Democracy and Citizenship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Democracy and Citizenship - Essay Example Specifically, the form of globalization that characterizes the current economy is one that seeks to establish one universal, synthetic culture that is entirely open to capitalistic rigidness, while at the same time rejects and erodes the older, deeper culture and traditions of individual societies and peoples. This hurts the world at a local level, and is bad for the greater population—for this general reason, I support the community economy as an alternative. Harvey’s critique of the system that the world depends on today points out how neoliberalism and capitalism have affected what society’s priorities are. He says that countries using such a system â€Å"typically favor the integrity of the financial system†¦ over the well-being of the population or environmental quality† (Harvey 71). This is a concept that I fundamentally disagree with, as I see it as a violation of business ethics and a lack of concern for two things that are of utmost importanc e—human life, and the condition of the planet we inhabit. Harvey also describes how neoliberalism enforces a redistribution of resources. This redistribution, however, is not the type that is favored by more communal systems, such as Marxist theory, but instead works quite the opposite. While many people may be conditioned to believe that capitalism is completely naturally in allowing money and wealth to flow where it is earned, it can accurately be said that, just as socialism may redistribute resources to the poor according to need, the neoliberal system is a redistribution of wealth to the upper classes (Harvey 9). Beyond the manipulation of wealth, neoliberalism also robs the population of some of its sovereignty. While citizens entrust their government with basic functions and resources, neoliberalism encourages the government to redistribute those responsibilities and resources to private corporations (Harvey 77). This is, in a sense, taking power from the hands of the government, which represents the whole population, and placing it in the hands of the few who have a private interest in profit. Indeed, this is a complete contradiction in my view. Harvey’s critique continues along these lines. He highlights two particular misgivings about the current system, one being the capitalist fixation with technology as a solution for everything. In reality, he says, technology is tied to the destruction of the environment, social breakdowns, and crises (Harvey 69). The even greater problem, however, is that neoliberalism has become so ingrained in law and society that it has created an inescapable web, making it extremely difficult for society as a whole to undo what groundwork has been laid (Harvey 63). These all demonstrate the complete lack of consideration in the modern economy for the community, for local benefit, and for human happiness. I do not support such an approach, as I believe in having a consideration for the well-being of all people, in following the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do to you, and in promoting the concepts of liberty and happiness rather than an unequal socio-economic systems that brings wealth and power into the hands of the few. The benefits of the community economy, as an alternative to capitalism, are superfluous. Many movements exist already that are rooted in the community eco

World Trade Organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

World Trade Organization - Essay Example All of that changed abruptly in 1994, when, contradicting earlier gloomy predicts, the 'Uruguay Round' of trade negotiations under the GATT ended in strengthening the international trading system, but also with an agreement to establish the WTO. As the World Trade Organization (WTO) approaches its cherished goal of "international WTO-Membership', the areas of difference among members tend to widen. Also, it becomes extremely hard to settle the conflicting economic interests of the signatories. The question arise, does World Trade required the WTO This is the basic problem on which the problem of WTO reform hinges. World trade did not require the WTO to engorge seventeen times extra between 1948 and 1997, from $124 billion to $10,772 billion (WTO, 1998, pg. 12). This growth happened under the stretchy GATT trading system. The WTO's origin in 1995 did not act in response to a collapse or crisis of world trade such as happened in the 1930's. It was not essential for international peace, since no world war or trade-related war had happened during that phase. In the nine major inter-state wars that took place in that period-the Korean War of 1950-53, the Vietnam War of 1945-75, the Suez Crisis of 1956, the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the 1982 Falklands War, the Gulf War of 1990, Afghanistan war, and finally the Iraq ear-trade conflict did not figure even distantly as a cause. GATT was, actually, working sensibly well as a support for strengthening world trading system. Its proper dispute resolution system was supple and with its appreciation of the "special and differential status" of yet to be developed nations, it offered the space in an international economy for Third World nations to use trading strategy for growth and industrialization. Why was then WTO found following the 'Uruguay Round' of 1986-94 Of the main trading nations, Japan was in two minds, frightened as it was to defend its agriculture and its picky system of industrialized production that, through authorized and unauthorized means, gave its local manufacturers principal rights to use the domestic marketplace. The European Union, well on the way of becoming a independent trading community, was similarly hesitant, knowing that it's very sponsored system in agriculture would come beleaguered. Though demanding greater admittance to their created and agricultural products in the Northern economies, the rising nations did not perceive this as being achieved through a broad agreement imposed by a controlling trading system of government but through isolated negotiations and contracts in the model of the "Integrated Program for Commodities" (IPCs) and "Commodity Stabilization Fund" had the same opinion in the aegis of UNCTAD of late seventies. The beginning of the WTO served mainly the interest of the America. Just as it was the U.S. which stopped the beginning of the International Trade Organization (ITO) in 1948, when it believed that this wouldn't serve up its position of irresistible economic domination in the post-war world, so it was the U.S. that became the leading 'client' for the widespread Uruguay Round and the start of the WTO, when it sensed that more aggressive global circumstances had produced a condition where its business interests now required a contradictory stand. Just as it was the U.S.'s intimidation in the fifties to leave GATT if it wasn't permitted to uphold protecting means for milk