and we can call this form of integration integration through coercion (force). This is how many empires were created.

2. Voluntary unification of countries to achieve a common goal. This is a voluntary form of integration.

In both cases, the territories where integration took place were relatively small and did not reach the scale characteristic of the modern process of globalization. The transformation of national-state corporations into transnational ones, first of all, requires a uniform political and legal space in order to ensure the safety of capital. Globalization is an unification in the interests of the “golden billion”, directed against the interests of the majority of humanity, against the original development of peoples.

I would like to emphasize that, despite the various options for the manifestation of the globalization process, its basis and essence are always primarily the economic interests of the subjects of globalization, and it is the search for economic benefit that was, is and will be its main “driver”.

3. Prerequisites for globalization

The prerequisites for the processes of globalization were the information revolution, which provides the technical basis for the creation of global information networks, the internationalization of capital and tougher competition in world markets, the shortage of natural resources and the intensification of the struggle for control over them, a demographic explosion, as well as increased technogenic pressure on nature and the distribution of weapons mass destruction, increasing the risk of general catastrophe. These facts, despite their heterogeneity, are closely interconnected, and their interaction determines the complex and contradictory nature of globalization processes.

The concept of “globality” is given the meaning of “transterritoriality” (“superterritoriality”), which means the expansion of a person’s “living space” “above” the territory of his national state within the entire globe. That is, from the point of view of this concept, the idea of ​​an individual about his functioning only in the closed living territory of a specific geographical area of ​​the Earth changes. With the help of telecommunications, information technologies and the Internet, every person has the opportunity to contact anywhere in the world in accordance with their professional needs and life interests. Moreover, in certain regions of the world, the sphere of economic, political, social and cultural activity of a person in one state turned out to be closely connected with similar spheres of a person in another state. At the beginning of the 21st century, close interconnection and interdependence spread to all countries of the world, becoming global.

The accessibility of the world in modern conditions is ensured with the help of information and communication technologies. This reveals the most important feature of “globality” - the creation of a global information space. The created technologies of communication and information contribute to a new comprehensive communication integration of the world. This stage of development is characterized by increased interaction between the constituent elements of the world structure, changes and transformation of human life. The world finds itself entangled in various information and communication networks that operate across geographic territories at the global level. This new technological state of the world influenced the transformation of social relations.

Economists, for their part, note the intensification of international financial transactions, the significantly increasing openness of markets, the increase in the volume of international trade and foreign direct investment, the development of Western standards of consumer culture, and so on; as a result, they come to the conclusion that in modern conditions large companies become subjects of processes that span the entire world, and the decisions made by their management directly affect the global economy as a whole. The world market is becoming similar to the market of a single state.

But here the question arises: which state? The leading positions in globalization are occupied by industrialized countries, which means that the structure of their economy will be proposed as an ideal model. This structure is called the “golden corset”.

The “Golden Corset” is a set of rules that must be observed by countries that are part of the world division of labor in the process of globalization.

The essence of the “golden corset”: the private sector should become the leading sector, the basis of economic development, the government should maintain a low level of inflation, the bureaucracy should be regularly reduced, import tariffs are reduced, state-owned enterprises are privatized, non-residents can purchase any securities, local commodity markets are opened, Competition among all commodity producers is encouraged, production does not receive subsidies, and domestic and foreign funds and banks operate in the financial market.

Such rules are beneficial, first of all, to the strongest participants in the globalizing world. The weakest will be forced to adapt, endure a period of “withdrawal”, and experience socio-economic upheaval. Benefits that can be obtained:

1.increasing the average income level;

2.increasing the influx of foreign investment;

3.more efficient use of natural resources.

However, is it worth paying such a high price for them? Different countries answer this question differently: some, having shown an initial readiness to globalize, quickly throw off the “corset” (Malaysia, Russia). Others spend a long time preparing to try it on (India, Egypt), while others are trying to reshape it in accordance with their ideas and traditions (France, Japan).

What do we end up with? The literature most often points to several visible sources of all or part of those processes that together form the phenomenon of globalization as a whole.

Stable, long-term negative environmental and other consequences of human management on the Planet, which in the second half of the 20th century reached a scale fraught with the dangers of not only the tangible near depletion of non-renewable natural resources, but also the mutation of the entire biosphere of the Earth, including humans, which is unpredictable due to its consequences (geohistorically established ecological balance irreversibly damaged, the meaning and content of what spontaneously replaces it has yet to be comprehended);

The development of all kinds of communications, infrastructures and relationships, which leads to such a degree of social interconnectedness and interdependence of the world, when the still very numerous signs of socio-historical savagery of the individual, specific societies and modern man as a species as a whole cease to be problems of isolated “bear corners” and become a common problem for all humanity, threatening its security, the prospects for its upward development and the very preservation of life on the Planet;

The emergence of the first subjects of world economics and politics (transnational corporations; states; intergovernmental organizations), the combination of interests, abilities and capabilities of which requires them and allows them to act globally in one or more spheres of life on an everyday basis (as “subjects of global relations”).

4. Subjects of globalization

Most scientists identify international organizations, national states and international corporations as the main subjects of globalization.

International corporations

Transnationalization is one of the most important components and at the same time the main mechanism of the overall processes of globalization. It is the most significant core ensuring the unity of the functioning of the world economy. It is through them and the transnational banks associated with them that the main material, information and financial flows pass, which largely determine the development of the world economy. TNCs are the main factor in the globalization of the world economy, which locate individual production facilities and their stages in the territories of different countries.

Although Western capitalism is characterized by an abundance of legal and economic organizational business models: joint stock companies, department stores, sending goods by mail, a chain of similar stores, trusts, vertically integrated enterprises, bank branches, conglomerates, transnational corporations, it is TNCs that become the most important subjects of the global economic integration of national economics

An international corporation, or MK (international corporation), is a special type of organization of economic activity that involves the combination of factors of production into a single whole (company) to carry out production and economic activities in many countries of the world. There are two types of MK:

1) transnational corporation (TNC) - a community whose parent company is owned by the capital of one country, and subsidiaries and organizations of the community operate in different countries;

2) multinational corporations (MNCs) - a community whose parent company is owned by the capital of two or more countries, and branches are located in many countries.

TNCs primarily pursue the interests of private capital. All their activities are aimed at obtaining economic profit. Therefore, unlike the state, they will not manage the areas of activity transferred to them for the benefit of the whole society. On the contrary, the cosmopolitanism of TNCs, which suppresses the statehood of the countries in which they operate, their violation of labor, tax laws, environmental standards, and restrictions on monopolistic activities have become the causes of contradictions between TNCs, on the one hand, and their home countries and host countries, on the other.

TNCs can be considered both a tool for increasing the efficiency of the economy in the era of globalization, and a threat to replace states as such. There is no doubt that the influence of TNCs on the world economy has already reached colossal proportions.

Nation states

Globalization is accompanied by a certain weakening of the role of the state in the political and economic structure of the world community. It began to feel like just one of the actors in the sphere of international relations, and by no means an all-powerful monopolist. Along with the traditional subjects of international relations, new actors and structures are emerging. In a number of cases, these structures are capable of intercepting the state’s performance of social, military-police, and arbitration functions, and such interception may correspond to immediate current interests and the logic of globalization processes.

Even on its own territory, the state ceases to be the only entity that is allowed to exercise legal coercion in order to maintain public order. Human rights regulation, environmental policy, and financial regulation are leaving his hands.

Many political scientists talk about the growing inability of nation states to adequately respond to the new challenges of our time. The very system of international relations as interstate relations is called into question, since globalization processes undermine the sovereignty of national states.

Many discussions are devoted to the role of TNCs in the modern world and their negative impact on the nation state. Indeed, TNCs are successfully taking advantage of globalization and the contradictions between national and international law. However, the role of TNCs in weakening state sovereignty should not be exaggerated. During periods of stability, TNCs subjectively strive to reduce the role of the national state, but in times of crisis they turn to it for support.

There are a number of other equally significant reasons that allow us to assert that the nation state in the context of globalization will not lose its importance.

In particular, one should not ignore the fact that there is an objective need to preserve the national state as a center for the consolidation and development of culture, distinctive political and legal features and the maintenance of national identity. In the vast majority of countries, it is the state that continues to be the supporting structure of national identity. Thus, the peoples of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries have been striving for centuries to gain their own statehood, and for them the national state is of particular value.

States have been and will remain the main players in international affairs, although the nature of their functioning may change to some extent. Globalization does not “close” the institution of the state, does not lead to its withering away, but puts much higher demands on the state, dictated by the interests of maintaining international peace, stability, security and development. It fits the state into much more complex structures of international relations and their regulation, and sets before it the requirements of socio-economic viability and practical international responsibility for its internal actions. Only a capable and effective, and therefore professional, non-corrupt, economically wealthy state can solve such problems. States that are unable to meet new demands face the possibility of losing domestic and international legitimacy.

International organizations

International organizations (IO) are associations of an interstate or non-state nature, created on the basis of agreements to achieve certain goals.

What are the reasons for the unification of sovereign states in international organizations and what is their role in the context of globalization?

So, the first is interconnection, and in some cases interdependence, primarily at the security level. So many states are members of such blocs as the UN, NATO, SCO, etc. What does this give them? A sense of personal security and a sense of confidence in the event of conflict situations, both between states and within individual states. At the same time, different tasks for the existence of such interstate entities may be set, but the main goal of these processes is unification.

Secondly, economic interconnection. The likelihood that the movement towards globalization will increase the interdependence between economic processes at the domestic and interstate levels is very high. At the same time, you need to be realistic, taking into account that in any global organization (union, bloc) there will be both leading and secondary members. And this can be seen in the examples of the functioning of the World Trade Organization, the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement and other organizations.

Thirdly, political interconnection. Many may argue that with the fall of the USSR, the ideological background for the emergence of interstate unions ceased to be relevant, but this is not so. Currently, there are interstate associations in the world that have compatible political interests as their basis. These are the Organization of American States, the Organization of African Unity, the League of Arab States, the Islamic Conference, etc.

It must be taken into account that many states that are part of one or another interstate entity have their own national interests. And achieving one’s interests is possible much faster and with fewer losses if all this happens within the framework of some kind of interstate organization. At the same time, we must not forget that the second factor is closely interconnected with the third when determining the national interests of the states included in the interstate association.

The fourth factor is information interconnection. Indeed, the information factor plays a big role in the modern world. And depending on which interstate association has comprehensive information, either confrontation between blocs can begin, or closer cooperation can be established.

At first glance, interstate associations have a positive effect on the processes of development of states and interstate relations. But if we analyze the current situation in the world, we can predict some trends in the development of such supranational entities. If you carefully read the statutory documents of interstate associations, then everywhere you see the idea of ​​the prosperity of humanity, as such, through the protection of human rights. The idea is, of course, sacred, but how noble will be the actions of certain states that cover their goals with such slogans?

