IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON AFRICA’S DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
Introduction
Globalization has taken the world by storm. No longer is a country an “island”
but part of a global community where integration draws people together from
different countries. Whether it has a positive or negative effect is still to be
debated. It could be a combination of the two different views.
Definition of globalization
According to Scholte, globalization is a process in which social relations acquire
relatively distanceless and borderless qualities so that human lives are
increasingly played out in a world as a single place. It is also viewed as the
integration of socioeconomic and political activities taking place across the
world. It makes national differences not only less sharp, but also less
consequential (important, significant).
Solving common problems
A positive impact of globalization is the approach to solve common problems
together. It usually takes a form of an international conference to look for
common approaches for common problems. These common problems could
be identified as global warming, aids, democracy, population growth,
economy, environment, poverty, terrorism and arms and drug trafficking.
Issues are solved across boundaries in individual states, making individual
nations and their citizens part of the wider world. In 2002, SA hosted the
World Summit for Sustainable Development. Also in 2002, there was a global
protest against the war against Iraq.
, Major impact in economic sphere
National economies have increasingly been integrated into a single, global
economy by international trade. Trade thus no longer respects national
boundaries. Globalisation is considered to be the most recent stage in the
expansion of capitalist production and capitalist markets.
The driving force behind international trade is wealthy western nations. Major
international organisations are the World Trade Org (WTO), Int Monetary Funt
(IMF) and the World Bank.
Initiative of democratization and globalisation
According to Osaghae, the initiative for democratization came from the people
of Africa. On the other hand, globalization is viewed to be an initiative of US to
entrench its dominance over the world. Globalization shifted the focus of
democratisation from Africa and Africans to the “benevolent” (well mening)
international community. International communities thus determines whether
or not the process was successful.
African economies
Activists from diverse organizations claim that wealthy nations were not acting
in good faith and are not considering the world’s poor nations. The biggest
fear is that Africa’s economies will be dominated by world markets during the
process of integrating Africa’s economies into the world economy for the quest
for a global economic system. It is viewed that poor African countries are too
vulnerable to benefit from generalised exposure to international market
forces.
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