Why Do So Many Groups and Individuals Oppose Globalization?
Introduction
Globalization refers to the process through which businesses and other companies nurture and develop global influence or launch international operations. For many years this phenomenon has been considered to be integral to the growth of companies as they now have access to a broader market to sell their products. Also, many think that globalization has an overall positive impact on life since people from different parts of the world can link up via internet platforms and interact unlimitedly. In this paper, I present substantial hypotheses that explain why many groups are opposed to the idea of globalization despite the rest of the world consider it to be a masterpiece.
Additionally, to the common perspective that the economic collapse of the middle-income class, as well as the daily increase of xenophobic cases in the western countries. Examples account for the unprecedented Donald Trump win in the US presidential elections in 2016, the success of Brexit together with the rise of National Front Europe, for instance, France serving as evidence to back out of the pro-globalization narrative. The critical layers of the global population are having is mainly due to the problematic technological concepts that are forced on them. All these troubles have led to democracies suffering disenchantment.
An examination of the situation
For a long time now, the powers in the United States and Europe have lived with the feeling that the idea of economic openness is a welcome idea as it always leads to positive outcomes. This reality is more so regarding the flow of trade activities as well as an investment, which has led to the liberalization of workers. The new liberal has led to the western countries to become more prosperous and embrace an open cosmopolitan. Even though some of them lost out on the idea of economic openness, their voters were modeled to embrace an advanced degree of globalization.
Being consumers, the open economic terms helped them get cheaper products from other economies, for instance, china believing that the national policies could protect them from any form of collapse. Also, these policies could bail them out in case they ended up as losses through different types of compensation. The developing economies have also benefitted from the open global economy, thanks to globalization. This assumption is based on the fact that they now can export their commodities to their richer brothers and subsequently send the remittances from the west back home. This kind of investment worked from the economic growth rates that were witnessed.
However, in recent times particularly starting from the eurozone crisis and the world financial crisis, the very people that championed these policies, for instance, the social democrats, liberals, as well as the Christian Democrats, have realized that they are now more electorally squeezed. They are being pressed by the extremist parties that are now calling for borders to be closed. The closing of borders is intended to stop immigrants from coming in. They are also meant to cut trade links.
In most cases, the advocates of such campaigns are far-right parties that feel that their national sovereignty is being interfered with. They think this loss is due to the global market that is easily accessible to anyone and everyone. For the case of Europe, they feel that its policies are no longer working since there are overly liberal. For the example of Donald Trump, he championed to make American great again, meaning that the country had been riddled with the policies of the liberal market to the extent that the Americans could not have it anymore.
This example of the United States is just a demonstration that the parties in the western world were fed up with the impact of the liberal laws that allowed cross-border trade. Another example is Brexit, as well as the French National Front. These two are designed to stop what international trade aspires to achieve. They want to expel all immigrants. The nationalist, protectionist, and xenophobic approach that they are using to tackle this problem is a shortcut that is bound to provide no solution. The perceived problem is very complicated. The appalling dimension of this is that they are carrying the disenchanted voters with them.
The voters are tired of the liberal systems as they perceive them as the chief cause of what is ailing them. From this examination, it is evident that many groups are opposed to the idea of globalization. They think of it as the source of their economic suffering as they are no longer in control of their economy. These are new parties whose say has taken the world by storm. No one was prepared for this as the older systems seemed to work.
There is evidence to show that there is widespread enchantment all over the world. The classic example of a Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections, Britain’s clamor for Brexit, xenophobic attacks of foreigners in South Africa as well as the unprecedented rise of the National Front in France indicate that not everyone is happy about the phenomenon of globalization.
Xenophobia and economic collapse have hit many parts of the world hard. Financial experts, as well as the mainstream media, have come up with explanations why they think many voters are getting behind the anti-globalization movements. Firstly, they believe that this revolt against the establishment is greased by the middle-income class that has witnessed their salaries stagnate. They are increasingly convinced that things will only get worse for their children as the situations show no signs of stopping. In economic terms, this is the class of people that have seen their fortunes plummet thanks to the advent of globalization. Indeed, they have nothing to smile about as they are living more miserable than before.
Technically these are the underperforming employees in the western world that have found it tough to adapt to the competitive nature of a liberalized economy. The immigrants have diluted the employment market, making things worse for the natives. As an example, the immigrants are willing to give chip labor and do quality work. Many of the employees in the western countries have lost their jobs as companies prefer cheap labor. That is why they are ready to jump at the opportunity closing this system that has only frustrated their lives.