If we consider any interstate entity, we can immediately identify the leading members of the union and the secondary ones. Thus, in the European Union the basis is France and Germany, in NATO the main player is the United States. The UN (Security Council) has five states that have veto power on certain issues. And you need to understand that without the main members of such unions, the existence of organizations would be impossible. Why do they, the main players in political life, enter into such alliances, for what purpose? It is already clear that behind many of the good intentions that lay at the basis of the creation of certain interstate associations are the national interests of a particular state or a number of states.

At the same time, it is much easier for a state located in one or another union to justify its actions than if it were not part of an interstate association. Many states see great benefits from such organizations. Even Beijing, whose policy was aimed at not joining various kinds of interstate blocs and unions, has recently taken an active position in the functioning of some interstate associations.

For example, the creation of the SCO. The main members of this organization are China and Russia. What did they gain from membership in this union? If you look at the tasks assigned to the SCO, you will see that the fight against terrorism and religious extremism is one of the main tasks of the SCO. And all members of this organization can use such a task to their advantage. Beijing in establishing order in the Xianzan Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tashkent in the fight against IMU followers. And other states can also use this direction and benefit.

NATO. Its main “fiery engine” is, of course, the USA. If at the beginning NATO was created as a bloc against the USSR, now NATO plays the role of a kind of “stabilizer” of political relations. In this case, Washington used its membership to flex its muscles in Kosovo, the first Iraq campaign, Afghanistan, etc. And although NATO’s tasks include the fight against terrorism, the world community still cannot decide what prompted Washington to military operations: either the sacred intentions of protecting civilians, or the achievement of its national interests.

In this regard, the UN is indicative. The most powerful, and until recently one of the most authoritative international organizations, claiming to have a structure that can subsequently put the idea of ​​globalization into practice, has shown how imperfect the functioning mechanism of such entities can be. This creates an ambivalent impression. All UN member states must respect the charter and act in accordance with it. But if one of the leading states decides that national interests in this case are higher than the charter of an international organization, then this organization, like its charter, ceases to be a guarantor of those freedoms and rights that it has been popularizing for a long time.

At the same time, it seems that all international associations and unions are a simple screen for other states, which benefit from pursuing their policies towards other countries under the guise of lofty ideas.

As a result, we can state the fact of the creation of such supranational associations only as another way of pursuing one’s policy.

Through a simple comparison of the key actors of globalization, one can see the growing influence of international corporations and organizations, while states are gradually losing their positions. I do not mean the complete elimination of the sovereign state as such, but an extremely unpleasant trend has developed for it, associated with the loss of some of its functions and features.

5. Stages of world globalization

Globalization as a process of monopolization and unification of the world began not in recent decades, when the term “globalization” became widespread, but much earlier. One of the controversial topics among scientists is the consideration of the beginning of globalization in historical time. A number of authors, for example, M. Waters, believe that globalization is comparable to modernization, so its beginning dates back to the 16th century. According to R. Robertson, the countdown time of globalization is commensurate with the time of the emergence of world religions. X. Lentner believes that globalization began at the end of the 19th century as a result of industrialization, the creation of new transport and communication technologies, the development of international trade, an increase in financial capital flows and modern migration. These points of view on the beginning of the processes of “globalization” indicate that it is a historical process. According to the Russian historian B.G. Mogilnitsky, “globalization” began in the 18th century. in parallel with the development of European capitalism, when, according to F. Braudel, the active expansion of capitalism and its global spread begins. As a result of these processes, a world market is created, based on the division of labor. Interaction between states is carried out through the redivision of the world: the seizure of territories, the creation of colonies, the revision of borders.

The beginning of globalization is often associated with the ancient times of the Roman Empire, then with the wars of conquest of Alexander the Great, Frederick II, Napoleon and Hitler. Globalization as a project of world domination indeed goes back a long way. Already in ancient times and the Middle Ages, there were large social communities that united vast territories and peoples: the Persian kingdom, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, the hordes of Genghis Khan. Even then, these communities were most often unstable political associations of heterogeneous territories, turned out to be fragile and existed for a relatively short time.

E. Aeroyants believes that the basis of globalization is the tendency towards an ever greater expansion of the space in which intensive interaction occurs - from individual villages, cities, principalities to states, regions and through the era of great geographical differences to the world as a whole. E. Aeroyants identifies the following stages of globalization: tribal, tribal, ethnic, imperial, monarchical, colonial, national, international. This approach reduces the entire history of mankind to globalization, blurring the scope of this concept.

The existing contradictions in the scientific literature regarding the moment of emergence of this process rest on scientists’ understanding of the essence of globalization, its causes and features. Essentially, globalization is synonymous with conquest, along with such terms as “colonization”, “world war”, “expansion”, etc. Only this is a qualitatively new form of conquest, addressed to the whole world as a whole and using new information, financial and other technologies. In the context of globalization of the world, the conqueror acts at a great distance from the conquered, so it is difficult to make him the object of a retaliatory attack.

Globalization of the world since the 21st century. acquired a new state - quantity has grown into quality, the globalization of the world has grown to the level of globalism on a worldwide scale. Before this time, there were other forms of interaction between peoples, states and cultures, because different civilizations had influenced each other since ancient times, mutual influence and interpenetration of cultures took place throughout historical development, but humanity had never known such a large-scale process of unification before.

It is worth noting that the term globalization appeared in the middle of the 20th century (however, this argument is not the main one). In English, the term “globalization” was used in its modern meaning only in the 1960s. E. Giddens noted in 1998 that the word “globalization” was hardly used by scientists. “Only recently has the concept made such a career: previously it was not found almost anywhere, but now it is found everywhere.” G. Therborn also points out that the term “globalization” was developed in the 90s of the 20th century. CM. Shahray notes that the term globalization, which appeared in the 20th century in the mid-1990s, was interpreted differently than it is now: “globalization” was understood as “an international process driven by investment in financial markets, which were determined by technological advances and deregulation.”

The very ideas of globalization of the world, as well as modernization and informatization, are not new. In the works of many scientists, theories were formed that illuminate these processes from different points of view. Thus, within the framework of the formational approach, K. Marx, and subsequently G. Braverman, expressed ideas about the globalization of production under the conditions of monopoly capital, about the transition from a society with the dictatorship of the proletariat to a society without classes. The idea of ​​​​creating a global Federation was expressed by I. Kant and P.-J. Proudhon. Goland thinker A. Klots in the book of 1792 under the name "General Republic" proposed similar ideas.

If the ideas of globalization arose in the minds of great scientists quite a long time ago, then the historical process of the phenomenon under study begins its report relatively recently. The process of rapprochement of states has undoubtedly occurred throughout human history. Back in the 19th century, researchers wrote about a single world space. However, we can only talk about two eras when the pace of rapprochement between states was revolutionary fast:

1. The turn of the XIX-XX centuries. At this time, the world entered a phase of convergence through the expansion of trade and investment on a global scale, thanks to the telephone, the steamship and the assembly line. The theorists of the first wave of globalization, R. Cobden and J. Bright, convincingly argued that free trade would irreversibly spur global economic growth and, based on unprecedented prosperity based on mutual dependence, peoples would forget about past strife. The idea of ​​the influence of globalization on a world community prone to various conflicts was most developed in N. Angel’s book “The Great Illusion,” published in 1909.

2. At the end of the 1970s. There was a breakthrough in the development of global delivery systems, in computer science, and telecommunications. The power of the total number of computers has doubled every 18 months over the past 30 years, and the amount of information on each square centimeter of disk has increased by an average of 60% per year since 1991.

Globalization is not a linear process, but a wave process with many different stages. It extends from the era of the first colonization of the world to the present. Speaking about the historical path of globalization, it is necessary to note the influence of many factors that determined the process of globalization and its development in the new millennium. This process is determined by a complex of prerequisites from a variety of areas of life, which ultimately collectively led to what we see in the 21st century. The spiritual and ideological background of globalization took shape already in the ancient period of human development.

The first stage of globalization of the world is the stage of crisis of nation states.

Several tools contribute to the implementation of globalization at this stage. The first of these was liberalization, which came in two forms. On the one hand, on the basis of numerous international agreements, there was a coordinated reduction of customs tariffs, the elimination of non-tariff barriers, simplification of export and import clearance procedures, etc. In other words, there has been a reduction in restrictions on access and operations in the global market. On the other hand, at the same time there was a change in the internal legislation of states relating to foreign economic relations - the abolition of export and import quotas, the mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings to the state, restrictions on the activities of foreign capital in the domestic market, etc. International jurisprudence was widely incorporated into national legislation.

At the first stage, computer technologies and modern means of communication sharply accelerate global integration in all directions, endowing the processes of the previous industrial civilization with new qualities and dynamics. Since the mid-nineties, a decisive role has been played by the global information network - the Internet, which has allowed a huge number of people to gain access to worldwide information. Thanks to him, one gets the impression that a communication unity of the world is being formed, in which the speed of dissemination of unprecedented amounts of information is much greater than the speed of movement of people and goods. Communication of people and peoples now depends not on the territory and place of residence, but on the structure of telecommunication systems. The global information space transforms economic, political, social, and cultural activities. Information technologies are unprecedentedly increasing the intensity of connections between people, nations and civilizations.

Privatization, understood as the transfer into the hands of private individuals (joint stock companies) of state, cooperative, collective and other forms of ownership, has become an instrument of globalization. The fact is that in the late 1940s-1960s. In connection with a new round of scientific and technological progress and changes in the conditions of reproduction in most developed countries, corporate property was nationalized, or new state construction began in capital-intensive and technologically complex industries. Therefore, the public sector became a tangible part of the national economy, resulting in the emergence of a non-market sector in the economy: state-owned enterprises were not always designed to make a profit. Purchases of necessary raw materials and semi-finished products, as well as sales of products could be carried out without going through the market, etc.

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The American scientist T. Levitt was known as a “pioneer” in the study of economic globalization (GE) and the “creator” of the term “globalization” after the publication of his book “Globalization of Markets” in 1983. Since then, in scientific and journalistic literature devoted to the problems of the world economy, the term “globalization” has undergone massive, chaotic and often ugly replication. Moreover, we can say that the adjective “global” is inclined in any way, used according to the standards of the “everyday mind” (in the latter case, the authors, using the term “global”, and not understanding that it means “worldwide”, at best identify it with the concepts of “general”, “state”, “national economic”, etc.).

In approaches to the interpretation of this category, two poles can be distinguished, a kind of “excesses”. On the one hand, almost any more or less significant world economic phenomenon is tied to globalization, both in positive and negative terms. This kind of absolutization, whether it be excessive praise (“globalists”) or indiscriminate denunciation (“anti-globalists”), widespread in Russian and foreign publications, does not seem to be fruitful.

On the other hand, it is completely unlawful, as, for example, V. Naishul does, to consider globalization as “nothing more than a political label,” that is, a politically motivated fiction that does not reflect the fundamental realities and relationships in the modern world. If this were so, then many very competent and authoritative researchers around the world would hardly have begun to study globalization in detail (for a quarter of a century), and it would hardly continue to excite the minds of influential politicians, publicists and the general public around the world. Therefore, it is quite natural that such an underestimation of globalization occupies a peripheral place in publications that claim to provide a scientific understanding of this phenomenon.

