Globalisation Process

Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.[1][2] Globalization describes the interplay across cultures of macro-social forces. These forces include religion, politics, and economics. Globalization can erode and universalize the characteristics of a local group.[3] Advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the Internet, are major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities.[4] Though several scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace its history long before the European age of discovery and voyages to the New World. Some even trace the origins to the third millennium BCE.[5][6] Since the beginning of the 20th century, the pace of globalization has proceeded at an exponential rate.[7] In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people and the dissemination of knowledge.[8] Further, environmental challenges such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization.[9] Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, and the natural environment.

Overview
Humans have interacted over long distances for thousands of years. The overland Silk Road that connected Asia, Africa and Europe is a good example of the transformative power of international exchange that existed in the “Old World”. Philosophy, religion, language, the arts, and other aspects of culture spread and mixed as nations exchanged products and ideas. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans made important discoveries in their exploration of the oceans, including the start of transatlantic travel to the “New World” of the Americas. Global movement of people, goods, and ideas expanded significantly in the following centuries. Early in the 19th century, the development of new forms of transportation (such as the steamship and railroads) and telecommunications that “compressed” time and space allowed for increasingly rapid rates of global interchange.[10] In the 20th century, road vehicles and airlines made transportation even faster, and the advent of electronic communications, most notably mobile phones and the Internet, connected billions of people in new ways leading into the 21st century. Etymology and usage

The term globalization is derived from the word globalize, which refers to the emergence of an international network of social and economic systems.[11] One of the earliest known usages of the term as the noun was in 1930 in a publication entitled Towards New Education where it denoted a holistic view of human experience in education.[12] A related term, corporate giants, was coined by Charles Taze Russell in 1897[13] to refer to the largely national trusts and other large enterprises of the time. By the 1960s, both terms began to be used as synonyms by economists and other social scientists. It then reached the mainstream press in the later half of the 1980s. Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired competing definitions and interpretations, with antecedents dating back to the great movements of trade and empire across Asia and the Indian Ocean from the 15th century onwards.[14] Due to the complexity of the concept, research projects, articles, and discussions often remain focused on a single aspect of globalization.[1]

Roland Robertson, professor of sociology at University of Aberdeen, was the first person to define globalization as “the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole.”[15] Sociologists Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King define globalization as: …all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society.[2] In The Consequences of Modernity, Anthony Giddens uses the following definition: Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.[16] In Global Transformations David Held, et al., study the definition of globalization: Although in its simplistic sense globalization refers to the widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnection, such a definition begs further elaboration. … Globalization can be located on a continuum with the local, national and regional. At one end of the continuum lie social and economic relations and networks which are organized on a local and/or national basis; at the other end lie social and economic relations and networks which crystallize on the wider scale of regional and global interactions.

Globalization can be taken to refer to those spatial-temporal processes of change which underpin a transformation in the organization of human affairs by linking together and expanding human activity across regions and continents. Without reference to such expansive spatial connections, there can be no clear or coherent formulation of this term. … A satisfactory definition of globalization must capture each of these elements: extensity (stretching), intensity, velocity and impact.[17] Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization, states that globalization: is the process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit, with somebody on the other side of the world.[18] The journalist Thomas L. Friedman popularized the term “flat world”, arguing that globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces had permanently changed the world, for better and worse. He asserted that the pace of globalization was quickening and that its impact on business organization and practice would continue to grow.[19]

Economist Takis Fotopoulos defined “economic globalization” as the opening and deregulation of commodity, capital and labor markets that led toward present neoliberal globalization. He used “political globalization” to refer to the emergence of a transnational elite and a phasing out of the nation-state. “Cultural globalization”, he used to reference the worldwide homogenization of culture. Other of his usages included “ideological globalization”, “technological globalization” and “social globalization”.[20] In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people and the dissemination of knowledge.[8] With regards to trade and transactions, developing countries increased their share of world trade, from 19 percent in 1971 to 29 percent in 1999. However, there is great variation among the major regions. For instance, the newly industrialized economies (NIEs) of Asia prospered, while African countries as a whole performed poorly.

