Politics of development Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Politics of development - Article Example Globalization reduces rather than contributes to inequalities giving low developed nations a chance to progress and grow, acquire new technologies and innovations in all spheres of life. Globalization has both positive and negative impact on the third world countries identified by the development stage and economic possibilities. For the third world countries, positive effects of globalization involve free trade and integrated economic relations, low barriers to trade and cultural communication, political unity and easy travel, technology transfer and labor turnover. Governments take measures to make their economies more or less attractive to global investors. In addition, nation-states have retained control over education, infrastructure, and, most importantly, population movements. Indeed, immigration control, together with population registration and monitoring, has often been cited as the most notable exception to the general trend towards global integration. (Friedman 2000). Although only 2% of the world's population live outside their country of origin, immigration control has become a central issue in most advanced nations. Many governments seek to restrict population flows, particularly those originating in the poor countries of the global South. Even in the United States, annual inflows of about 600 ,000 immigrants during the 1990s reached only half the levels recorded during the first two decades of the 20th century (Stiglitz 2002). Finally, the series of drastic national security measures that were implemented worldwide as a response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 reflect political dynamics that run counter to the hyper-globalizers' predictions of a borderless world. Some civil rights advocates even fear that the enormous resurgence of patriotism around the world might enable states to re-impose restrictions on the freedom of movement and assembly (Wade et al 2006). At the same time, however, the activities of global terrorist networks have revealed the inadequacy of conventional national security structures based on the modern nation-state system, thus forcing national governments to engage in new forms of international cooperation (Hirst and Thompson 1999). Following Stiglitz (2002): "Globalization can further be defined as the arrival of 'self-generating capital' at the global level: that is, capital as capital, capital in the form of the TNC, free of national loyalties, controls, and interests. This is different from the mere internationalization of capital, which assumes a world of national capitals and nation states; it is the supersession by capital of the nation state (p. 10). At the outset of the 21st century, the world finds itself in a transitional phase between the modern nation-state system and postmodern forms of global governance (Yip 1995). Regional clubs and agencies have sprung up across the world, leading some observers to speculate that they will eventually replace nation-states as the basic unit of governance. Starting out as attempts to integrate regional economies, these regional blocs have, in some cases, already evolved into loose political federations with common institutions of governance. On a global level, governments have formed a number of international organizations, including the UN, NATO,