T. Levitt, as can be seen from the title of his book, understood globalization as a purely market phenomenon. With this term he designated the unification and integration of markets for individual products produced by transnational corporations (TNCs). As the leitmotif of his book, perhaps, one can consider a thesis predicting the imminent end of such TNCs, whose market strategy is aimed only at differentiated, specific markets of certain countries. Although T. Levitt correctly recognized the future for globally oriented TNCs looking for their chances all over the world, his purely market-sales interpretation of GE, and exclusively at the corporate level, seems overly narrow and does not provide an adequate interpretation of this category.

It should be emphasized, however, that it is very difficult to formulate a clear definition of the category “globalization” and show its connection with the categories previously introduced into scientific circulation, especially “internationalization” and “transnationalization”. In this regard, it is very significant that S. Dolgov, in one of the first (and not only in our country) generalizing monographs on the issues of HE, generally refrained from any definitions of this phenomenon. At the same time, S. Dolgov, unlike T. Levitt and many other Western researchers of HE, did not reduce the latter to various manifestations of market strategies of TNCs, correctly assessing it as a complex, multifaceted, multifactorial phenomenon and giving a meaningful analysis of some of its most important features (directions ). In passing, we note that the lack of definitions of HE as an economic category is also characteristic of many publications on global studies, in which, among other issues, an attempt is made to reveal the economic content of globalization.

Subsequently, numerous works appeared that more or less broadly interpret the category of GE, the authors of which, however, sometimes limit themselves to the most general statement of obvious realities and a superficial description of the latter. In this regard, we give two examples. According to the definition of the American professor M. Intriligator, globalization means “a significant expansion of world trade and all types of exchange in the international economy with a clearly expressed tendency towards increasing openness, integration and the absence of borders.” No less famous Polish professor G. Kolodko writes: “Globalization is a historical process of liberalization and integration of markets for goods, capital and labor, which previously functioned to a certain extent in isolation, into a single world market.”

Both definitions seem amorphous, reducing HE to purely market processes (i.e., to the sphere of exchange). From them it is not at all clear why globalization began to be spoken and written about in world economic science only in the last 20-25 years, while all those phenomena and processes referred to by M. Intriligator and G. Kolodko clearly appeared in the world economy most later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, before the First World War, which was particularly facilitated by monetary globalization within the framework of the world monetary system of the gold (gold coin) standard.

Definitions of GE that are more adequate to the essence of the latter are given by some Russian authors. Thus, E. Kochetov considers it as “a process of reproductive transformation of national economies and their economic structures, capital, securities, goods, services, labor, in which the world economy is considered not just as the sum (set) of national economies, financial, currency, legal, information systems, but as an integral, unified geo-economic (geo-financial) population (space), functioning according to its own laws." B. Smitienko and T. Kuznetsova note that “taken together, the processes of increasing the scale of connections implemented by international economic relations, strengthening the systematic nature of international economic relations and the interdependence of their main subjects in interdependence with the solution of global problems of mankind form a phenomenon that can be defined as the globalization of the economy” . V. Lomakin, in the latest edition of a textbook distributed in Russian universities, writes that “globalization (worldization) of national economies is understood as the creation and development of international, global productive forces, factors of production, when the means of production are used in the international space. Worldization is manifested in the creation by individual companies of economic objects in other states and the development of supranational forms of production relations between different national economies. In this case, interaction in the world economic system becomes constant, sustainable and multilateral."

These definitions, without rightfully reducing HE to the sphere of exchange, correctly capture some manifestations and features of globalization. However, from these definitions it is difficult to understand how these manifestations differ from similar phenomena and processes that took place in the world economy at the pre-globalization stages of the internationalization of economic life, and already from the last quarter of the 19th century, when in all leading countries the industrialization process took mature forms, largely giving the production and marketing of products a worldwide (global) character. In other words, all three definitions are quite applicable, without significant reservations, to the pre-globalization stages, especially to those that occurred in the early 50s and 80s. XX century. This is largely due to the fact that the authors of these definitions do not raise the question of the timing of the transition of the world economy to the stage (state) of globalization, an adequate and clear answer to which makes it possible to show the qualitative difference between the state economy and the preceding stages of development of the world economy.

Along with definitions of GE that correctly capture one or another “set” of its external features, Russian literature also contains rather unique definitions that, at best, are only partially related to globalization and generally do not reveal its essence. Thus, L. Slutsky (Doctor of Economic Sciences, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation) writes: “At the beginning of the twentieth century, 95 percent of the working population of developed countries was engaged in physical labor. But the “weighted average” indicator of this kind for the 21st century, according to experts, will be only 10 percent. Nine out of ten workers will work on computers. The world economy has never seen such a large-scale and rapid revolution. Therefore, on the basis of information technology integration of the world, a new formation is essentially beginning to take shape, replacing classical capitalism. This process is now commonly called. globalization". This interpretation of globalization raises a number of fundamental objections:

• · against the backdrop of the preservation of a large number of traditional professions and technologies, especially in the service sector dominant in post-industrial society, the forecast of “specialists” regarding 10% raises doubts. One thing is clear: these “experts” have unique scientific courage if they undertake to predict the weighted average for a whole century into the future;
• · the work of individual participants in economic, including world economic, relations with computers does not always embody information and technological integration between them. Thus, the use of computers in competing car factories to control the assembly process does not mean any integration between them. On the contrary, their use occurs in isolation, with production secrets carefully guarded. Information and technological integration on a global scale, indeed, is one of the essential features of GE, but in a completely different context than the replacement of physical labor with intellectual labor. In addition, as will be shown below, this is only one of the features of GE, inextricably linked with a number of other characteristics of the latter;
• · classical capitalism in economic theory means free competition capitalism of the 19th century, which arose during the industrial revolution, with all its antagonisms and grotesque social disproportions. If this social system had remained as such - and according to L. Slutsky it turns out that only in the present century is classical capitalism replaced by something else - then it would have collapsed long ago, as K. Marx predicted already in Volume I of Capital ", which was published in 1867. However, after this stage, capitalism, contrary to the predictions of K. Marx, went through several stages of development, undergoing a deep qualitative transformation. Modern market-state regulated, socially oriented capitalism (it is also not without reason called “non-capitalist” terms: “social market economy”, “post-industrial society”, etc.), significantly different for the better from “Manchester” capitalism, has proven - - unlike its classical predecessor - its vitality and acceptability for the vast majority of members of society;
• · it is not clear who usually calls globalization what is contained in the above quote from L. Slutsky;
• · globalization is not only a process, but also a state of the world economy, i.e. an established phenomenon that has a number of closely interrelated essential features.

Against the background of the above interpretations of GE, we will try to outline a generalized definition of globalization. From a lexical point of view, the term “globalization” means giving something a worldwide (global) character. So, the globalization of the (world) economy is an objectively established phenomenon and at the same time a world economic process that actively unfolded at the end of the 20th century. In general, in the briefest form, globalization could be characterized as the highest stage (stage, form) of the internationalization of economic life and its core - scientific and production internationalization.

Objective global processes

Popular concept " globalization"is used in different senses, depending on whether it denotes objective planetary processes or expresses a subjective attitude towards them. First of all, globalization refers to the worldwide spread of cultural, social, economic, financial, political, technological, and information mechanisms of Western civilization. As with any phenomenon, it has positive and negative sides.

Globalization begins with the imposition in the 19th century of forms of Western industrial civilization Worldwide. At the present stage post-industrial civilization And information society Computer technologies and modern means of communication sharply accelerate global integration in all directions, endowing the processes of the previous era with new qualities and dynamics. Beginning in the nineties of the twentieth century third information revolution , in which the global information network plays a decisive role - Internet, which gave a huge number of people around the world access to worldwide information.

In the history of mankind the first information revolution - the creation of writing; second - the invention of printing. Before the advent of written texts, the carrier of information was the person himself: his soul, consciousness, memory, language, voice. The caste of storytellers consisted of people with outstanding abilities that allowed them to remember and present, that is, to be carriers of a huge layer of oral tradition. With the advent of writing, the carrier of information is alienated from a person, the technology of transmitting information becomes more elementary (a scribe does not have to have outstanding abilities, writing could be taught to many) and more effective. The main conflict of information revolutions was fully described by Plato. In the dialogue “Phaedrus,” the inventor of natural numbers, geometry and the alphabet Teuth (under the name Thoth he was deified by the Egyptians) convinces the pharaoh of the value of the alphabet and writing: “This science, O king, will make the Egyptians wiser and more understanding, since a means of memory and wisdom has been found.”. The wise pharaoh points out that novelty has not only positive aspects: “The most skillful Teuth, one is capable of generating objects of art, and the other is able to judge what share of harm or benefit they contain for those who will use them. And now you, the father of letters, out of love for them, have given them the exact opposite meaning. They will instill forgetfulness in the souls of those who learn it, since memory will be deprived of exercise: they will begin to remember from the outside, trusting the letter, according to extraneous signs, and not from the inside, by themselves. Therefore, you have found a means not for memory, but for recollection. You give to your disciples imaginary, not true wisdom.". Written Information Revolution globally transformed the history and culture of mankind.

Grandiose changes have been introduced and book printing information revolution. The written text reflected the individuality of the creator (handwriting, editing, insertions, comments on the content of the text, remarks about his feelings in the margins), then the printing press is unified. The second information revolution again offers a more elementary but also more effective technology for transmitting information. In terms of the cost of human intelligence, knowledge and experience; scribes are a piece product, and the production of printing presses can be put on stream. In the first information revolution, technologies are alienated from people, in the second, people as consumers of information become more dependent on them. Control over printed products is unified and allows you to manipulate information consumption.

IN third information revolution alienation and dependence on information technology are increasing by an order of magnitude. Information technologies are getting out of the control of society and making people dependent on the information sphere. Modern information revolution forms communication unity of the world , in which the speed of dissemination of unprecedented amounts of information is much greater than the speed of movement of people and goods. Communication between people and nations depends not on the territory and place of residence, but on the structure of telecommunication systems. Global information space transforms economic, political, social, cultural activities. Information technologies are unprecedentedly increasing the intensity of connections between people, nations and civilizations, and provide the opportunity for mass education. High-tech communications, low transport costs and unrestricted trade create opportunities for the free movement of goods and services, and a single world market is emerging.

Technosphere increases influence on people, and intellectual activity acquires greater power. Capital gives way to information, knowledge, and intelligence. Social inequality is being squeezed by intellectual inequality, and intellectual exploitation is increasing. The composition of the elite is changing: inventors in the field of high technology become billionaires and crowd out representatives of traditional business, technocrats are turning into the main leading layer and determining policy. Information revolution significantly changes the mechanisms of governance of society and creates new political structures. Creative destruction updates technologies, forms of business and trade. Globalization is changing the lives of people in many countries of the world, speeding up time and compacting space, blurring boundaries, and dramatically intensifying social processes. Information houses are being built and designed information cities taking into account the requirements of information, rather than industrial and transport infrastructure. Apologists of globalization hope that in the near future, various materials and food products will be created by information systems from elements of the periodic table, scattered in near-Earth spaces... It seems that before our eyes a society of limitless possibilities is being formed, previously unthinkable is becoming possible. Globalization spreads mass culture throughout the entire planet, regardless of age, gender, religion, or nationality. On the other hand, global cultural exchange contributes to a more conscious identification of national cultures, creates tolerance among peoples, and a desire for peaceful forms of cultural expansion. But the interdependence of peoples makes them mutually vulnerable.

