Doug writes:
>There are abstractions that clarify and those that obscure. "Globalization"
>is a way to talk about capitalism and imperialism without having to use
>those words. It relieves liberals and NGO types of the pain of uttering
>those embarrassing -ism words, and apologists like the word because it
>naturalizes social processes and drains them of agency.
Maybe I miss the context because I don't know any NGO types. The big
problem is those who see globalization as meaning that domestic politics
have absolutely no effect, denying the relative autonomy of the nation-state.
To me, globalization is the process of the establishment of what Ross and
Tracte termed "global capitalism," the stage after what they call "monopoly
capitalism" (and I would call (for the US) "state-guided corporate
capitalism," an admittedly clumsy term). Maybe it should be called the "new
global capitalism" to distinguish it from the 19th century era of
UK-centric globalism. But then again, most people forget to add the word
"new" to the word "Imperialism" when describing the late 19th century
(distinguishing it from Roman imperialism, etc.)
>It's often surreal to hear Americans talk about globalization - a country
>that was founded on a massive act of transnational appropriation, whose
>early growth was funded by London finance, and which has run riot over the
>outside world for a century.
Yeah, but from the Civil War until the aftermath of the 1930s Great
Depression, the US economy operated behind high protectionist walls and
industry mostly served domestic markets. To some extent (and for US-based
thinkers) globalization is defined _relative to_ that era and the era after
WW2 when US industry ruled the global roost because Germany & Japan had
been wiped out (and because S. Korea etc. hadn't arisen as industrial
powers). Of course, it was during the latter period that the US-led drive
to create a new global economy got into full gear (at Bretton Woods, etc.)
in pen-l solidarity,
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
Naming the Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan is "like naming
an organ-donor bank after Jeffrey Dahmer." -- Will Durst.