The makeup of a country’s exports is an important indicator for success. Manufactured goods exports soared, dominated by developed countries and NIEs. Commodity exports, such as food and raw materials were often produced by developing countries: commodities’ share of total exports declined over the period. Following from this, capital and investment movements can be highlighted as another basic aspect of globalization. Private capital flows to developing countries soared during the 1990s, replacing “aid” or development assistance which fell significantly after the early 1980s. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) became the most important category. Both portfolio investment and bank credit rose but they have been more volatile, falling sharply in the wake of the financial crisis of the late 1990s. The migration and movement of people can also be highlighted as a prominent feature of the globalization process. In the period between 1965–90, the proportion of the labor forces migrating approximately doubled.

Most migration occurred between developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The flow of migrants to advanced economic countries was claimed to provide a means through which global wages converge. The IMF study noted the potential for skills to be transferred back to developing countries as wages in those a countries rise. Lastly, the dissemination of knowledge has been an integral aspect of globalization. Technological innovations (or technological transfer) benefit most the developing and Least Developing countries (LDCs), as for example in the adoption of mobile phones.[21] History

Extent of the Silk Road and Spice trade routes blocked by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 spurring exploration Main article: History of globalization
See also: Timeline of international trade
There are both distal and proximate causes that can be traced in the historical factors affecting globalization. Large-scale globalization began in the 19th century.[10] Archaic
Main article: Archaic globalization
The German historical economist and sociologist Andre Gunder Frank argues that a form of globalization began with the rise of trade links between Sumer and the Indus Valley Civilization in the third millennium B.C.E.[5] This archaic globalization existed during the Hellenistic Age, when commercialized urban centers enveloped the axis of Greek culture that reached from India to Spain, including Alexandria and the other Alexandrine cities. Early on, the geographic position of Greece and the necessity of importing wheat forced the Greeks to engage in maritime trade. Trade in ancient Greece was largely unrestricted: the state controlled only the supply of grain. There were trade links between the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, and the Han Dynasty. The increasing commercial links between these powers took form in the Silk Road, which began in western China, reached the boundaries of the Parthian empire, and continued to Rome.[22] As many as three hundred Greek ships sailed each year between the Greco-Roman world and India.

Annual trade volume may have reached 300,000 tons.[23] By traveling past the Tarim Basin region, the Chinese of the Han Dynasty learned of powerful kingdoms in Central Asia, Persia, India, and the Middle East with the travels of the Han Dynasty envoy Zhang Qian in the 2nd century BC. From 104 BC to 102 BC Emperor Wu of Han waged war against the Yuezhi who controlled Dayuan, a Hellenized kingdom of Fergana established by Alexander the Great in 329 BC. Gan Ying, the emissary of General Ban Chao, perhaps traveled as far as Roman-era Syria in the late 1st century AD. After these initial discoveries the focus of Chinese exploration shifted to the maritime sphere, although the Silk Road leading all the way to Europe continued to be China’s most lucrative source of trade.

From about the 1st century, India started to strongly influence Southeast Asian countries. Trade routes linked India with southern Burma, central and southern Siam, lower Cambodia and southern Vietnam and numerous urbanized coastal settlements were established there. The Islamic Golden Age added another stage of globalization, when Radhanite (Jewish) and Muslim traders and explorers established trade routes, resulting in a globalization of agriculture, trade, knowledge and technology. Crops such as sugar and cotton became widely cultivated across the Muslim world in this period, while widespread knowledge of Arabic and the Hajj created a cosmopolitan culture.[24]