Phase jump information civilization turned out to be so unprecedented that it is impossible to understand its consequences and prospects using modern civilizational means. Globalization has endowed humanity with unprecedented resources and opportunities, which, as always, are used not only for good.

Expansion advanced minority planets

The main subject globalist expansion is the US Federal Reserve System, which includes Wall Street investment banks. B O The majority of transnational business and transnational corporations, despite competing interests, are united by a common globalization project. Most Western international organizations and structures are of some kind drive belts of the globalist international, headquarters of international capital: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the bureaucracy of international organizations, political internationals, elite clubs (Davos Forum), international foundations, non-governmental organizations, in particular, the club of the dominant states of world governance - big seven.

Transnational oligarchy turned the US into planetary office global empire, the resources and infrastructure of which are primarily subordinated to planting new world order: the dollar has been turned into a world currency, the Pentagon is the world's gendarme, Hollywood is the conveyor belt of world culture, universities are factories of the world's brains. The main financial, technological and intellectual capital of the planet is concentrated in the USA, the technological gap between transnational office and the rest of the world. Therefore, special attention in the USA is paid to the development metatechnologies, which are protected from competition. (A network computer that provides all user information, as well as the ability to effectively influence them. Communication technologies make it possible to intercept all telephone messages around the world. Organizational information technologies are aimed at covertly effectively changing the situation in other countries).

Western Europe is the second tier, Asian industrial countries are the third tier globalist expansion. On globalist bridgehead There are contradictions, a struggle of interests, competition in the distribution of roles, but in confrontation with the rest of the world, the leading layer of industrial countries is united by common interests. The bridgehead of globalization is being built open society behind closed borders. First world confronts countries periphery. Policies instilled throughout the world neoliberal globalism aimed at suppressing economic and political competitors. Huge resources are aimed at reducing the influence and subordination of national states, at establishing rules in the world that are beneficial to transnational structures, at inculcating mass culture and consumer civilization that suppress the sovereignty and will of peoples.

“World capital creates bridgeheads for its business in non-Western countries, channels through which raw materials, material, financial and intellectual resources of these states are pumped. The “Third World” is destined to play the role of a buffer zone for relieving the crises of the “First World”... The main means of controlling other societies is a thoroughly developed and tested system of manipulating the masses. And here are the propaganda templates of Eurocentrism... “democracy”, “liberal economics”, “open society”, “pluralism”, “human rights” and so on - promoted, replicated, put into operation. Thus, the construction of a global world has very specific goals - This not only the robbery of the world periphery, but also spiritual power over it. Global world - This dependent world, subordinate to global capital"(N.Ya. Laktionova).

In the mid-nineties, a new concept of world governance was developed: the United States can maintain leadership only through the globalization of the entire planet. The key to the new dominance strategies is the thesis: disunity is dangerous; that is, any independence, independence of countries and peoples seems dangerous for the system of world governance. Globalization must inculcate new world order - transit of democracy, unified norms, forms of behavior that integrate countries into a single mechanism controlled by globalist transnational. Jacques Attali characterizes modernity as nomadic civilization , which requires unlimited movement of financial and labor resources on a planetary scale. A modern successful person must lose all identity other than professional; therefore, religious, cultural, national, family and even sexual identity are destroyed in every possible way. “Global atomization of humanity... atomization in the service of globalization. The collapse of traditional ties to drive the workforce into a new global network"(Deacon Andrey Kuraev). It is possible to effectively manipulate only those countries and peoples who fully accept this kind of globalization. The rest of humanity needs colonize, including the use of military force. Poor countries, that is, the majority of humanity, are non-integrated gap, ozone hole of globalization, through which in civilized world Evil and hatred breaks through. Globalization should serve to reduce or completely eliminate Gaps to establish complete US control on the planet.

An inherently racist new world order can only be established by force. "This world civil war, separating the expropriated and the expropriators. This is the key to explaining both the very nature of the war and the “symbolic repressions” accompanying it - dehumanization of victims of aggression, taken beyond the framework of civilized relations"(A.S. Panarin). It is natural that outcast the majority of humanity is resisting the planting more and more and more radically new world order. “The difficult demographic situation will only increase the energy of the revolutionary explosion and the aggressiveness of the resulting authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in the South. This is fraught with a “revolutionary campaign” in the North against rich Europe and America, which will lead to the growth of authoritarian tendencies in Western countries. The victory of such a campaign could set the world back centuries.”(A.V. Shubin).

The means of colonizing the world are being honed in practice. All current and upcoming wars are primarily due to the needs of globalist expansion. Therefore, the main directions of US geopolitics coincide with the areas of energy production and transit. Countries that do not have nuclear weapons are unceremoniously suppressed by military force (Yugoslavia, Iraq). The United States attacked Iraq not for its disarmament and the seizure of weapons of mass destruction (which were not there), not in the name of a global war against terrorists (who were not in Iraq, and who rushed there from all over the world), but in order to put under control state, possessing large resources and dangerously resistant to globalization. That's why Iran is next in line. The Iraq war allows us to strengthen the infrastructure of the United States - the office of globalization. Control over the sale of Iraqi oil is needed to ensure that oil prices and payments for all oil contracts continue to be expressed not in euros, but in the world currency - dollars; so that the main place where money is converted into capital remains Wall Street. Similar wars export the crisis- destabilize the situation in various regions of the world, leaving the United States an attractive center for capital. When direct military intervention is unsafe for the United States, control is established through information technology (velvet revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan). The subject of globalization is spreading instability and chaos in most regions of the planet, and is also pitting various states and civilizations against each other (the coalition against bad Islam), - as tools for gaining and maintaining global dominance.

Forms and means fourth world war radicalized before our eyes. It is necessary to recognize that the threat of mutual use of nuclear, biological and chemical means of warfare is growing. Such a development of events will lead to the collapse of the United States as a world power and the Western world, because an obese society and a fragile over-consumption infrastructure will not be allowed to withstand catastrophic tests. Despite star fever omnipotence, leaders golden billion They are aware of the threat of mutual extermination and will try to impose forms of struggle that are advantageous for themselves. Transnational strategists count on victory based on the latest technologies. On the one hand, information technologies make it possible to create means of effectively manipulating people and nations. On the other hand, super-effective weapons and equipment, as well as a new type of soldier created using genetic engineering, will provide fantastic opportunities to suppress any enemy. But scientific and technical developments of means of war sooner or later get out of control, which threatens the emergence of unforeseen uncontrollable phenomena, in comparison with which modern ideas about cyborgs will seem like children's fantasies. In addition, technical advances sooner or later become available to the enemy. There will be no winners in this case either, war world hegemon with the majority of humanity - the path to self-destruction.

Globalist and anti-globalist ideology

Apologists for globalization are filled with civilizational enthusiasm, imposing unified values ​​and forms of life on humanity. Their titanic hubris leads them to claim that globalization is creating cosmic consciousness, designed to comprehend not only planetary processes, but also the processes of the universe. At the same time, the ideologemes of objective globalization turn out to be romantic inclusions in the apology for the scenario of world domination.

Reformist The anti-globalism wing quite adequately criticizes the vices and dangers of globalist expansion and develops various forms of treatment for the Western socio-economic system. Most of the proposed anti-globalist concepts are utopian, because they propose certain types of civilizational rollback, a return to previous socio-economic forms. The most fruitful initiative of the anti-globalization movement is the struggle for public control over the activities of TNCs and international financial institutions. But not a single anti-globalist ideology is capable of globally understanding the processes of globalization, and, therefore, offering a worthy alternative. Revolutionary opponents of globalization, as a rule, do not separate the objective processes of global integration from totalitarian forms of guidance new world order. Therefore, for them, globalization turns out to be a new form of world evil that must be completely destroyed. The slogan of all revolutionaries: destroy, kill and divide. At the same time, real processes and subjects are often mystified and demonized, to which mythical meanings and functions are attributed. An extremist form of anti-globalization ideology - globophobia - discredits sound criticism of globalization, and therefore serves as a provocative weapon of globalist expansion.

Victor Aksyuchits

Introduction

The essence and modern causes of globalization

1 The essence of globalization

2 Modern causes of globalization

Negative and positive consequences of globalization

1 Global food problem

2 Global environmental imperative

3 Brain drain

4 Uneven distribution of benefits

Anti-globalism

1 Main forms of anti-globalism

2 What is globalism from the point of view of an anti-globalist

Conclusion

Introduction

At the turn of the second and third millennia, serious changes occurred in the world: the degree of openness of national economic systems increased, the exchange of information and people, capital, goods and services intensified, the role of scientific and technological progress rapidly increased, and huge transnational financial and economic associations emerged with their own geostrategic interests . Against this background, the process of formation of world economic, political and cultural systems is underway, the formation of the world economy as a single economic organism is taking place.

One of the most interesting and controversial phenomena in the development of the world community is globalization.

Globalization of the economy is one of the laws of world development. The interdependence of the economies of different countries, which has increased immeasurably compared to integration, is associated with the formation of an economic space, where the industrial structure, exchange of information and technology, and the geography of the location of productive forces are determined taking into account global conditions, and economic ups and downs acquire planetary proportions.

The growing globalization of the economy is expressed in a sharp increase in the scale and pace of capital movement, faster growth of international trade compared to GDP growth, and the emergence of world financial markets operating around the clock in real time. The information systems created over the past decades have immeasurably increased the ability of financial capital to move quickly, which contains, at least potentially, the ability to destroy stable economic systems.

Economic globalization is a complex and contradictory process. On the one hand, it facilitates economic interaction between states, creates conditions for countries to access the advanced achievements of mankind, ensures resource savings, and stimulates global progress. On the other hand, globalization has negative consequences: the consolidation of a peripheral economic model, the loss of their resources by countries not included in the “golden billion”, the ruin of small businesses, the spread of globalized competition to weak countries, a decline in living standards, etc.

Speaking about the foundations of this phenomenon, it can be noted that some features of modern globalization have been visible for quite a long time. The roots of the process go back to the era when the rise of colonial empires laid the first foundations of international economic relations in this millennium. However, modern international economic relations that underlie globalization are fundamentally different from those that have been formed since the beginning of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries and the formation of colonial empires.

The relevance of this work lies in the fact that globalization is a “young” phenomenon; it is being studied by many economists around the world.

The purpose of this work is to study this phenomenon and its consequences.

In accordance with this goal, the following tasks are set:

Consider the concept and modern causes of globalization;

consider the positive and negative consequences of globalization;

consider anti-globalism and globalization from the point of view of anti-globalists.