This concept forms the basis for the rise of the French National Front movement. It draws its impetus from voters who are socialist and belong to the middle classes. They were frustrated by policies enacted by President Francois Hollande that resulted in many of them losing their jobs or being poorly remunerated. The workers living in areas that are witnessing industrial decline are feeling neglected by the government of the day. Its due to this that the traditional voters that supported the Labor party backed the idea of Britain separating from Europe.
They felt that EU policies allowed them to suffer under the watch of their government. Under their government, they think they will be better shielded from unfair trade practices that exposed them to economic risks that they are suffering from today. These disenchanted voters are not supporting these movements for financial gains but a nationalistic identity as well as cultural justifications.
The phenomenon of immigration has seen many foreigners find home sin developed economies. This aspect is much to the dismay of the locals that feel invaded. As a result, they are willing to support any course that can chase the non-natives so that they can restore their national ride. For instance, it was shocking that Americans voted in Donald Trump to succeed Obama even though his election campaigns were littered with anti-immigrant themes. To them, he was the savior that could salvage them from the burden of immigrants that were taking their jobs.
The voters want leaders whose pronouncements are aimed at protecting their national identity and stop all activities that are destroying their cultural identity. To them, an open economy and multiculturalism are nothing short of a threat to their cultural identity and wellbeing. The Muslim community has been at the receiving end of these anti-immigrant movements. In recent times the rate of terror activities has soared up. Most of the time, it is perpetrated by extremist Muslim groups. This reality makes it hard for Muslim immigrants to have peace in their new countries of residence as they are often victimized.
Such considerations put security at the epicenter of the political debates. Admittedly this is a new experience to European countries as they have not experienced a similar scenario in many years now. The use of messages like we against them is unheard of in these countries. This approach is akin to seducing the electorate by inspiring hope in them and making them believe that they will rediscover better lives once these policies are kicked away. However, many of these approaches may seem to work; they are bound to jeopardize the economies of these countries.
The effect of new technologies
The advent of artificial intelligence and the use of robotics at work has had an enormous impact on the global economy. It forms the heart of the significant inventions that our society is embracing in a bid o modernize its industrial production mechanisms. Their increased application gas resulted in numerous economic opportunities. The application of these inventions is across all industries. They range from making automobiles to aviation, and even shipyards. More sophistication is expected in the future with the designs finding more use.
Other simple applications like the smartphone can not be used in solving many daily problems. Apart from the traditional uses of sending voice and text messages to others, smartphones can now be used for making work more comfortable. Now people can stream events live at the comfort of their desks. For instance, Uber has directly kicked conventional taxis out of the market. It is transforming the market in a big way.
However, many of these inventions have made life more livable. At the same time, this progress, as well as the pace at which it is happening, has much scared many people. For instance, in the City of New York, the union of taxi drives intends to fight Uber from being allowed to do business there. They deem its entry into the New York market as a significant disruption that will ultimately drive them out of the market.
Observably, the many technological inventions that are being created daily have rendered routine work useless. For instance, companies are now being forced to train their employees on the latest skills as dictated by technology. However, in cases where the middle class has established its enterprises, these technological innovations phase out their businesses. The apparent impact of this is that they will support policies that favor their businesses and reject those that don’t.
To this effect, they will reject modernity in favor of the traditional approaches that will give them a shot at surviving the economic turmoil. This reality draws inspiration from the Luddite Movement that championed for all machines to be destroyed during the industrial revolution. The robots are being preferred to employees leading to massive reductions. The implication of such policies leaves a sour taste on the mouths of the voters that see this as the government deliberately intending to hurt then. They see their pro-globalization policies as not being considerate with what they need or want
The crisis of a democracy that is representative
The global financial crisis of 2008 has a long-running impact stemming from the way it was handled. Economic experts failed the global economy when they were unable to detect the crisis looming large. During this crisis, the taxpayers were the ones that bailed out financial institutions. This act made the voters believe that the judicial and the political systems are for the rich. This observation has far-reaching effects on how people reaching impacts o how people perceived these systems.
The elite class is seen as benefiting the most from tax payer’s money even after the global financial crisis was gone. Those consuming the media content come to realize that these financial experts were partisan. As a result of this kind of disenchantment, the electorate found it necessary to support courses that could defend its rights. Consequently, they found a voice in the anti-establishment movements. This is a very precarious situation for anyone that is supporting the idea of globalization because they see it as an enemy.
Conclusion
It is evident that today, not everyone is jumping into the globalization bandwagon. In many parts of the world, the citizens feel sidelined or oppressed by the globalization policies. Unfortunately for them, almost all governments are of the idea that an open market will help them sell more and buy at a cheap. These policies used to work in the past, but the sad reality is that they are costly to many countries that benefit them. That is why many groups today are against the idea of globalization. They see it as an enemy to their economic prospects as it stops them from benefitting from their countries’ resources. In the future, these campaigns will only get pronounced.