Unit 1: Historical and Contemporary
Overview of Globalization
Part 5: The Proponents
of Globalization
In the present, the
difference between the advocates and opponents of globalization
can seem very small, or it can seem irreducible. It depends
on which advocates and which opponents you’re talking
about. For example, among professional economists, there
is nearly universal agreement that, in theory, free trade
increases human welfare. But most economists also recognize
that the world does not quite live up to the frictionless
dream of theory. The difference is in the remedy. For hard-core
proponents of globalization (such as those at the Cato Institute),
the answer is more, freer markets, and patience. Boom follows
bust as night follows day for such people, and sooner or
later we will reap the gains from free trade. For those
who support free trade but are nonetheless skeptical about
the market left to its own devices, the answer is in prudent
governance—in allowing step-by-step liberalization,
for example, or building an international payments union
that would cushion against wild swings in currency or investment
flows.
In general, the proponents of globalization see free trade
as bringing with it many benefits: economic growth, higher
living standards, better healthcare, environmental protection,
lower production costs, increased efficiency, lower prices,
better quality, more jobs, technological progress, cultural
harmony, less conflict, and so on. How these ends are achieved
through the market we will see as we go along.
WEBSITE: For more about the benefits of
globalization, see The Cato Institute Center for Trade Policy
Studies (CTPS):
Cato Institute
http://www.freetrade.org/
Founded in 1977, the Cato Institute is a nonpartisan public
policy research foundation headquartered in Washington,
D.C. The Institute is named for Cato’s Letters, libertarian
pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for
the American Revolution. The Cato’s Center for Trade
Policy Studies (CTPS) seeks to increase public understanding
of the benefits of free trade.
WEBSITE: For information on the historical and
contemporary impacts of technological change on globalization
and arguments favoring the expansion of global markets,
go the to the MIT World website and watch “Fortune
Favors the Bold,”a one hour lecture by Lester Thurow,
Dean of the Sloan School of Business, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
“Fortune Favors the Bold”
http://mitworld.mit.edu/play/163/
