Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                

Civics

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 13

CONTENT

GLOBALIZATION
1. MEANING OF GLOBALIZATION

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GLOBALIZATION

3. DRIVING FORCES OF GLOBALIZATION

4. ASPECT OF GLOBALIZATION

5. PRIVATIZATION

6. LIBERALIZATION

7. PLAYERS OF GLOBALIZATION

8. STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT POLICIES [SAPs]

9. EFFECT OF GLOBALIZATION IN TANZANIA

10. CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION FOR TANZANIA

11. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION

12. FREE – MARKET ECONOMY

13. REVISION QUESTIONS


1. MEANING OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is defined as the increasing process of interdependence and


interconnectedness between different political, social and economic components of the
world. It is the way in which the world is seems as the global village. Globalization has
become worldwide system because:

 It integrates people across their national borders


 Making the world operates as a village
 Making free movement of people
 Making free movement of goods
 Making free movement of capital
 Making free movement of information

Globalization is largely facilitated by rapid advancement of technology, growth of trade


and economy competition.

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GLOBALIZATION

The world’s interconnectedness and interdependence between its different social,


political and economic components started as far back as for thousands of years. For
centuries, traders and corporations from Yemen, China, Indonesia, India, and Oman
came to Africa to make trade with Africans. In the 15 thc, Europe emerged as a global
power. Portuguese prince Henry sent out his navigators Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco Da
Gamma and Christopher Columbus to explore the world and make profits of whatever
they conquered. European merchants crossed their borders and conducted trade in
other parts of the world like Africa, Asia and Latin America example triangular trade.

3. DRIVING FORCES OF GLOBALIZATION

The following are the driving forces of globalization;

1. Advancement of science and technology: the development of science and


technology has enabled the technologist to design and innovate many things like
machines, which simplify human activities. It marked the initial stage of integration
between Africa and the external world to a global village.

2. Advancement of education; education has contributed greatly to the development


of science and technology and integration from the distant places. Advancement of
education marked intensive integration of people in universities, colleges and
international conferences.
3. Social liberalization: social liberalization is widely spreading due to the
advancement of information and communication technologies like TV, E-Mail, Cellular
Phones and Internet Technology.

4. Political liberalization: politically the integration of politics in the global scale has
fostered the development of globalization.

5. Resources and markets: natural resources like minerals, oil, gas, human resources,
water etc, make an important contribution in globalization.

4. ASPECT OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization has many aspects but the following are some of it:

1. Free-market economy
2. Democratization
3. Technology
4. Movement of people
5. Spread of ideas
6. Finance
7. The rise of intellectual property
8. Privatization

PRIVATIZATION

Privatization refers to the policy of transferring assets and activities of public sectors to
the private sector or individual. The government ceases to be the owner of the entity or
business. Privatization is one of the results of the Structural Adjustment Policies [SAPs]
that has been emphasized by the IMF, WB and Donors from the developed countries
particularly western countries like Britain, France, USA, Denmark and German.

The origin of privatization: the ongoing economic crisis of the development countries
and their growing dependence syndrome are of the factor that has contributed the
introduction of privatization. However the policy started in 1980s and gained significant
public notice at the global level during the same decade [1980s] when the Britain’s
prime minister Margaret Thatcher took deliberate and extra efforts to advocate the
necessity of shifting public or government activities to private actors so as to increase
production and efficiencies in economic sectors and restructure the prevailing conditions
in countries like Tanzania.
Features of privatization;

 Reduction in extra burden on government


 Control over poor performance of public sector
 Check on high-handedness of bureaucracy
 Shares sale on the stock exchange
 Asset divestiture to a strategic investor, usually by auction or through the
treuhand [trust agency] model.
 Distribution of vouchers, which represent part ownership of a corporation, to all
citizens, usually free or at a very low price.
 Management buyout or employee buyout: distribution of shares for free or at a
very low price to workers or management of the organization.