Portuguese carrack in Nagasaki, 17th century Japanese Nanban art

Native New World crops exchanged globally: Maize, tomato, potato, vanilla, rubber, cacao, tobacco The advent of the Mongol Empire, though destabilizing to the commercial centers of the Middle East and China, greatly facilitated travel along the Silk Road. The Pax Mongolica of the thirteenth century included the first international postal service, as well as the rapid transmission of epidemic diseases such as bubonic plague across Central Asia.[25] Up to the sixteenth century, however, the largest systems of international exchange were limited to southern Eurasia (an area where the Balkans and Greece interact with Turkey, Egypt, the Levant, Persia and the Arabian Peninsula, continuing over the Arabian Sea to India). Many Chinese merchants chose to settle down in the Southeast Asian ports such as Champa, Cambodia, Sumatra, Java, and married the native women. Their children carried on trade.[26][27] Italian city states embraced free trade and merchants established trade links with faraway places, giving birth to the Renaissance. Marco Polo was a merchant traveler[28] from the Venetian Republic in modern-day Italy whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book that played a significant role in introducing Europeans to Central Asia and China. The pioneering journey of Marco Polo inspired Christopher Columbus[29] and other European explorers of the following centuries. Proto-globalization

Main article: Proto-globalization
The next phase, known as proto-globalization, was characterized by the rise of maritime European empires, in the 16th and 17th centuries, first the Portuguese and Spanish Empires, and later the Dutch and British Empires. In the 17th century, world trade developed further when chartered companies like the British East India Company (founded in 1600) and the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602, often described as the first multinational corporation in which stock was offered) were established.[30] The Age of Discovery added the New World to the equation,[31] beginning in the late 15th century. Portugal and Castile sent the first exploratory voyages[32] around the Horn of Africa and to the Americas, reached in 1492 by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.

Global trade growth continued with the European colonization of the Americas initiating the Columbian Exchange,[33] the exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. New crops that had come from the Americas via the European seafarers in the 16th century significantly contributed to world population growth.[34] The Puritans migration to New England, starting in 1630 under John Winthrop with the professed mission of converting both the natives of North America to Puritan Christianity and raising up a “City Upon a Hill” that would influence the Western European world, is used as an example of globalization.[35]

Animated map showing the development of European colonial empires from 1492 to present

19th century Great Britain become the first global economic superpower, because of superior manufacturing technology and improved global communications such as steamships and railroads. Modern
In the 19th century, steamships reduced the cost of international transport significantly and railroads made inland transport cheaper. The transport revolution occurred some time between 1820 and 1850.[10] More nations embraced international trade.[10] Globalization in this period was decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism such as in Africa and Asia. Globalization took a big step backwards during the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Integration of rich countries didn’t recover to previous levels before the 1980s.[citation needed] After the Second World War, work by politicians led to the Bretton Woods conference, an agreement by major governments to lay down the framework for international monetary policy, commerce and finance, and the founding of several international institutions intended to facilitate economic growth multiple rounds of trade opening simplified and lowered trade barriers.

Initially, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), led to a series of agreements to remove trade restrictions. GATT’s successor was the World Trade Organization (WTO), which created an institution to manage the trading system. Exports nearly doubled from 8.5% of total gross world product in 1970 to 16.2% in 2001.[36] The approach of using global agreements to advance trade stumbled with the failure of the Doha round of trade-negotiation. Many countries then shifted to bilateral or smaller multilateral agreements, such as the 2011 South Korea–United States Free Trade Agreement. Since the 1970s, aviation has become increasingly affordable to middle classes in developed countries. Open skies policies and low-cost carriers have helped to bring competition to the market. In the 1990s, the growth of low cost communication networks cut the cost of communicating between different countries. More work can be performed using a computer without regard to location. This included accounting, software development, and engineering design. In late 2000s, much of the industrialized world entered into the Great Recession,[37] which may have slowed the process, at least temporarily.[38][39][40] Aspects

Global Competitiveness Index (2008-2009): competitiveness is an important determinant for the well-being of nation-states in an international environment Global business organization
Main article: International business
With improvements in transportation and communication, international business grew rapidly after the beginning of the 20th century. International business includes all commercial transactions (private sales, investments, logistics,and transportation) that take place between two or more regions, countries and nations beyond their political boundary. Usually, private companies undertake such transactions for profit.[41] Such business transactions involve economic resources such as capital, natural and human resources used for international production of physical goods and services such as finance, banking, insurance, construction and other productive activities.[42] International business arrangements have led to the formation of multinational enterprises (MNE), companies that have a worldwide approach to markets and production or one with operations in more than one country.

