Introduction
Globalisation, whose agenda, and benefits are? The Third world is being rushed into globalisation, which is explained by many as economic, political and cultural integration of the world’s population. However, the world is still divided into Global South and North, and the benefits of globalisation are felt differently depending on who defines the rules of globalisation and who follows the rules. This essay discusses the process of globalisation and its effects in the Third World. The line of discussion will be approaching the concept of globalisation from a Western driven neoliberalism; hence it will be demonstrated that globalisation serves Western interest. The essay will begin with an overview of the concept “globalisation”, the next part will discuss the impact of globalisation in the Third World, followed by its negative effects in developing countries. After, the response to the Western globalisation by the Global South will be discussed.
The concept of globalisation
Globalisation is an attempt to integrate all nation states into a single global village. In simple terms, it could mean the destruction of formally established cultural, communication, political, economic and physical frontiers between communities and societies. Chile and Stewart (2020:52) explain the concept of globalisation as a rapid reduction in the barriers between nation states, being facilitated by the transportation technology, information and telecommunications and improved production of goods and services. For instance, the distances that previously took days or months for people and goods to be moved from one place to another via seas, or by using animals’ energy can now be covered in few hours. This comparison shows that we are now living in a newly engineered world where people are believed to be closer to each other than before. Precisely, internet and social media have become superhighways through which news travel across the world instantaneously, so that much of events that previously affected only specific and local people now have international impact. However, even though the protagonists of globalisation define it to be able to draw people near to each other and create prosperity for all, the world is still divided between the South and North, and so does globalisation manifest itself in different areas of the world.
The impact of globalisation in the South
Firstly, globalisation has contributed to alternative means of communication and Information dissemination. According to Dependency Theory (UNISA 2008:140), information or its dissemination was an important tool for mass control used by the West-centre towards the Third World-periphery, equally by the Third World elite towards the population. In other words, the post-independent African brutal regimes installed by colonialists relied more on centralised mass media and information dissemination to manipulate and keep their population under control, by providing them with information and education that kept people from revolting. Today, thanks to globalisation with its many alternatives means of communication, information dissemination, online education, facility in movement of people and goods and others, people in the South have the possibilities to escape absolute control and oppression. For example, during the Arab spring many young Africans were able to connect and communicate with others in different countries through social media and to build mutual support and resistance against the oppressive regimes. This is one of the ways globalisation has affected the whole world including developing countries. However, whether this evolution is positive or negative in real sense of desired sustainable development, is simply a question of whose ideology (North or South) rules the globalisation agenda, the following section outlines some of the negative effects of globalisation in developing countries.
Negative effects of globalisation in developing countries
First, globalisation serves as vehicle for the Western imperialism in developing countries. Chile and Stewart (2020:53) argue that through globalisation the world is witnessing a gradual deterritorialization of national boundaries, which means a gradual reduction of states’ power and authority, because these state’s attributes are exercised over its territory and land. The fundamental change brought by globalisation is that local or national authority is being replaced with an international authority dictated mostly by private entities, which has a monolithic concept of globalisation that is capitalistic, eager for cheap labour, profit maximisation, and privatisation of public entities (Chile & Stewart 2020:57). In other words, nation states are progressively being transformed into private enterprises centred solely on profit-making, and the poor people get blamed for their conditions and eventually eliminated from the society, just like in any enterprise, people who do not perform well get dismissed. The effect of this change in the Global South where states have been weakened is that they become more and more vulnerable towards international hegemony in that, they can no longer manage the activities of their societies. Moreover, as nation states lose their power and authority due to the process of globalisation, we are witnessing an emergence of transnational corporations, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and other multilateral arrangements such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with more power and authority to undermine nation-states’ initiatives (Chile & Stewart 2020:53). The result of this phenomenon has a detrimental effect on the population of the Global South as their states cannot longer provide for the necessities such as welfare program for poor and disadvantaged people. Meanwhile, contrary to the government, the transnational corporations whose power and influence are in ascension have no constitutional commitment or obligation towards local population among which they do business, except making profit, which is at the core of neoliberalism as a drive of the current globalisation (Stewart 2020:19). For instance, there is an ongoing discussion in South Africa about the privatisation of some state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and South African Airways, which, if done might push further the state into its economic demise and give a way to private corporations to flourish.
