Capitalism refers to a situation where production methods as well funding of this production methods is maintained by private members of that company rather than means of wealth owned by the state. Globalization, on the other hand, refers to the increase of trade all over the world as a result of increased interaction between people, companies as well as governments of different nations. A relationship can be noted between globalization and world capitalism. According to Sklair (2002), although the current global system is not synonymous with the global capitalist system he regards specific features of world capitalism as driving forces of globalization. Global capitalism refers to a new phase of capitalism which can be characterized by globalized production and financial systems as well as the rise of transnational capitalist classes and transnational states (Robinson, 2014). This paper, however, focuses on some of these features of capitalism that have acted as driving forces of globalization other than the ones to mention by Sklair in his work Globalization: Capitalism and its Alternatives .
Globalization is taking a fast pace, and it has led to a profound transformation in economic and political systems in many countries. The emergence of global economies based on new methods of production and financing of transnational corporations can be noted as a major drive of the global economy. In a capitalistic economy, the market is free, and people are free to use their private property as they see fit to fund a business. This hence means that the government does not interfere. Although the Marxist theory claims capitalism exploits the poor in order to benefit, the rich, modern capitalism has been seen to benefit the poor people more than the rich. This is because the business people who are rich enough to fund this business help create jobs for the poor and as a result, the working class lives better lives. As a result, these business men have formed groups and agencies which have helped change capitalism and ensure that the social stratum of people. As a result, this fights to improve the social stratum; the government will also have to play a role in this stratum. Governments can do this by improving the lives of people through providing them with stable assets and the best good. As a result, they will lower protection in certain industries and certain clusters of people and therefore this will help drive globalization.
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In a capitalistic market, people are able to state their stand when it comes to issues such as racism and poverty. This is because in a capitalistic market everyone has a voice and can therefore air out their complaints. Small capitalist groups in the market feel free to put forward their visions. As a result, capitalism has helped improve political vision. As a result, politicians have started to consider free markets worldwide as well as free market activists and also privatization of some firms. Free market activists worldwide will help teach people about the importance of capitalism as well as improve trading. This interaction between the activists and people from all over the world will act as a driving force of globalization.
The rise of modern capitalism has also been seen to the decrease in infant mortality, and life expectancy has gone up. Many destructive forces of the physical environment have also been taken under control. Consequently, this has helped encourage people to travel worldwide. This also means that when people travel in different countries, they feel free to visit different villages within that country without fear of contracting diseases or facing hazardous conditions. As a result, when people visit different countries and explore different villages, they learn about different cultures and also different economies. This interaction will help encourage trades between different nations, and new business ideas may be created. This will, therefore, help improve globalization.
Finally, capitalism plays a major role in driving globalization as it has enabled people to access information that they were unable to access before. Before modern capitalism, governments were responsible for running corporations and funding them. There was, therefore, the monopoly of information and also of knowledge of things happening around the world by the government. This monopoly of enabled the government to control the people as well as fool them. Capitalism has changed all this, and people worldwide can get all the information they want from all the corners of the world. This has led to what is referred as to conscious globalization, and it acts as a driving force of worldwide globalization.
It is, therefore, clear from the essay above that Sklair was right to state that capitalism does play apart in driving globalization forward. Throughout the recent era of globalization, a lot of opposition has been experienced especially from the people who do not understand modern capitalism. Modern capitalism aims to liberate mankind as well as transcend national states. Although many scholars have put across the many disadvantages of capitalism, Berger (1987) has made it clear that socialists have the tendency of misrepresenting and distorting capitalism in his book The Capitalist Revolution. Capitalists have also made it clear that ever since the rise of capitalism in the 1980s, nations have experienced an increase in manufacturing output, and there has also been the rise of per capita income as a result of increased globalization. People should, therefore, try and adopt the modern aspects of capitalism if this helped improve people’s live globally and therefore act as a driving force of globalization.
References
Berger, P. (1987). The capitalist revolution : fifty propositions about prosperity, equality and liberty . Aldershot: Gower.
Robinson, W. (2014). Global capitalism and the crisis of humanity . New York City: Cambridge University Press.
Sklair, L. (2002). Globalization : capitalism and its alternatives . Oxford New York: Oxford University Press.