An MNE is often called multinational corporation (MNC) or transnational company (TNC). Well known MNCs include fast food companies such as McDonald’s and Yum Brands, vehicle manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Toyota, consumer electronics companies like Samsung, LG and Sony, and energy companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell and BP. Most of the largest corporations operate in multiple national markets. Businesses argue that survival in the new global marketplace requires companies to source goods, services, labor and materials overseas to continuously upgrade their products and technology in order to survive increased competition. International trade

Main article: International trade

Singapore, the top country in the Enabling Trade Index, embraced globalization and became a highly developed country An absolute trade advantage exists when countries can produce a commodity with less costs per unit produced than could its trading partner. By the same reasoning, it should import commodities in which it has an absolute disadvantage.[43] While there are possible gains from trade with absolute advantage, comparative advantage—that is, the ability to offer goods and services at a lower marginal and opportunity cost—extends the range of possible mutually beneficial exchanges. In a globalized business environment, companies argue that the comparative advantages offered by international trade have become essential to remaining competitive. Trade agreements, economic blocks and special trade zones

A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country’s typical or national laws. “Nationwide” laws may be suspended inside these special zones. The category ‘SEZ’ covers many areas, including Free Trade Zones (FTZ), Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Free Zones (FZ), Industrial parks or Industrial Estates (IE), Free Ports, Urban Enterprise Zones and others. Usually the goal of a structure is to increase foreign direct investment by foreign investors, typically an international business or a multinational corporation (MNC). These are designated areas in which companies are taxed very lightly or not at all in order to encourage economic activity. Free ports have historically been endowed with favorable customs regulations, e.g., the free port of Trieste. Very often free ports constitute a part of free economic zones.

A FTZ is an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities. Only when the goods are moved to consumers within the country in which the zone is located do they become subject to the prevailing customs duties. Free trade zones are organized around major seaports, international airports, and national frontiers—areas with many geographic advantages for trade.[44] It is a region where a group of countries has agreed to reduce or eliminate trade barriers.[45] A free trade area is a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free-trade agreement, which eliminates tariffs, import quotas, and preferences on most (if not all) goods and services traded between them. If people are also free to move between the countries, in addition to free-trade area, it would also be considered an open border. The European Union, for example, a confederation of 27 member states, provides both a free trade area and an open border.

A Billboard in Jakarta welcoming ASEAN Summit 2011 delegates. Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) are industrial parks that house manufacturing operations in Jordan and Egypt. They are a special free trade zones established in collaboration with neighboring Israel to take advantage of the free trade agreements between the United States and Israel. Under the trade agreements with Jordan as laid down by the United States, goods produced in QIZ-notified areas can directly access US markets without tariff or quota restrictions, subject to certain conditions. To qualify, goods produced in these zones must contain a small portion of Israeli input. In addition, a minimum 35% value to the goods must be added to the finished product. The brainchild of Jordanian businessman Omar Salah, the first QIZ was authorized by the United States Congress in 1997.

The Asia-Pacific has been described as “the most integrated trading region on the planet” because its intra-regional trade accounts probably for as much as 50-60% of the region’s total imports and exports.[46] It has also extra-regional trade: consumer goods exports such as televisions, radios, bicycles, and textiles into the United States, Europe, and Japan fueled the economic expansion.[47] The ASEAN Free Trade Area[48] is a trade bloc agreement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations supporting local manufacturing in all ASEAN countries. The AFTA agreement was signed on 28 January 1992 in Singapore. When the AFTA agreement was originally signed, ASEAN had six members, namely, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Vietnam joined in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999. Drug trade

In 2010 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that the global drug trade generated more than $320 billion a year in revenues.[49] Worldwide, the UN estimates there are more than 50 million regular users of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs.[50] The international trade of endangered species was second only to drug trafficking among smuggling “industries”.[51] Traditional Chinese medicine often incorporates ingredients from all parts of plants, the leaf, stem, flower, root, and also ingredients from animals and minerals. The use of parts of endangered species (such as seahorses, rhinoceros horns, saiga antelope horns, and tiger bones and claws) resulted in a black market of poachers who hunt restricted animals.[52][53] Tax havens