Secondly, it is believed according to Chile and Stewart (2020:53) that, by occasioning deterritorialization of national boundaries, globalisation will facilitate mass transnational migration of people and their integration. However, by looking critically it appears that transnational corporations and their capitals are the ones with freedom to move and settle everywhere they can find cheap labour and opportunity for higher return. For example, Mosoetsa (2006:861) argues that in 1999 only in Mpumalanga, a township located in South Africa 180 000 people lost their jobs as result of corporations that decided to migrate to other locations where the market has no restrictions. On the other hand, poor people from the South do not enjoy the same freedom to move and settle wherever they want (especially in the West) and integrate, as immigration conditions are tougher. For instance, recently some Western nations have changed their immigration policies so that people from some African and Asian countries may not easily travel and settle in the US and Europe. Just last year, we saw on social media thousands of Haitian people deported from the US; let us not talk about millions from Middle Eastern countries blocked in Turkey from entering Europe.
Moreover, the neoliberal ideology of globalisation has exposed the Third World countries to a market competition above their capacities of production, which increases their level of poverty. Chile and Stewart (2020:53) argue that “Africa’s limited access to global finance, trade and technology creates an unequal exchange between Africa and global economy”, in most cases, this limitation is created by financial institutions that, through credit compel African states to remove protection measures on the market and discard local economic incentives. As result, Africa cannot produce much of what is needed in the global economy, but she is expected to play the role of consumer of imported goods, as stated by Chile and Stewart (2020:53) that globalisation undermines local production of food and other goods, transfers the ownership of local economies to external entities, and reinforces poverty. This globalisation agenda driven by Western imperialist ideas has created a necessity for the people in the Third World countries to forge their own perspective for resistance and development, perspective such as “localization”.
The Third World’s response to Western globalisation
Many perspectives for Global South development have been explored in response to Western driven globalisation, one such is “globalisation from below”. From above discussion of the effects of globalisation in the Third World, it is remarkable that globalisation has allowed multi-national corporations to highjack political, economic and social institutions altogether with their power and authority in the Global South. Which has resulted in poverty, inequalities, environmental degradation and demise of democratic processes. Mainly, this change is considered from Global South as top-down globalisation, or a Western initiative which does not reflect the South’s aspirations (Chile & Stewart 2020:57). In contrast, there is a struggle in the Third World (by community-focused movements) to push an agenda of localisation, which means the restoration of nation states with their authority and legitimacy through democratic means. It also means according to Chile and Stewart (2020:57), a restoration of local production, which may mean for some, a nationalisation of natural resources, and maybe for others, it will mean isolating the country from foreign intrusion. We can see this diversity today with political parties of different tendencies but all carrying a populist message. One particular achievement of this struggle has been the World Social Forum (WSF), that was held for the first time in Porto Alegre, Brazil (Chile & Stewart 2020:59). The aim of this forum was to serve as tool through which an alternative agenda for development could be created, just like the World Economic Forum is a tool by which globalisation agenda is shaped by the West. If you are interested to learn more about alternative ways of fighting against western globalisation, we invite you to consider engaging some of grassroot movements that are tirelessly working for the liberation and emancipation of African people such as:
the African Continental unity Party (ACUP) www.africanacup.org; Ubuntu Solidarity Society, Organic African Paradigm, and Free-Minded Academy www.freemidedafrica.org
Conclusion
This essay discussed the concept of globalisation and its effects in the Third World. Globalisation was tackled many from its neoliberal Western centred perspective. The discussion started with an explanation of the concept “globalisation”, and then the impact of globalisation in the South was discussed, neoliberalism, deterritorialization and destruction of nation states authority were among the negative effects discussed. Finally, the essay ended with a discussion on the response against globalisation by the Third World.