What Is Globalization?

What is globalization?

As an introduction I would like to contextualize the definition and origin of this common term, Wikipedia the most visited encyclopedia defines it saying that “Globalization is international integration. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces”. From my point of view this concept was created by the need of the population to destroy barriers and frontiers to implement and promote a greater communication, to increase the level of commerce, to exchange cultures, food, and news.

This process was at the beginning slower than what it is nowadays, experts say that it is being faster every day, I think that the telecommunication industry is involved in the development of this new phenomenon, because it created the instruments to facilitate that communication or exchange that people was experimenting. For example was easier to know the consumer needs in foreign countries, with the TV, radio or telephones, for the greater offer and demand the prices of the different products have decreased through all these years.

Globalization is involved in each scope; economic, cultural, political, technological, among many others. But I want to focus this essay to one specific scope, the economical; the globalization in economy is defined like “the change towards a world economy with a greater level of integration and interdependence”. This change was promoted many years ago by the Bretton Woods agreement, and the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), two international institutions charged of promoting international commerce, reducing barriers of commerce, facilitating the expansion and implementation of the Globalization process.

Like any other unavoidable phenomenon it has its pros and contras, for the underdeveloped countries it is a difficult process, because the developed ones have many advantages, they are more competitive, have subsidies, they have a lot of the negotiation power, many resources, experience, and a very important factor they have the funds to invest in technology and new products, projects and education; and this is the main instrument used by the globalization, taking also into account the recent development of transportation, logistics, and infrastructure; the Panama channel is one of the examples of the imminent process of adaptation that the countries have to implement to be competitive and to compete for the markets what at the end becomes a fight by such.

But Globalization can also be seen as an opportunity for the developing countries to create a comparative advantage, create economies of scale in some products and gain competitiveness and progress. Globalization can also be a threat for the internal economy of one country because if is not prepared, the entrance of the huge multinationals, the free trade, and foreign direct investment can easily destroy the country’s industries and the whole economy, because of this reason each country has to make the necessary changes in its economy, laws, politics for not being surprised by the Globalization.

For many of these reasons some people have created groups against this process, but these intentions haven’t had any success because this is a necessary, unstoppable and unavoidable process or phenomenon. “The participants stand in opposition to the unregulated political power of large, multi-national corporations, as the corporations exercise power through leveraging trade agreements which damage in some instances the democracy rights of citizens, the environment particularly air quality index and rain forests, as well as national governments sovereignty to determine labor rights including the right to unionize for better pay, and better working conditions, or laws as they may