The ratio of German assets in tax havens in relation to the total German GDP.[54] The “Big 7” shown are Hong Kong, Ireland, Lebanon, Liberia, Panama, Singapore, and Switzerland. Main article: Tax haven

A tax haven is a state, country or territory where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all, which are used by businesses for tax avoidance and tax evasion.[55] Individuals and/or corporate entities can find it attractive to establish shell subsidiaries or move themselves to areas with reduced or nil taxation levels. This creates a situation of tax competition among governments. Different jurisdictions tend to be havens for different types of taxes, and for different categories of people and/or companies.[56] States that are sovereign or self-governing under international law have theoretically unlimited powers to enact tax laws affecting their territories, unless limited by previous international treaties. The central feature of a tax haven is that its laws and other measures can be used to evade or avoid the tax laws or regulations of other jurisdictions.[57] In its December 2008 report on the use of tax havens by American corporations,[58] the U.S. Government Accountability Office was unable to find a satisfactory definition of a tax haven but regarded the following characteristics as indicative of it: * nil or nominal taxes;

* lack of effective exchange of tax information with foreign tax authorities; * lack of transparency in the operation of legislative, legal or administrative provisions; * no requirement for a substantive local presence; and

* self-promotion as an offshore financial center.
A 2012 report from the Tax Justice Network estimated that between USD $21 trillion and $32 trillion is sheltered from taxes in unreported tax havens worldwide. If such wealth earns 3% annually and such capital gains were taxed at 30%, it would generate between $190 billion and $280 billion in tax revenues, more than any other tax shelters.[59] If such hidden offshore assets are considered, many countries with governments nominally in debt are shown to be net creditor nations.[60] However, the tax policy director of the Chartered Institute of Taxation expressed skepticism over the accuracy of the figures.[61] Daniel J. Mitchell of the Cato Institute says that the report also assumes, when considering notional lost tax revenue, that 100% money deposited offshore is evading payment of tax.[62] Information systems

Main article: Global information system
Multinational corporations face the challenge of developing global information systems for global data processing and decision-making. The Internet provides a broad area of services to business and individual users. Because the World Wide Web (WWW) can reach any Internet-connected computer in the world, the Internet is closely related to global information systems. A global information system is a data communication network that crosses national boundaries to access and process data in order to achieve corporate goals and strategic objectives.[63] Across companies and continents, information standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability at an economical cost.

For businesses, widespread adoption of international standards means that suppliers can develop and offer products and services meeting specifications that have wide international acceptance in their sectors. According to the ISO, businesses using their International Standards are competitive in more markets around the world. The ISO develops standards by organizing technical committees of experts from the industrial, technical and business sectors who have asked for the standards and which subsequently put them to use. These experts may be joined by representatives of government agencies, testing laboratories, consumer associations, non-governmental organizations and academic circles.[64] International tourism

Modern aviation has made it possible to travel long distances quickly. Main article: Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people “traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes”.[65] There are many forms of tourism such as agritourism, birth tourism, culinary tourism, cultural tourism, eco-tourism,extreme tourism, geotourism, heritage tourism, LGBT tourism, medical tourism, nautical tourism, pop-culture tourism, religious tourism, slum tourism, war tourism, and wildlife tourism Globalization has made tourism a popular global leisure activity. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that up to 500,000 people are in flight at any one time.[66] In 2010, international tourism reached $919B, growing 6.5% over 2009.[67]

In 2010, there were over 940 million international tourist arrivals worldwide, representing a growth of 6.6% when compared to 2009.[68] International tourism receipts grew to US$919 billion (€693 billion) in 2010, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 4.7%.[68] As a result of the late-2000s recession, international travel demand suffered a strong slowdown from the second half of 2008 through the end of 2009. After a 5% increase in the first half of 2008, growth in international tourist arrivals moved into negative territory in the second half of 2008, and ended up only 2% for the year, compared to a 7% increase in 2007.[69] This negative trend intensified during 2009, exacerbated in some countries due to the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, resulting in a worldwide decline of 4.2% in 2009 to 880 million international tourists arrivals, and a 5.7% decline in international tourism receipts.[70] Economic globalization