1. The essence and modern causes of globalization

1.1 The essence of globalization

The American scientist T. Levitt was considered a “pioneer” in the study of economic globalization and the “creator” of the term “globalization” after the publication of his book “Globalization of Markets” in 1983.

The “pioneer” T. Levitt, as can be seen from the title of his aforementioned book, understood globalization as a purely market phenomenon. With this term he designated the unification and integration of markets for individual products manufactured by the world's dominant transnational companies.

Subsequently, numerous works appeared that more or less broadly interpret the category of economic globalization, the authors of which, however, sometimes limit themselves to the most general statement of obvious realities and a superficial description of the latter.

According to the definition of the American professor M. Intriligator, globalization means “a significant expansion of world trade and all types of exchange in the international economy with a clear tendency towards increasing openness, integration and the absence of borders.”

The definition of his Russian colleague A. Kholopov is carried out at approximately the same level: “In general, the globalization of the world economy can be characterized as the strengthening of the interdependence of national economies, mutual influence and intertwining of various spheres and processes in the world economy.”

Formally, it is difficult to object to such definitions. However, they do not reveal the essence of what they define; their scientific level is approximately similar, for example, to the following “sentiment”: “Water is a transparent liquid, which, when frost sets in, has a pronounced tendency to freeze and turn into ice.” It does not contain the essential characteristics of water, expressed in a combination of certain chemical elements, and in proportions strictly determined by nature and under given conditions.

V. Lomakin, in the latest edition of a textbook distributed in Russian universities, writes that “globalization (worldization) of national economies is understood as the creation and development of international, global productive forces, factors of production, when the means of production are used in the international space. Worldization is manifested in the creation by individual companies of economic facilities in other states and the development of supranational forms of production relations between various national economies. In this case, interaction in the world economic system becomes constant, sustainable and multilateral.”

The definitions of these Russian authors, while rightfully not reducing the globalization of the economy to the sphere of exchange, correctly capture some manifestations and features of globalization, but from them it is difficult to understand how these manifestations differ from similar phenomena and processes that took place in the world economy at the pre-globalization stages of the internationalization of economic life, moreover, already from the last quarter of the 19th century, when in all leading countries the process of industrialization took mature forms, largely giving the production and marketing of products a worldwide (global) character.

In other words, both definitions are quite applicable, without significant reservations, to the pre-globalization stages, especially to those that occurred in the early 50s and 80s. XX century. This is largely due to the fact that the authors of these definitions do not raise the question of the timing of the transition of the world economy to the stage (state) of globalization, an adequate and clear answer to which allows us to show the qualitative difference between the globalization of the economy and the preceding stages of development of the world economy.

V.S. Pankov believes that the term “globalization” lexically (semantically) means giving something a worldwide (global) character. The category “globalization of the economy” (“economic globalization”) expresses the imparting of such a character to the process of internationalization of economic life at a certain stage of development of this process.

According to V.S. Pankov, globalization of the (world) economy is an objectively established phenomenon and at the same time a world economic process that actively unfolded at the end of the 20th century. In the most general, brief form, it should be defined as the highest stage (stage, form) of the internationalization of economic life and its core - scientific and production internationalization. This is a brief definition of economic globalization. The essence of economic globalization is revealed more fully in the totality of its inherent, organically interrelated basic features. By identifying and scientifically characterizing these features, a detailed definition of economic globalization is given.

Consideration of these features must be preceded by two methodologically important considerations:

As a result of globalization, a global market for results and factors of production has emerged, although far from complete: goods in the form of material products and services, capital, labor and knowledge. At the same time, the degree of globalization of certain forms of international economic relations, sectors of the world economy, international markets, and even more so International monetary and settlement relations throughout the world are also commonly called international monetary and credit, or monetary and financial, relations and these three terms are used as synonyms , which appears to be inaccurate. Credit and various financial services (leasing, insurance, etc.) are forms of capital movement, therefore, strictly speaking, they relate to international capital migration in the form of other investments, their segments are far from the same. The degree of globalization is highest in markets for goods in the form of material products and capital. The services market is significantly less globalized: this is largely due to the fact that many types of services (domestic, utilities, largely transport, educational, etc.), by the very nature of the use value created here, cannot be involved in international circulation, much less in process of globalization. Internationalization has not reached the stage of globalization in electronic commerce (it is still carried out in large regional (subcontinental) markets, primarily in Western and Central Europe and North America), in the energy market, the market for government contracts, in the field of labor migration (the global market is almost developed only in highly skilled labor in civilian industries, especially in R&D), etc. Due to this kind of uneven coverage of globalization in various segments of the world economy, there remains wide scope for the further development of globalization not only in depth (in the sense of increasing its level in each of its directions), but also breadth

To reveal the essence of economic globalization, the question of when internationalization moved into its qualitatively new, globalization stage is fundamentally important. In the West, as noted above, they started talking about it back in the early 1980s in connection with the sharp, spasmodic increase in the role of TNCs in the then dominant part of the world economy and qualitative changes in their market strategies. Indeed, transnational companies are a key subject of the world economy, and transnationalization is a kind of core of the process of globalization of the economy. They became such a subject in the 80s. twentieth century within the framework of the “world system of capitalist economy”, in which some other essential features of economic globalization became widespread. In this sense, we can talk about “capitalist globalization” in relation to this decade, which is essentially what T. Levitt and other Western theorists of economic globalization had in mind.

At the same time, the “world system of socialist economy”, an integral and significant part of the world economy, remained aloof from transnationalization and other manifestations of “capitalist-style globalization”.

Apart from the SFRY and the PRC, which embarked on the path of building a market economy and occupied a kind of intermediate position between both systems, in other “socialist” countries transnational companies were not only dominant, but also strong, and in the USSR and other CMEA countries - and in general any serious positions based on direct investment and the ownership of productive capital that arose in connection with this. There were rather superficial economic ties between both world systems, mainly in the form of traditional trade in physical goods (including the most primitive barter and compensation transactions like the exchange of “gas for pipes” between the USSR and Western European countries). Moreover, within the framework of the “world social system” itself there was no hint of “globalization in a socialist way.” Therefore, in the context of economic globalization in relation to the period before the early 1990s. It is legitimate to talk only about the formation of economic and other prerequisites for globalization. Transnationalization and other essential features of economic globalization acquired a truly global character only as a result of the collapse of the USSR and the collapse of “real socialism” in the early 1990s, as a result of which all countries (with the rarest “exotic” exceptions that only confirm the rule - first of all, Northern Korea and Cuba) began to develop according to a more or less similar socio-economic model of a market economy.

The dominant role of multinational companies then truly became global. Therefore, we should proceed from the fact that internationalization actually moved into the stage of globalization of the economy precisely in the last decade of the 20th century and is currently picking up pace, acquiring greater depth and intensity.

Economic globalization is both the achieved (highest) stage of internationalization of economic life, i.e., an established phenomenon, and an ongoing process. Both are not some kind of phantom invented for political reasons, denoted by a certain label, but an objective reality that has, although to a different extent (it directly depends on the degree of openness and self-sufficiency of national economies), a determining impact on various aspects of social life. the lives of all countries and peoples of the world, including Russia, which had to feel this dramatically in the fall of 2008, when, under the influence of the global crisis, a deep recession began in it, not caused by internal factors. In this regard, and taking into account the meaning of the very concept of “globalization,” one cannot agree with the statement of M. Afanasyev and L. Myasnikova that globalization in its modern form has covered 30% of the countries of the world. The point is not even in the percentage indicator itself, but in the fact that globalization by its very essence (and in the semantic meaning of this term) to one degree or another and in various forms covers the entire world community.

2 Modern causes of globalization

There are a number of underlying reasons that are driving firms to become more global, both in terms of overall development and in their day-to-day operations. These strategic imperatives include leveraging the company's core competencies, acquiring resources at a lower cost, the company's penetration into new markets, and the need to compete in its industry.

One of the most important reasons for globalization is the possibility of wider use of key competencies that the company has managed to develop in the domestic market. A core company identifies a distinctive strength or advantage that is paramount to the company's success. By applying core competencies to new markets, a company can increase its revenues and profits. For example, Nokia developed the latest technology for the production of cell phones, which were readily accepted by consumers in the domestic market of Finland. Nokia managers quickly realized that the company could increase its revenues and profits by expanding production and sales in other countries. Likewise, Singapore Airlines has worked hard since its founding in 1972 to establish industry-leading customer service and reliability standards that have enabled it to attract millions of passengers from all over Asia as its customers. The company's management had no doubt that travelers from other regions would definitely appreciate the sensitive, dedicated care for passengers that made the company so popular. Based on this confidence, the decision was made to expand the services provided by Singapore Airlines to 90 major cities in 40 countries.

Another important reason for doing business internationally is the need to acquire resources such as materials, labor, capital or technology from abroad. In some cases, some companies have an urgent need to take advantage of foreign sources of resources, since the corresponding products or services are either completely unavailable in the local market or are insufficient to meet the needs of the company. For example, North American food wholesalers buy coffee and bananas from South America; Japanese firms buy timber and wood products from Canada; Companies from all over the world buy oil from the Middle East and Africa. In other cases, it is easier and cheaper for companies to buy resources from other countries. For example, many US agencies shoot commercials abroad. The most popular location for filming was the South African city of Cape Town, since in this city renting equipment and paying crew members was 40% cheaper than in Los Angeles.

The need to search for new markets is also one of the common reasons for companies to enter international markets. When the domestic market in which a company sells its products becomes fully formed, it becomes more and more difficult to generate high revenues and ensure high profit growth in this market. For example, the toothpaste market in Canada, the United States and the European Union can be considered mature because most people in these countries understand the importance of proper dental care and also have the necessary financial resources to regularly purchase toothpaste. Consequently, companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive cannot expect to increase their toothpaste sales in these markets. In search of opportunities to increase sales, these companies began to actively explore emerging markets in countries such as China, India and Indonesia. The process of developing new markets comes with two other benefits. First, a company may be able to achieve economies of scale by reducing average production costs per unit of output as it increases production volume. Secondly, the development of new markets allows the company to diversify its revenue streams. In this case, the company, by serving a larger number of countries, becomes less dependent on sales of its products in one particular country, which allows the company to protect itself from possible shocks in the economy of that country.

Another reason for companies to enter foreign markets is the desire to increase the efficiency of competition in the industry where the company operates. For example, the Coca-Cola company is extremely active in exploring the global market, so Pepsi-Cola has no choice but to do the same in order to keep up with its main competitor. If Pepsi-Cola allowed the Coca-Cola Company to gain dominance over its most important markets, Coca-Cola could use the profits made in those markets to launch a financial attack on its competitor in the remaining markets.

The strategic imperatives discussed above determine the desire of companies to internationalize their activities. At the same time, the expansion of companies' international business operations to the scale seen after World War II would not have been possible without significant changes in the political and technological conditions for doing business.

