Perspectives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Perspectives - Essay Example But if the actual origin of this concept is explored, it can be attributed to the discovery of the earth being a circle rather than a square. In fact, the spherical connotation wards of all the edges! The satellite pictures of the earth also show it as a unified area with patches of green and blue lending a symphony to its being. Even geology justifies the concept of 'global village'! But ponder before you get euphoric over this expression of rationality. The concept of globalization operates on near ideal conditions. These conditions rest on one major condition, subsequently. And the condition is that the whole world needs to have an access to this technology. And there lies the catch! Sitting in your Los Angeles office, you cannot even imagine the gravity of starvation and epidemic in so many Afro-Asian countries. When even basic needs are not met, who cares about Internet or satellite revolution Or in a more jargonistic way, who cares for or for that matter, even understands globalization. Globalization is an umbrella term that refers to increased interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural, political and ecological spheres. Theodore Levitt is credited with the first use of this term in the economic context. It is very important to understand globalization in the economic context and attribute its origin to the West and see its ramifications as embraced by other societies. Ours is an age of democracy. Democracy as a form of government, characterized by elections and the installation of a representative government, has been becoming a global phenomenon. The fall of the socialist world and domestic and global changes in Latin America, Africa and Middle East have brought democracy to places and shores where it was undreamt a few years ago, giving people a taste of freedom. But the globalization of democracy as a form of more of more legitimate representative government has not been accompanied by genuine efforts to tackle the problems of democracy (such as tension between equality and liberty, the dictatorship of majority, the actual as well as manufactured disinterest of the so-called electorate process resulting in as much as 50 per cent of them not fulfilling their constitutional obligation to vote) and to widen the universe of democracy in accordance with the historical changes taking place in social systems as well as in the light of desired agenda o f transformation. The first wave of globalization was initiated by the British Empire during 1870-1914, when the whole world was virtually inducted into the extensive international trading relationships. This era collapsed after the First World War. It is pertinent to note that finance was not an important segment of that era's economy. Globalization therefore remained restricted to the domain of trade and direct (physical) investment. In fact, it was only after 1980s that this term got introduced in America. It became internationally popular in the 90s after the fall of Berlin Wall. Capitalism was declared to have been the winner of the Cold War over communism with which it was believed by many to have been in competition for three-quarters of a century. Now it was sold by the great powers to the world as the superior economic system, by sheer virtue of having outlived its rival.