Main article: Economic globalization

Shanghai becomes a symbol of the recent economic boom of China. In 2011, China had 960,000 millionaires.[71] Economic globalization is the increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, service, technology and capital.[72] Whereas the globalization of business is centered around the diminution of international trade regulations as well as tariffs, taxes, and other impediments that suppresses global trade, economic globalization is the process of increasing economic integration between countries, leading to the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market.[73] Depending on the paradigm, economic globalization can be viewed as either a positive or a negative phenomenon. Economic globalization comprises the globalization of production, markets, competition, technology, and corporations and industries.[72] Current globalization trends can be largely accounted for by developed economies integrating with less developed economies, by means of foreign direct investment, the reduction of trade barriers as well as other economic reforms and, in many cases, immigration. As an example, Chinese economic reform began to open China to the globalization in the 1980s.

Scholars find that China has attained a degree of openness that is unprecedented among large and populous nations”, with competition from foreign goods in almost every sector of the economy. Foreign investment helped to greatly increase quality, knowledge and standards, especially in heavy industry. China’s experience supports the assertion that globalization greatly increases wealth for poor countries.[74] As of 2005–2007, the Port of Shanghai holds the title as the World’s busiest port.[75][76][77] Economic liberalization in India is the ongoing economic reforms in India that started in 1991. As of 2009, about 300 million people—equivalent to the entire population of the United States—have escaped extreme poverty.[78] In India, business process outsourcing has been described as the “primary engine of the country’s development over the next few decades, contributing broadly to GDP growth, employment growth, and poverty alleviation”.[79][80] Measures

Indices
Main article: Globalization Index
Measurement of economic globalization focuses on variables such as trade, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), portfolio investment, and income. However, newer indices attempt to measure globalization in more general terms, including variables related to political, social, cultural, and even environmental aspects of globalization.[81] One index of globalization is the KOF Index, which measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political.[82] 2010 List by the KOF Index of Globalization| 2006 List by the A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine| Rank| Country|

1| Belgium|
2| Austria|
3| Netherlands|
4| Switzerland|
5| Sweden|
6| Denmark|
7| Canada|
8| Portugal|
9| Finland|
10| Hungary|
| Rank| Country|
1| Singapore|
2| Switzerland|
3| United States|
4| Ireland|
5| Denmark|
6| Canada|
7| Netherlands|
8| Australia|
9| Austria|
10| Sweden|
|
Measuring free trade policies
Main article: Global Enabling Trade Report
The Enabling Trade Index measures the factors, policies and services that facilitate the trade in goods across borders and to destination. It is made up of four sub-indexes: market access; border administration; transport and communications infrastructure; and business environment. The top 20 countries are:[83] 1. Singapore 6.06 2. Hong Kong 5.70 3. Denmark 5.41 4. Sweden 5.41 5. Switzerland 5.37 6. New Zealand 5.33 7. Norway 5.32 8. Canada 5.29 9. Luxembourg 5.28 10. Netherlands 5.26| 1. Iceland 5.26 2. Finland 5.25 3. Germany 5.20 4. Austria 5.17 5. Australia 5.13 6. United Arab Emirates 5.12 7. United Kingdom 5.06 8. Chile 5.06 9. United States 5.03 10. France 5.02| Sociocultural globalization

Shakira, a Colombian multilingual singer-songwriter, playing outside her home country. Culture
Main article: Cultural globalization
Cultural globalization has increased cross-cultural contacts but may be accompanied by a decrease in the uniqueness of once-isolated communities: sushi is available in Germany as well as Japan, but Euro-Disney outdraws the city of Paris, potentially reducing demand for “authentic” French pastry.[84][85][86] Globalisation’s contribution to the alienation of individuals from their traditions may be modest compared to the impact of modernity itself, as alleged by existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Globalization has expanded recreational opportunities by spreading pop culture, particularly via the Internet and satellite television.