In the first half of the twentieth century, barriers to trade erected by foreign governments prevented companies from entering new markets. After World War I, many countries, including the United States, France, Great Britain, and Germany, introduced tariffs and quotas on imported goods, and created favorable business conditions for domestic firms by providing them with government contracts for the supply of products. As a result, the volume of international trade and international investment declined significantly in the 1930s. However, after World War II, this practice was completely revised. Negotiations have taken place between major trading countries to reduce tariffs and quotas, as well as to remove restrictions on foreign direct investment in their territories.

Changes in policies implemented by governments around the world have intensified international business transactions. New technologies (particularly in the areas of communication systems, vehicles and information processing) have made international business easier and more profitable. One can only imagine how difficult it was to conduct business internationally in an environment where the primary means of transportation was a sailing ship, the primary form of data processing was pencil and paper, and the primary method of transmitting information was the delivery of letters by a postman on horseback.

2. Negative and positive consequences of globalization

2.1 Global food problem

The high pace of development of the world's agro-industrial complex in the 90s began to slow down, and according to some indicators, growth stopped and even began to decline. This has caused serious concern among the world community. In November 1992, 1,600 of the world's leading scientists (including 102 Nobel laureates) published a memo, "Scientists Warn Humanity," which stated that continued irresponsible use of natural resources would ultimately threaten the very existence of civilization. In the first half of the 90s, at various international meetings and in scientific publications, the situation with agricultural production was repeatedly analyzed. They gave predominantly pessimistic assessments of the future, drawing attention to the socio-political urgency of the food problem and the need to develop and implement an international food strategy.

Most of the factors that changed the situation have long been known. The limitations of the planet's land, water, forest and other resources were no secret, but no one imagined that their depletion would occur so soon.

The reduction in the area of ​​arable land under cereals - the main form of food - turned out to be an extremely alarming phenomenon, since previously there had been a systematic increase in arable land. It began back in the late 80s, after the peak value of 735 million hectares was reached. After this, there was a steady decline, and in 2003 the total area was 666 million hectares, i.e. turned out to be equal to the average annual area of ​​the 60s.

Among the reasons for the reduction, three are the main ones. Firstly, although in some countries the expansion of arable land is still ongoing, it no longer compensates for the ever-increasing withdrawal from circulation for industrial purposes and for infrastructure development. Another group of reasons is the excessive, without taking into account the consequences, intensification of agricultural production in the 60-80s, as a result of which soil erosion sharply increased, which led to the withdrawal of significant areas from circulation and their transfer to forest plantations and meadows. The third reason is that the growth of the planet's population is accompanied by an expansion of the territories of cities, towns, summer cottages and the necessary infrastructure.

Unless urgent measures are taken to eliminate these causes, a further reduction in arable land for grain and other crops seems inevitable.

Fresh water shortages in some regions of the planet have arisen for a long time. But now it is quite obvious that humanity has entered an era of universally limited water resources. Half of the world's population today has difficulty accessing fresh water. The increase in fresh water shortage is due to various reasons. Deforestation leads to shallowing of rivers. In many cases, water is used extremely uneconomically. The use of water for industrial needs is increasing, and water bodies are being polluted with harmful substances, which makes water unsuitable for use. In many regions, water shortages are associated with the development of irrigated agriculture. At the beginning of the 20th century. the area of ​​arable land with artificial irrigation was 40 million hectares. In the middle of the century it reached 94 million hectares, and in 2003 - 273 million hectares. Such a rapid development of irrigation is quite understandable - crop yields increase sharply. But this often happened without taking the necessary precautions - the water in the irrigation canals went into the sand, and the water pumped from the depths was used without any restrictions. In addition, this was also one of the reasons for the reduction of arable land, since poor irrigation often led to salinization and waterlogging of the soil, making it unsuitable for agriculture.

The result of thoughtless use of fresh water has been the shallowing of many major rivers, including in Russia, as well as a drop in groundwater levels in some regions by several tens of meters. A typical example is the death of the Aral Sea after the construction of the Karakum Canal and the complete diversion of the waters of the rivers that fed the Aral for irrigation needs.

The global ocean problem is exacerbating the food problem. Predatory fishing of fish and seafood has led to the devastation of many fishing basins in the Atlantic, northern and southern seas, and several areas of the Pacific Ocean. Some commercial fish species have practically disappeared, others are on the verge of extinction.

The catastrophic situation with fish resources in Europe forced EU authorities to introduce in 2003-2004. limiting fish catch by 40%, primarily cod and pollock, despite numerous protests. Tens of thousands of fishermen's families were left without a livelihood. Fish and seafood production, which reached 100 million tons by the 1990s, has been steadily declining since then, and this process will continue unless measures similar to those of the EU are taken.

The situation with river and lake fish is no less dramatic. Shallowing and pollution of rivers and lakes have sharply reduced commercial fish catches. In many reservoirs, fish and other living creatures have disappeared; in others, they have become unfit for food due to poisoning by chemical and other wastes discharged into rivers by industrial enterprises, bypassing treatment plants. Acid rain, resulting from the combination of sulfur emissions into the atmosphere with rain moisture, has turned tens of thousands of lakes in Canada (14 thousand), the USA and Scandinavia into dead bodies of water.

The cessation of yield growth was another unpleasant surprise of the 90s. The average grain yield in the world is now about 31 c/ha, higher in developed countries (France, England - wheat about 70 c/ha), significantly lower in backward agricultural areas (Africa - about 13 c/ha, Russia - 20 c/ha ha, including winter wheat - 30 c/ha, spring wheat - 12-15 c/ha). In other words, there is a reserve for increasing productivity in backward regions, but corresponding huge capital investments are required. But in advanced countries, for the last 10-15 years, it has been impossible to increase productivity. Even the introduction of GMOs does not allow achieving a significant increase in yield.

In addition to the exhaustion of opportunities for further expansion of pasture areas, serious damage to livestock breeding is caused by the overexploitation of many pastures, leading to their complete degradation. For example, in the Caspian lowland, a thin layer of turf was destroyed by the sharp hooves of sheep due to excessive grazing, and many pastures turned into sandy deserts, devoid of plant protection.

In the future, a major increase in beef and lamb production is unlikely, since raising steers in feedlots is quite expensive. The production of pork and broilers is more profitable, due to which the main increase in meat production will occur.

In light of the above, a significant increase in food production appears problematic. Various estimates of the volume of agricultural production on the planet agree that, in principle, there will be enough food for the population, but the norms of its consumption will decrease.

In the future, the situation will develop in close connection with another global problem - demographic. If over 40 years (1950-1990) the world's population grew by 2.8 billion people, then over the next 40 years (until 2030) it is expected to increase to 9 billion people, or by 90 million people in year. At the same time, the main increase is expected in the countries of Asia and Africa, where a further increase in agricultural production is possible only in the case of very large investments, but even in this case it will not be enough due to the lack of free land.

According to FAO, to solve the food problem, i.e. providing humanity with rational standards for all types of food, the current level of production should be doubled by 2025. This, however, is unlikely. According to some estimates, production growth will continue by 2030, but at a significantly slower pace. If current nutritional standards and expected population growth and agricultural production are maintained, there will be insufficient grain on the world market - 500 million tons, meat - 40 million tons, fish and seafood - 70 million tons.

In principle, three scenarios for solving the food problem would be possible:

) production growth by 2 times (according to FAO estimates), which is obviously unrealistic;

) reducing the growth of the planet's population by limiting the birth rate, which is also unrealistic (the vast majority of the population in developing countries is under 25 years old and has little education);

) reducing the consumption standards of basic types of food, which seems to be the only possible, but is fraught with socio-economic and political complications and conflicts. This conclusion is confirmed by statistical data. Average per capita grain consumption, due to the achievements of the Green Revolution, reached its peak in 1984, amounting to 346 kg per year. Since then, it has been steadily declining and by 2030, according to the mentioned calculations, it could drop to 240 kg.

Uneven production volumes of agricultural products and population growth will inevitably lead to a redistribution of food resources in the world. The food problem in the coming decades will, in all likelihood, be one of the key ones. But its solution will require the efforts of the entire international community, as well as the solution of other global problems interconnected with it.

2 Global environmental imperative

The threat of irreversible destruction of the environment looms over humanity, the consequences of which may be the most tragic. Globalization, on the one hand, increases this threat, since it intensifies the development of industry and transport - the main polluters of the biosphere, and on the other hand, it contains the possibility of curbing impending environmental disasters. But this potential is still very little used.

The existing ecological balance is disrupted as a result of human activities. And the more powerful productive forces they master, the more the environment suffers. There is a dangerous warming of the planet's climate, the causes of which are not fully understood, but much indicates its connection with emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. If this is precisely the cause of warming and measures are not taken against it in a timely manner, then the inhabitants of the Earth are threatened with an increase in natural disasters - floods, droughts, hurricanes, forest fires, as well as an increase in desert areas, rising ocean levels and flooding of lands. In mid-1998, the island of Kalimantan in Indonesia was engulfed in monstrous forest fires, which claimed many lives and caused irreparable damage to nature and significant losses to the economy. The health of 70 million people was affected. From time to time, fire destroys vegetation and all living things over large areas in Siberia, California, and the Mediterranean.

Predatory deforestation deprives humanity of an extremely important natural resource - an oxygen factory, a moisture accumulator, a source of valuable materials, and a habitat for various species of flora and fauna. Desertification of vast territories caused by deforestation and shallowing of rivers forces millions of people to leave their homes. Experts from the UN Environmental Program have calculated that due to desertification, by the end of this century, humanity will lose a third of arable land.

Industry and transport emit sulfur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere, which, when reacting with water, turn into solutions of acids - sulfuric and nitric. Falling to the ground in the form of acid rain, they destroy forests and crops, poison the water of rivers and reservoirs. As a result, the countries' economies suffer huge losses amounting to many billions of dollars.

The same carelessness and irrationality are manifested in relation to such a universal property as the seas and oceans and their riches. And here, human activity has led to the depletion of fish resources, and on the continents - drinking water resources, and its pollution with substances harmful to health. During the 20th century, for example, fish catches in the North Atlantic increased 8-fold, as a result of which the biomass of food fish species decreased by 85%. Pollution of the atmosphere with chlorine-containing aerosols increases ozone holes over the polar regions, and their further expansion exposes the living world to the danger of ultraviolet radiation.

The environmental crisis has acquired global proportions, which cannot but affect international economic and political relations. By affecting the vital interests of countries, it sometimes gives rise to acute conflicts. The destruction of the natural environment has dire consequences for the economies of countries and the entire world economy, undermining people's health, causing hunger, disease, colossal material losses, and increasing production costs. The need for additional costs associated with preventing water and air pollution and protecting health makes competition in world markets even more intense than before.

In place of wars, environmental degradation, which spares no one, is increasingly emerging as the main challenge to the security of countries and peoples. It can become more dangerous than any external enemy, including international terrorism. So far, the all-encompassing process of globalization and revolutionary achievements in science and technology only gives rise to global environmental problems, but does little to solve them. It would seem that the interdependence of countries and peoples should make it easier to overcome the impending environmental catastrophe, but in practice only the first steps have been taken.