The objectives of the privatization

 Market oriented economy: to create more markets oriented economy where


those privatized firms will participate in the stock market.
 Production: to improve economy through increased productivity and
efficiency of the privatized parastatal
 Equal provision of public services: to broaden share and ownership
through equal provision of public services to all levels
 To secure and enhance access to foreign markets, capital and technology
through attracting managerial and technological resources from the private
sector.
 Reducing of Public debt: to reduce the overwhelming and challenging
increase of public debt.
 To promote the spirit of self-reliance to the community
 improving the efficiency of public sector undertaking

Advantages of privatization

 Increase flexibility: due to reduction of bureaucratic complexity and procedures


which have in turn lead to an improvement of the national economy.
 Cost reduction; it has reduced costs resulting from improving and increase
efficiency in production through competitive process.
 Rise of competition: privatization has led to the improvement and rise of
completion among the existing organization.
 It meets the demand of the people: privatization met the demands beyond the
current government capacity.
 It provides more choice of options to the client.
 Privatization save taxpayers’ money due to huge investment as a result of
privatization facilitate the government to collect tax easily.
 Privatization act as the immunity from political influence when a public service is
privatized, it can become immune to political influence.
 Tax reduction and job creation: by providing public services more efficiently and
at a lower cost by privatizing them, governments can lower the taxes the impose
on residents.

Disadvantages of privatization

 Inflexibility ; the government signs length contracts with private services


providers, these contracts can span for decades, locking residents into one
services provider for life times.
 Higher costs to consumers; although privatization is usually promoted on the
basis that it will reduce consumer’s costs, it can also drive costs up.
 Unemployment rate; privatization led on the increase in unemployment rate
among the indigenous people.
 Fall in agriculture sector; it has led to the fall in agriculture sector due to
withdrawal of the government from providing agricultural incentives to the
peasants/farmers.
 Low quality of goods and services; it has increased temptation to reduce quality
of goods and services by some dishonest investors in order to reduce costs and
maximize profits.
 Moral erosion; privatization has increased the rate of moral erosion due to its
policy of free trade. For example goods like pornography pictures and other
related firms or VCD/DVD
 Increase the rate of poverty; privatization policy has increase the rate of poverty
to people especially those living in rural areas due to decline in agriculture
productions.

Positive impact of Globalization in Tanzania

 Globalization brought about diversity in the products and services


 Globalization brought important changes in the content of international laws, for
example many states makes laws, which comply with international laws.
 Tanzania has integrated itself into global politics through international agencies
and organizations.
 Through Globalization trade in currencies increased dramatically in the recent
past years.
 Globalization led to the increase or flow of products from abroad to our markets.
 Globalization increased the spread of information and public awareness.
 Globalization has increased the spread of international languages like English
lang., Kiswahili, French, Germany, Spanish, Portuguese and Arab languages.
 Globalization has made diffusion of beliefs and values in international concern.
 Cultural integration in the world: through development of ICT like internet, fax,
machines, satellites, radio and cable TV has managed to integrates all cultural
practices in the world and create common cultural vision for present and future
generation.
 Expansions of the great world religious institution like Christian and Islam
transformed social cultural values into modern generation.

Negative impact of Globalization in Tanzania

 Globalization led to the introduction of harmful goods to the markets such as


abused drugs, illicit drinks (alcohol) and firearms.
 It led to the increase of poverty especially in the developing countries like
Tanzania that became the finished goods from the developed countries.
 Globalization has increased private ownership of the major means of production
that results into high unemployment.
 Globalization has led to the increase of moral decay among most of the youth in
Tanzania.
 Globalization has led to the decline of the supremacy of the local languages due
to the high values given to the international languages.
 Globalization has led to the exploitation of labor for example prisoners and
children are used to work in inhumane conditions.
 Globalization has increased people’s expenditure
 Spread of religious fundamentalism; the world wide spread of religious
fundamentalists increased social tension and insecurity and also economic
effects for example the case of Alshabab, Al-Qaida, ISIS etc
 Globalization causes pollution due to the constant emission of toxic gasses from
heavy industries of the developed countries.

Challenges of globalization in Tanzania.