A McDonald’s in Osaka, Japan illustrates the McDonaldization of global society Religious movements were among the earliest cultural forces to globalize, spread by force, migration, evangelists, imperialists and traders. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and more recently sects such as Mormonism have taken root and influenced endemic cultures in places far from their origins.[87] Conversi claimed in 2010 that globalization was predominantly driven by the outward flow of culture and economic activity from the United States and was better understood as Americanization,[88][89] or Westernization. For example, the two most successful global food/beverage outlets are American companies, McDonald’s and Starbucks, are often cited as examples of globalization, with over 32,000[90] and 18,000 locations operating worldwide, respectively as of 2008.[91] The term globalization implies transformation. Cultural practices including traditional music can be lost and/or turned into a fusion of traditions.

Globalization can trigger a state of emergency for the preservation of musical heritage. Archivists must attempt to collect, record or transcribe repertoire before melodies are assimilated or modified. Local musicians struggle for authenticity and to preserve local musical traditions. Globalization can lead performers to discard traditional instruments. Fusion genres can become interesting fields of analysis.[92] Globalization gave support to the World Music phenomenon by allowing locally-recorded to reach western audiences searching for new ideas and sounds. For example, Western musicians have adopted many innovations that originated in other cultures.[93] The term was originally intended for ethnic-specific music, though globalization is expanding its scope; it now often includes hybrid sub-genres such as World fusion, Global fusion, Ethnic fusion[94] and Worldbeat[95][96]

A Coca-Cola stall outside the Grand Gateway 66 shopping mall in Xujiahui, Shanghai Music flowed outward from the west as well. Anglo-American pop music spread across the world through MTV. Dependency Theory explained that the world was an integrated, international system. Musically, this translated into the loss of local musical identity.[97] Bourdieu claimed that the perception of consumption can be seen as self-identification and the formation of identity. Musically, this translates into each being having his own musical identity based on likes and tastes. These likes and tastes are greatly influenced by culture as this is the most basic cause for a person’s wants and behavior. The concept of one’s own culture is now in a period of change due to globalization. Also, globalization has increased the interdependency of political, personal, cultural and economic factors.[98]

A 2005 UNESCO report[99] showed that cultural exchange is becoming more frequent from Eastern Asia but Western countries are still the main exporters of cultural goods. In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America’s and the European Union’s shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia’s cultural exports grew to surpass North America. Related factors are the fact that Asia’s population and area are several times that of North America. Americanization related to a period of high political American clout and of significant growth of America’s shops, markets and object being brought into other countries. So globalization, a much more diversified phenomenon, relates to a multilateral political world and to the increase of objects, markets and so on into each other’s countries. The Indian experience particularly reveals the plurality of the impact of cultural globalization (Biswajit Ghosh 2011 ‘Cultural Changes in the Era of Globalisation’, Journal of Developing Societies, 27 (2): 153-175). Multilingualism and the emergence of lingua francas

Main articles: Multilingualism, Lingua franca, and List of lingua francas Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world’s population.[100] Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness.[101] Thanks to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals’ exposure to multiple languages is getting more and more frequent, and triggering therefore the need to acquire more and more languages. A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.[102]

Today, the most popular second language is English. Some 3.5 billion people have some acquaintance of the language.[103] English is the dominant language on the Internet.[104] About 35% of the world’s mail, telexes, and cables are in English. Approximately 40% of the world’s radio programs are in English. Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual.[105] Language contact occurs in a variety of phenomena, including language convergence, borrowing, and relexification. The most common products are pidgins, creoles, code-switching, and mixed languages. Politics

Main article: Global politics

The United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
In general, globalization may ultimately reduce the importance of nation states. Sub-state and supra-state institutions such as the European Union, the WTO, the G8 or the International Criminal Court, replace national functions with international agreement.[106] Some observers attribute the relative decline in US power to globalization, particularly due to the country’s high trade deficit. This led to a global power shift towards Asian states, particularly China, which unleashed market forces and achieved tremendous growth rates. As of 2011, China was on track to overtake the United States by 2025.[107] Increasingly, non-governmental organizations influence public policy across national boundaries, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts.[108] As a response to globalization, some countries have embraced isolationist policies. For example, the North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they do. Aid workers are subject to considerable scrutiny and excluded from places and regions the government does not wish them to enter. Citizens cannot freely leave the country.