In December 1997, at a conference in Kyoto (Japan), which examined global climate change, delegates from more than 160 countries adopted a convention obliging 38 industrialized countries to reduce by 2008-2012. carbon dioxide emissions by 5% from 1990 levels, with a higher percentage set for the EU - 8%, and for the USA - 7, for Japan - 6%. To imagine the scale of the task, suffice it to say that in 1980, more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere on the East Coast of North America, Europe, the USSR and Japan.

The Kyoto Protocol is the first major environmental agreement to achieve its goals through market instruments. It establishes a system of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions, and quotas that are underutilized by individual countries can be purchased by those that exceed them.

Unfortunately, the implementation of the agreements reached faces serious obstacles. The United States announced its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol because it harms the interests of its economy. India and China, both significant contributors to air pollution, although present in Kyoto, did not sign the agreement. Developing countries are also wary because they see rich countries as the main polluters and would like to impose greater responsibilities on them. They view the establishment of quotas for themselves as an additional obstacle to industrialization.

Despite the thorny path of reconciling divergent interests, countries that have acceded to the Kyoto Protocol (181 at the beginning of 2009) continue efforts to implement it. The initial agreements on EU countries reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 8% by 2012 compared to 1990 are unlikely to be implemented. However, the continued warming of the Earth's climate raises questions about whether previously set goals are sufficient. To avoid the catastrophic consequences of global warming, experts propose reducing emissions of harmful gases by half by 2050. In addition, the question of establishing an organization at the UN that would develop an environmental protection program and monitor its implementation is increasingly being raised.

In 1987, an attempt was made to prevent unwanted human impacts on the atmosphere. A large group of countries agreed to reduce the use of ozone-depleting substances by 1999. However, in order to fully achieve the intended goals, the participants lack solidarity. As for other global environmental problems, discussions continue and it is not possible to take any effective collective measures. Many researchers come to the conclusion that market laws and requirements for comprehensive liberalization are, in principle, at odds with the objectives of environmental protection. Their implementation requires government regulation, the creation of international institutions for control and coordination of interests, and other non-market mechanisms for taking joint measures. Overcoming the environmental crisis is impossible without new approaches to the forms and methods of economic globalization.

3 Brain drain

The influence that science has in modern conditions on the sustainability and efficiency of economic development forces us to take a fresh look at the problem of “brain drain”. Scientific achievements and their commercial use decisively determine the cultural and socio-economic progress of nations.

Therefore, scientific knowledge and qualifications turn into the most valuable capital, the possession of which determines the competitive power of the national economy and the benefits that it can derive from the process of globalization. In post-industrial, information societies, in the new knowledge-based economy, highly qualified personnel truly acquire key importance and become a commodity in high demand. A specific international labor market is emerging. However, the participants in this market - states losing intellectual capital and states importing it - are far from being in an equal and mutually beneficial position. And this creates an acute problem, especially for countries seeking to overcome their industrial backwardness and in dire need of specialists and scientists. For them, the “brain drain” results in a noticeable delay in development. At the same time, globalization is accompanied by a steady increase in the share of intellectual migration. The general trend is this: the higher the level of education and knowledge, the fewer difficulties in overcoming the language barrier and the higher the international mobility of people.

There is considerable diversity of opinion regarding the causes of brain drain. Undoubtedly, this is driven by the desire for better living and creative conditions. With the growth of culture and education, material and cultural needs, as well as ideas about a decent standard of living, also increase. Moreover, in the age of computer science, living standards in rich countries, willingly or unwillingly, become a guideline for the intellectual elite in all other countries. Therefore, the opportunity to increase earnings several, and sometimes tenfold, encourages emigration, and a person does not stop in the face of numerous difficulties and obstacles associated with relocation and adaptation in an unfamiliar environment. But for scientists, better research conditions, modern laboratory equipment, and a stimulating creative environment in American and Western European universities can also be a significant motive. In some cases, people are forced to leave their country forever or until better times by the oppressive political and creative situation, racial discrimination, and blatant moral and material underestimation of the status of a creative person. In addition, the geography and scale of intellectual migration is influenced by the active and flexible immigration policy of those countries that are interested in the influx of brains and know their value.

The development of world civilization in past eras was associated with the migration of talents, with the invitation to work and live of famous foreign scientists, musicians, and artists. Medieval universities did not hesitate to lure professors from each other; rulers engaged artists and composers on attractive terms. Beethoven left his native Bonn to settle in Vienna. Royal crowns were supposed to sparkle not only with precious stones, but also with the brilliance of outstanding minds. Peter I attracted many foreign scientists to the Academy of Sciences he created in the middle of the 18th century. of its 107 members, only 34 were Russians.

Nevertheless, the mass migration of scientific and cultural figures is already a phenomenon of modern times, characteristic of the process of globalization.

The totalitarian regimes in both the Soviet Union and Germany forced a considerable number of prominent representatives of science and culture to leave their homeland. Among them are Albert Einstein, Stefan Zweig, Lion Feuchtwanger, Sergei Rachmaninov, Fyodor Chaliapin, Ivan Bunin, Igor Sikorsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and many others.

After the defeat of German fascism, the victorious Allied powers undertook a real hunt for German specialists working in the field of nuclear physics, rocket technology and other important fields. The father of the famous German V-1 and V-2 rockets, Wernher von Braun, was taken to the USA, and other major German rocket scientists ended up in the USSR. In the post-war period, the Soviet authorities managed to persuade some foreign nuclear scientists, biologists, etc. to come to the country.

Most highly developed European countries continue to be exporters of intellectual potential, but at the same time they are actively recruiting minds in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, their former colonies, China, and the countries of Southeast Asia.

During the years of radical liberal market reforms, an unprecedented brain drain from Russia occurred. Workers in science, culture, education, unique specialists in the high-tech industries not only experienced the strongest blow to their standard of living compared to other professions, but also often found themselves unclaimed and lost their former - and already not very high - social status. In Soviet times, and even during the period of social transformation that had begun, creative individuals and critically thinking intellectuals did not enjoy the trust of the authorities, their financial situation was diminished. The Yeltsin-Gaidar reforms have completely devalued the social status of this layer of society and the intellectual capital of the nation. Internal emigration, which consisted of going into business, management structures, becoming unemployed or temporarily employed, and external emigration - leaving abroad - involved hundreds of thousands of highly educated specialists, talented scientists, and other representatives of the intelligentsia. Added to the material and moral motives for emigration was concern about the outcome of the abrupt breakdown of society and, in this regard, concern for the fate of children.

Brain drain brings losses to donor states that, although not as obvious as damage from natural or man-made disasters, are often even greater in size.

It is clear that rich countries that attract intellectual migration are big winners, while countries that lose their intellectual potential are big losers. How great the asymmetry of the benefits of globalization is can be judged by the example of Russia.

If we apply the UN methodology, according to which direct and indirect costs for the training of leaving specialists and lost profits caused by their departure are deducted from GDP, then Russia's losses from one intellectual emigrant will amount to approximately 300 thousand dollars. The Ministry of Science of the Russian Federation came to this result in 1992 . American sociologists have reached higher estimates based on the conditions of their country; they believe that highly skilled labor creates an annual surplus value of $400-450 thousand per worker, and the labor of scientific and engineering personnel creates $800 thousand. Based on American criteria, Russia's losses from brain drain in 1992 can be estimated at 25-28 billion dollars, in 1993 - at 25-33 billion, in 1994 - at 25-28 billion dollars. According to I. Ushkalov and I. Malakhi, this annual damage is 1.5-2 times more significant. In other words, losses from emigration account for approximately half of the revenue from merchandise exports.

International migration causes large-scale redistribution processes in the global economy that cannot be ignored. They are distinguished by asymmetry, which gives rise to a clash of interests of countries and puts on the agenda the issue of agreed rules and collective mechanisms for regulating international migration. This is the only way to minimize its costs and make this objective process a source of global progress.

4 Uneven distribution of benefits

Some countries receive golden showers of gains from globalization, while others receive crumbs or even losses. There are no recognized criteria for the fair distribution of the economic effects of globalization.

It would be nice, of course, to develop them within the UN. But even without strict definitions of what is fair and justified and what is not, we can talk about the presence of an asymmetry that requires elimination. One-sided advantages in the distribution of benefits from globalization complicate the harmonious development of the world economy, leaving a number of countries and regions on the periphery of progress and even outside its scope.

Many developing and transition countries are notoriously denied new credit and relief from external debt burdens that were costly to service annually in 2004-2005. more than 500 billion dollars. Meanwhile, the United States, the world's largest debtor country, whose obligations to the rest of the world amounted to more than 2.5 trillion in 2004, enjoy unprecedented advantages in using international credit for its development. dollars. This is partly explained by the use of the dollar as the main currency of international payments and the trust of other countries in the power of the American economy. Up to 60% of all trade transactions on international markets are carried out in dollars. To achieve this, foreign banks and governments hold multi-billion dollar holdings in the United States. Thus, the American currency occupies approximately 60% of the official foreign exchange reserves of countries around the world ($2.2 trillion out of $3.6 trillion at the end of 2004). About 225-300 billion dollars in cash American banknotes circulate outside the United States. In Russia alone, up to 40-60 billion dollar bills are in the hands of the population and in the cash registers of banks and companies.

In order to use American currency as a reserve and means of payment, all other countries had to export their goods and services to the United States, and in exchange receive not real values, but promissory notes and receipts in the form of banknotes or entries in bank accounts. Add to this 1.8 trillion. dollars of American government debt placed abroad, and you will get a picture of external lending to the American state, practically long-term and partially, if we are talking about cash currency outside the United States, interest-free. But in addition, foreigners have invested a lot of money in the securities of American corporations. Thanks to all this, the United States has enormous additional resources to maintain high levels of consumption, as well as domestic and foreign investment.

Evidence of the privileged position of the leading industrial powers in the world economy can be seen in the “brain drain” from less developed countries. Unfortunately, brain drain is often combined with capital flight from the countries concerned. And this further exacerbates the uneven distribution of benefits from globalization. 15-20 billion dollars flee from Russia annually, and over the years of radical reforms, probably up to 300 billion dollars have flowed away. Crisis situations in Argentina, Indonesia and a number of other countries in Southeast Asia were accompanied by a massive outflow of capital from these countries. It is clear that this means a huge redistribution of credit resources to the detriment of the poor and in favor of rich countries and slows down the development of the former. And in this matter, there is a need to develop countermeasures.

The above does not exhaust the problem of asymmetric distribution of the benefits of globalization. But based on the examples given, it is possible to put forward proposals for correcting the current state of affairs and taking collective measures for a more equitable distribution of the effect of globalization. We can talk about writing off part of the debt of developing countries and countries in transition, establishing preferential lending conditions, mechanisms for ensuring stable prices for some fuel and raw materials, compensation for losses associated with brain drain, joint regulation of migration processes, flight and capital laundering. This could become a significant additional source of financing for the development of countries and regions that are today on the periphery of socio-economic and technological progress.

globalization problem anti-globalism

3. Anti-globalism

3.1 Main forms of anti-globalism

Anti-globalism is a democratic alternative to the policy of globalization, aimed at building a new, fair civilization based on equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between developed and developing countries, environmental protection in the interests of current and future generations of humanity, objective and reliable information, respect for national values ​​and empowerment human development. The social base of the anti-globalization movement in different countries is different, which is associated with the socio-economic and political differences of states, their role on the world stage.

