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The cultural globalization is the transmission of values, ideas, cultural and artistic expressions. Nowadays with the internet and all the fast ways of communications that we have, people can interact with each other with greater ease than ever before. Even people unable to travel can meet virtually people from other parts of the world and helps understand other cultures. Lifestyles can be influenced by worldwide consumption and cultural trends, then multiculturalism is a consequence of this cultural globalization. Indeed, it is now easy to have an access to new cultural products such as education, entertainment and art. The result is more people with a better understanding of values, attitudes and lifestyles from foreign countries and less stereotypes about other people and cultures. With the access to instant information from anywhere in the world we have the capacity to communicate fast and defend one’s values and ideals globally. Then globalization contribute to a “melting-pot” of different cultures and values by the adaptation of global cultural trends to local environments. Has Tyler Cowen said “Real cultural diversity results from the interchange of ideas, products, and influences, not from the insular development of a single national style.”

When we look at the globalization from every angle, economic, cultural and political, it is impossible not to see all the advantages of it. However, drawbacks of such homogenization of the world are numerous as well.

Drawbacks of the globalization

We have highlighted earlier the economic benefits of the globalization with free trade agreement such as the TPP, but it is necessary to show the other side of the mirror as well. Yes, it increased export by removing 18,000 tariffs placed on U.S. exports to the other countries. Yes, this agreement adds $223 billion a year to incomes of workers in all the countries, with $77 billion going to U.S. workers. But at the opposite PublicCitizen reported that since 1994 the free trade agreement deficit implies the loss of 1million American jobs and that a result would be wage losses for all except the richest 10% of US workers. That shows one main drawback of the globalization, it makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. “The income gap between the fifth of the world’s people living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 1990 and 30 to 1 in 1960” (UNDP, 1999). Indeed, to stay competitive on a worldwide market you will certainly delocalized your productions factory where the wages are lower to sell a cheaper product. That means that workers from the country of origin will lose their jobs and those new workers with lower wages will not get better conditions of living as they are often employed without any insurances. “Henry Ford was right. A prosperous economy requires that workers be able to buy the products that they produce. This is as true in a global economy as a national one.” - John J. Sweeney, Former President of the AFL-CIO. That create the social dumping debate around exploited child workers as well. Moreover, in terms of countries, some are unable to compete and really be part of the globalization dominated by the biggest countries and multinational companies are getting more and more power and are now able to bargain vis-à-vis local governments. It as well risky to build products abroad like in China as they can copy or stole it.

From a political point of view, a drawback could be the reduction of state sovereignty with the interconnectedness of nations and control organizations. Moreover, the decision process can be slowed-down by countries that have a veto right and the coordination can be difficult and expensive. Political globalization is also an accelerator of the conflicts between East and West. Some countries can get an excuse to have a weight in the management of other countries, even engage war or support terrorist organizations. In addition, the way international organizations are working is often seen as not democratic in terms of representation and accountability.

We know that globalization have an important cultural impact. With the erasure of borders and the access to instant information worldwide it brings people from different countries together as citizens of the world. But the risk is a cultural homogenization worldwide and the loss of specific cultural identities. Some says that we can see a westernization of the world, a cultural colonialism and therefore it reduces the amount of cultural diversity across the globe. They also say that values on things like sexuality are forced by on other countries by TV, American movies, music and so on… A simple example of that cultural imperialism could be McDonalds or Coca-Cola. It is possible to find those products everywhere in the world even deep down in Indonesia. There is a big spread of the model of the “society of consumption” worldwide which is not always good. From a different angle the free access to information let the opportunity to spread dangerous or violent ideals faster like ISIS ideas as well.

Conclusion

In this essay, we tried to highlight the pros and cons of the globalization by seeing for each the advantages and disadvantages in different fields such as economic, political and cultural. We have seen that both advantages and drawbacks are numerous and that globalization cannot be stopped but must be controlled.

‘Globalisation will make our societies more creative and prosperous, but also more vulnerable.’ (Lord Robertson). That quote is true in the way that, yes, our societies are more creative with all the advantages the cultural globalization can bring but not necessarily more prosperous. Indeed, the interdependence between countries can also make them weaker than before depending on how the trade market is doing. For instance, the U.S. trade deficit in goods with Japan was its second-largest in 2016, totaling $68.94 billion, according to new U.S. government data. So, yes it makes our societies more vulnerable as well that is a fact. Globalization is something that cannot be stopped, the same way that it is impossible to stop the sun to rise. That is why it is essential for all nations to control and create a globalization that are environmentally and socially pertinent. It is not the globalization by itself who create inequalities but the actors behind it. So, we can just wait and see what will happen next in this fast-changing era. Does the election of Donald Trump and his protectionist program will change the actual world order? Future will tell.

Bibliography

- Gomez-Dierks, R. (2001). Introduction to globalization.