|
|
Global Power Shifts—Not All Change Is Good
Nations are drifting more and more towards becoming one world, but the result will not be the utopia that many expect!
by Rod Hall
According to the United Nations, the
world is made up of 185 countries today. Some are huge nations and some
are tiny. Over the past half century, these basic units that make up our
world civilization have all become less dominant, less independent and
in many ways less separate than before. The world is converging toward
one global system. This is due to many individual factors including new
forces created by international economic interests, technological advances
and modern political and foreign policy strategies that are streaming
in separate powerful rivulets like mighty rivers converging toward a common
destination-one global community.
As it has become easier and cheaper to
move goods from one place to another, the lingering belief in national
self-sufficiency has weakened. Almost every country now buys from abroad
a larger proportion of what it consumes than it did 50 years ago and
a far bigger share of the world's capital is owned by multinational
companies, operating freely across national borders.
With this economic revolution comes a more
united yet unstable world. William Greider in his book One World
Ready or Not summarizes our rush to economic change. "Economic
revolution, similar to the impulse of political revolution, liberates
masses of people and at the same time projects new aspects of tyranny.
Old worlds are destroyed and new ones emerge. The past is up-ended
and new social values are created alongside the fabulous new wealth" (1997,
p. 11).
While Greider urges individual nations
to strive to regain some of their economic control, he also realizes
this is unlikely. "Economic difficulties are immense, but the real
question involved in stabilizing the globalized financial system is
about political power. Who shall govern these important matters, governments
or private markets? Finance capital wants government to get out of
the way and let the markets rule, but global capital needs old-fashioned
national governments much more than it acknowledges. If the nation-state
loses its authority to govern, who will protect the sanctity of property
rights or rescue capital owners in a market crisis? Without trustworthy
national governments, who will issue money that people can trust…?
Governments, in essence, must reclaim the governing obligations of
the nation-state from private markets… But it is the major
governments, of course, that are as yet unwilling to consider any measure
to moderate the effects of financial liberalization" (ibid., pp. 256,
317, 319).
Related Information on UCG Sites:
Other Articles by Rod Hall
Globalization:
Search Our Site
Key Subjects Index
General Topics Index
Biblical References Index
Good News Magazine Index
Booklets and All Literature Index
Home Page of this site
|