The classification of the anti-globalization movement into various forms is conditional, as is any classification, since in practice all forms of the anti-globalization movement are intertwined. However, the proposed classification allows us to more clearly demonstrate the features characteristic of the main forms of the anti-globalization movement.

It is customary to distinguish 6 forms of anti-globalism: economic, financial, political, informational, humanitarian, environmental.

The main manifestations of economic anti-globalism are:

· armed struggle against governments that support the economic interests of transnational companies as opposed to national interests;

· struggle against the activities of international organizations, promoters of the policy of globalization;

· holding your own summits and conferences, developing a theory (ideology) of resistance that attracts new supporters;

· actions against transnational companies (force, judicial, boycott of goods and services).

The most well-known form of economic anti-globalism to the general public is the rallies, demonstrations and manifestations that accompany, first of all, the G8 and World Economic Forum summits, meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In modern socio-political conditions, economic anti-globalism is closely linked with financial anti-globalism. A unique vanguard of financial anti-globalization is ATTAC (ATTAC - Social Movement “Union in Support of Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Benefit of Citizens”, which arose in France in 1998) - the most powerful core center of the anti-globalization movement.

The demands of anti-globalists in the financial field can be reduced to the following provisions:

· write off debts to developing and former communist countries; develop new rules for international lending that prohibit the imposition of conditions aimed at limiting sovereignty;

· replace the IMF and the World Bank with a system of regional banks built on a democratic basis, accountable to all participating countries equally;

· tax financial speculators;

· increase wages.

The main forms of political anti-globalism can be identified as follows:

· revealing the contradictions and shortcomings of globalization in the political sphere and bringing information to the world community;

· "molecular shares";

· development of scenarios for the harmonization of political relations in the world.

The most common forms of informational anti-globalism are:

· targeted information campaigns against transnational companies (including with the help of hackers);

· own information propaganda and agitation;

· using the Internet to organize mass protests in different countries.

The forms of manifestation of humanitarian anti-globalism are similar to the forms of political and informational anti-globalism: “molecular actions”, holding their own summits, promoting the ideas of humanism through the media.

In the humanitarian sphere, anti-globalists defend:

· the right of countries to non-interference in their internal life, regardless of the will of global economic organizations;

· the right of peoples to their own cultural identity;

· the right to participate in free media space;

· the right to global people's democracy - direct participation in making the most important political decisions.

Anti-globalists pay special attention to such a negative phenomenon of the modern world community as the policy of so-called “double standards”.

One of the important aspects that anti-globalists draw public attention to is environmental problems.

The main forms of environmental anti-globalism are:

· holding environmental forums and meetings;

· mass and individual actions against various forms of ecological imbalance;

· destruction of fields sown with genetically modified plants, the fight against deforestation, etc.

The essence of environmental anti-globalism comes down to the fact that all countries of the world are obliged to work together, recognizing their common and, at the same time, differentiated responsibilities for ensuring economic growth that does not cause environmental degradation to the detriment of present and future generations.

In its activities, the anti-globalization movement defends universal humanistic principles and ideals, according to which every person, regardless of what ethnic group he is a member of, has equality in terms of rights, freedoms and responsibilities.

The demands of anti-globalists are based on universal value orientations: free labor; material wealth that provides a modern level of comfort; education and the opportunity for intellectual and spiritual development of the individual based on the free use of cultural achievements; family and Children; health and its reliable protection; safety and respect for personal dignity; guaranteed well-being in old age.

2 What is globalism from the point of view of an anti-globalist

When today they talk about opposition to civilization, in fact this is a deep stretch and substitution. The West today is not a single, coherent civilization that, following the model of the Crusades, opposes Islam. And the concept of a “golden billion” is false. In 1920, 1% of the world's population owned 40% of the world's wealth. In 1970, when the USSR was at the height of its influence, the 1% owned 20% of the world's wealth. During this period, he had to sacrifice something, carry out some social events that would increase stability, security, etc. But by today he has again returned his 40%. The USSR was a certain guarantor of the rights of the lower classes throughout the world, if only simply by its symbolic status. But today there is no such guarantor, and international financial capital is tired of paying pensions, unemployment benefits, and guaranteeing jobs. They want to free their hands. What is globalism? Globalism does not offer any “golden billion”. Globalism in its financial stage of development presupposes an international oligarchy that will trample on the Indonesians and the French in exactly the same way. Because there will be no point in maintaining the difference in living standards between the French and Indonesians. Many people mistakenly believe that globalism is a trade and economic concept, that is, to produce cheaply in Indonesia and sell expensively in France, and therefore it is necessary to maintain a low standard of living in Indonesia so that there is cheap labor there. But this is only the first phase of globalism. And the second phase is purely political. First, infrastructure integration is carried out through economic levers. Once achieved, this infrastructure no longer requires market mechanisms. Oligarchs are a political concept; oligarchs do not need market mechanisms.

Today the market is already leaving. Because today's scale of financial flows in the world does not depend on consumer demand. In the nineteenth century, it was important that millions of people improve their social status, that small farmers become urban bourgeois, their demands grow, they create a market, and this entails the possibility of new loans. And all this grows tenfold. And it is very important for financial institutions to obtain such a credit perspective. Today, when financial mechanisms are radically different, when they rely on electronic money, on air credits that are associated with global macro projects (for example, trillions of dollars to close the ozone hole, a flight to Mars or the creation of missile defense), then no consumer markets have don't play. From the above, it may seem, and also given that firms have learned to create demand and politicians manipulate the electorate, that the market is disappearing today. But this is all a small matter. It's just that the money involved in providing commodity flows for this demand is very small money compared to the gigantic loans allocated for non-consumer projects. And the most important thing today in governing the world are projects that are associated with the existence of international bureaucracy: the fight against AIDS, the fight for clean air, against freon, for the Amazon forests. Many may have the idea that these projects are from the evil one, and that these problems themselves do not exist. But these problems exist only to create a new class of international bureaucracy, so multinational corporations need two things. They do not have the administrative and security resources that belong to national governments. Therefore, everywhere there is a struggle against sovereignties for a world government. To do this you need to create what? Firstly, the international bureaucracy - it has been created at a rapid pace since 1945. This does not mean the UN, but specifically such powerful projects that set themselves the solution of global problems of cosmic proportions.

Globalization is not only an objective consequence of techno-economic development, but also politics. Neither new technologies nor business, notes Manuel Castells, one of the prominent Western sociologists, could develop the global economy on their own. The main agents in the development of the global economy were the governments of the G7 countries and the international institutions they controlled - the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. The foundations of the organization were laid by the policies pursued by these governments and organizations in the spirit of the requirements of the so-called Washington Consensus - that is, the policies of deregulation, liberalization and privatization.

The mechanism by which the process of globalization was “introduced,” according to Castells, is this: political pressure through direct government action or through the activities of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. This pressure was used to unify all national economies around a set of identical rules of the game, implying the free movement of capital, goods and services in accordance with market valuations. Countries in need of loans, investments and access to foreign markets were imposed strict conditions of “structural adaptation” - whatever the specifics of the situation of each of them.

Such an economic system brings benefits primarily to those who occupy the strongest competitive positions in the world economy and are therefore able to protect their interests by resorting to double standards and selective application of the principle of openness. The costs of globalization fall mainly on those whose lag behind the leaders of technological progress is predetermined by weak positions in the global force field of the world economy and politics (worse starting conditions for modernization, unequal terms of trade, access to capital markets, and know-how).

This force field consists of the action of many factors - economic and non-economic. The latter range from modern methods of socio-psychological pressure (using the media, etc.) to methods of direct violence. The American press quoted the following characteristic statement from one high-ranking official: “If America wants globalism to function, it should not hesitate to behave on the world stage as the all-powerful superpower that it really is, the invisible hand of the market never acts without the invisible fist . McDonald's cannot thrive without McDonald-Douglas, the manufacturer of the F-15. And the invisible fist that keeps Silicon Valley technology safe is the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force."

All this allows us to better understand why resistance to globalization, at least to the form that currently prevails, is inevitable. Action gives rise to reaction. Its manifestations are diverse - from protests against the negative consequences of globalization, which significantly affect certain groups of people or states, and demands aimed at mitigating or neutralizing these consequences, to rejection of globalization as such - as a new edition of colonialism-imperialism, as an expansion of Western culture , undermining the traditional cultural values ​​of non-Western civilizations.
The debate surrounding the phenomenon of globalization and its consequences has generated an extensive literature, which represents a wide range of opinions.
The new social movement, which has come to be called “anti-globalization,” represents various currents - both those that challenge globalization as such, and those that see their goal in searching for an alternative model of globalization - more democratic and humane.

Conclusion

At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, globalization established itself as a main trend in the evolution of the world economy, deeply, although to varying degrees, affecting many other areas of international relations (including politics) and the life of the entire world community.

Other main, fundamental trends in its development (transnationalization, post-industrialization, liberalization of the system of international economic relations, etc.) and global problems of humanity (environmental, energy, the spread of terrorism and drug trafficking, poverty and backwardness of a large, if not the predominant part of the Earth's population, etc. .) either create prerequisites for the globalization of the economy, or correlate with it as a particular part of the whole, or are its consequence, and in some cases with a “minus” sign.

Like any major, fundamentally new and at the same time epoch-making scientific problem, especially one that by definition has a worldwide format and does not know national boundaries, globalization has given many researchers around the world, including in Russia, the potential opportunity and chance to demonstrate and establish themselves as as scientists who ensured major scientific discoveries and are the bearers of them.

The large number of authors who already have works on globalization issues and the abundance of publications on it themselves, other things being equal, contribute to its in-depth and comprehensive research, which can largely be facilitated by the polemical environment that arises every time around any serious scientific problem when it is posed by itself life.

Globalization deepens, expands and accelerates worldwide interconnections and interdependencies in all spheres of today's social life.

For some, this opens up a new world of opportunity and hope. For others, it is a world in which people have less and less control over the things that directly affect their daily lives.

Of course, for most people, globalization is too abstract a concept to evoke strong feelings - no matter what kind. For them, globalization is the tangible effects of globalized trade, investment, environmental damage and similar themes that connect people with the rapid changes in their lives occurring on a worldwide scale.

Global cooperation through the creation of formal or informal international institutions represents an important mechanism for solving the problems generated by the process of globalization. With its help, it is possible to achieve stability in a globalized world, achieve economic growth everywhere, control the labor market, accelerate the development of the poorest countries, and also solve the problems of globalization that are non-economic in nature.

What could be the “net” result of globalization, if we take into account all its pros and cons? The answer to this question depends crucially on the nature of the world system. If the world is engulfed in conflicts, then globalization will apparently have absolutely negative consequences. Conversely, if the world strives for cooperation, globalization will bring only positive results.

List of used literature

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