- Globalization has increased the imbalances in the working of the global


economy.
- The problem of unemployment because of globalization has led to the poverty.
- Success in the implementation of PEDP has created challenge to upper levels of
education. For example inadequate secondary schools enrolment to cope with
the challenges in developing competitiveness, innovativeness, adherence to
schedules and standards.
- The problems to access to information communication technology (ICT). due to
low literacy rates, low incomes and limited number of service providers.
- Low production: Tanzania`s economic sectors such as agriculture industry,
mining, fishing are not producing enough goods for export.
- In adequate number of literacy people to meet the demand is posing a big
challenge to Tanzania to compete with other countries in the world.
- The country faces the problem of low savings and investment. low savings
caused by inadequate income of the people may prolong the vicious cycle of
poverty among Tanzanians.

Possible solutions to the challenges of globalization in Tanzania.

i. The government should continue to strengthen and enforce laws, rules


and regulations on corruption.
ii. The government should continue to strengthen academic and learning
institution.
iii. The government should utilize properly both natural and human
resources to boost the economic growth.
iv. The government should increase financing and expand higher
education and research.
v. The government should strengthen efforts to integrate trade policies
towards poverty reduction.
vi. The government should advancing capacity building in trade policy and
related areas.
vii. The government should make implementation of small and medium
enterprises development policy.
viii. Tanzanians should not accept everything from foreign countries
without assessing them.
ix. Public awareness campaigns should be carried out on good land use
practices in order to contain soil erosion problems.
x. The government should prepare a conducive environment for investors
to stabilize the macro economy.

PLAYERS OF GLOBALIZATION
Globalization has three main players, which are;
1. The international monetary fund (IFM)
2. The World Bank.
3. The World Trade Organization (WTO)

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT POLICIES (SAPs)


SAPs consists loans provided by the international monetary fund (IFM) and the World
Bank (WB) to countries that experienced economic crises. The two Breton woods
institutions require borrowing countries to implement certain policies in order to obtain
new loans.

Common guiding principles and features of SAPs.

i. Export led growth.


ii. Privatization and Liberalization.
iii. Efficiency of the free market.
iv. Trade liberalization
v. Foreign investment.
vi. Balancing government deficit.

The conditionality of SAPs towards the developing countries.

i. Countries ordered to devalue the currencies against the US dollar devaluation


makes their goods cheaper for foreigners to buy and theoretically makes foreign
import more expensive.
ii. Balancing national budgets through raising taxes and lower government
spending, also known as austerity.
iii. Restructuring foreign debts.
iv. Monetary policy to finance government deficits (usually in the form of loans from
central banks.)
v. Eliminating food subsidies.
vi. Raising the price of public services.
vii. Cutting wages of the workers.
viii. Decrementing domestic credit.
ix. Liberalization of markets to guarantee a price mechanism.
x. Creating new financial institutions like banks, SACCOSS
xi. Privatization or divestiture.(Divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for
financial , ethical or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm.(it
is the opposite of an investment)
xii. Improving governance and fighting corruption (from the perspective) of a
neoliberal formulation of governance and corruption.

xiii. Enhancing the rights of foreign investors Vis – a – vis national law.

xiv. Focusing economic output on direct export and resource extraction.

xv. Increasing the stability of investment (by allowing foreign investors) with the
opening of companies.
xvi. Reducing government expenditure. e.g.: reducing government employment.

Effects of Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs)


i. End of structural model of development. After the WW II a structural model
of development, relaying on import substitutions industrialization (ISI) had
become the ubiquitous paradigm.
ii. Competitive insertion into the world market. Since SAPs are based on the
condition that loans have to be repaid in hard currency economies were
restructured to focus on exports as the only source for developing
countries to obtain such currency.
iii. Removal of trade and financial barriers. The erosion of the Bretton –
woods – system in 1971 and the end of capital control caused
multinational co operations (MNCs) to gain access to large sums of capital
that they wanted to invest in new markets such as in developing countries.

Criticisms on SAPs
- Undermining national sovereignty: critics claim that SAPs threaten the
sovereignty of national economies because an outside organization is dictating a
nation’s economic policy.
- Neo colonialism or Neo imperialism. Some post colonialists view sAPs as the
modern procedure of colonization. By minimizing a government`s ability to
organize and regulate its internal economy, pathway are created for multinational
companies to enter states and extract their resources.
- Privatization: Critics have condemned these privatization requirements, arguing
that when resources are transferred to foreign corporation and national elites, the
goal of public prosperity is replaced with the goal of private accumulation.
- Austerity: critics hold SAPs responsible for much of the economic stagnation
that has occurred in the borrowing countries. SAPs emphasize maintaining a
balanced budget that forces austerity programs. SAPs have done little to help
the agricultural sector of developing countries.

