The Hindu Business Line : Facts of globalisation

GLOBALISATION means different things to different people. There is a view that it is nothing beyond the dissemination of scientific knowledge and technical information throughout the world; and that it goes back to the 19th century, when trans-Atlantic telegraphic cables were first laid.

Around the same time, England was the context of a far-reaching experiment in social engineering. A new and novel market mechanics known as laissez faire, or the "free market" was floated. Some people assert that globalisation, as witnessed in the last quarter of the last century, was just an extension and corollary of the above experiment in England.

Which theory is nearer fact, and farther from fiction, is difficult to assert. Globalisation is sometimes associated with a trend towards homogeneity. But that is just what globalisation is not. Nothing can be nearer fiction. Global markets, in which capital and production move freely across national frontiers, function only because of the divergence and difference between places and nations.

Globalisation thrives on differences, and not on uniformity. If wages, skills, infrastructure, and political climes were to be the same everywhere, why would there be any need for an outreach into other markets in other countries?

Some economists consider that the free market surfaces only when the state gives up its economic suzerainty.

Nothing can be farther from the truth. Laissez faire is an artefact of the state. Free market can exist and subsist only with the active support of a strong state. The concept of freedom, in any context and in the ultimate analysis, is not independence; it is dependence. Despite its economic solidarity, globalisation has not tampered with the national ethos and culture of countries. There has been no imperialistic initiative, nor a totalitarian tendency in the content of its philosophy. Indeed, this is a significant fact about globalisation — that it is the achievement of an international partnership in trade and commerce, while retaining intact the political integrity and cultural heritage of the participating nations.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)

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