FREE – MARKET ECONOMY


The free – market economy: is an economic system based on supply and
demand with little or no government control.

- Free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are self –
regulated by the open market and by consumers. In a free market, the laws and
forces of supply and demands are free from any intervention by a government or
other authority and from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and artificial
scarcities.

Characteristics of free – market economy

- Supply and demand: Market economies rely upon a price system to signal
market actors to adjust production and investment.
- Property rights: For market, economies to function efficiently governments must
establish clearly defined and enforceable property rights for assets and capital
goods. It includes various types of cooperatives or autonomous state – owned
enterprises that acquire capital goods and raw materials in capital markets.
- Free to set prices.
- Free to choose your work.
- Free to be investors.
- Free to create capital formation.
- Free to create capital formation.
- Free to earn profit.
- Free to compete.
- Free to buy, own, use and sell private property.

Advantages of free – market economy.

- It reduces cost
- Lead to more innovation, research, and development through the absence of red
tape.
- Free market economy; contributes to political and civil freedom, since everybody
has the right to choose what to produce or consume.
- It contributes to economic growth and transparency.
- It ensures competitive markets.
- Consumers` voices are heard in that; their decisions determine what products or
services are in demand.
- Supply and demand create competition, which helps ensure that the best goods
or services are provided to consumers at a lower price.
Disadvantages of free – market economy.

- It creates a huge government bureaucracy that stifles growth.


- It can create huge monopolies that cause consumers to pay more.
- It squashes innovation by over – regulating.
- Markets naturally concentrate wealth in the hands of a few.
- The free market system drives wages down to subsistence levels.
- Poor quality.

- Excessive Power of Firms: Large firms can still dominate certain markets, even
where there is some competition.

- Unemployment and inequality: In a free market economy, certain members of


society will not be able to work such as the elderly, children or others who are
employed because their skills are not marketable.

LIBERALIZATION

Liberalization is a process whereby a state lifts restrictions on some private individual


activities. Liberalization occurs when something that used to be banned is no longer
banned or when government regulations are relaxed.

Economic liberalization is the reduction of state involvement in the economy. Economic


liberalization is often associated with privatization, which is the process of transferring
ownership or outsourcing of a business, enterprise, agency, public service or public
property from the public sector to the private sector. For example, the European Union
has liberalized gas and electricity markets, instituting a competitive system.

The role of Liberalization

- Minimizing government restrictiveness and regulations in an economy in turn of


higher involvement of private organization.
- Government easily controls to encourage economic development.
- Is the free flow of capital between nations and the efficient allocation of resources
and competitive advantages?
- Reducing protectionist policies such as tariffs, trade laws and other trade
barriers.

Features of liberalization

i. Freedom of opening / starting production units.


ii. Use of new machines and technology.
iii. No government interference in production.
iv. Free flow of foreign investment.

Advantages of liberalization

- Increase foreign investment.


- Increase foreign exchange reserve.
- Increase in consumption.
- Reduction in independence on external commercial borrowing.

EXERCISE

1. What were the conditions put forward by SAPs?


2. Outline the features of free – market economy.
3. Discuss the effects of globalization on developing countries.
4. Show how globalization perpetuates poverty in African countries.
5. Examine the social – economic impacts of globalization in Tanzania.
6. Give the advantages and disadvantages of a free – market economy
7. Outline six (6) challenges of globalization for third world countries.
8. Discuss the possible solutions to the challenges of globalization in Tanzania.
9. What are the aspects of globalization?
10. The concept of globalization is sometimes misunderstood. Provide a broader
view by examining six aspects of globalization.
11. Show how Tanzania can contain the challenges posed by globalization by
giving six points.
12. Identify any six aspects of free – market economy in corresponding to
globalization development.
13. Globalization has brought grace and tears to Tanzania. By giving six points.
Justify this contention.

This work has prepared by mwl. JOHN H.S.MSANGI

TEL NO.0718808263

MAY OUR ALMIGHTY GOD BLESS YOU ALL

You might also like