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Globalization refers to a number of trends towards a more interconnected world.

Trends towards globalization

Globalization may be identified with a number of trends, most of which have been particularly evident in the period since World War II. These include:

• An increase in international trade at a faster rate than the growth in the world economy
• Increase in the share of the world economy controlled by multinational corporations
• Greater international cultural influences, for example through exports of Hollywood movies
• Greater international travel and tourism
• Greater sharing of information, by the spreading of technology such as the Internet and telephone

Many of these trends are seen as positive by supporters of various forms of globalisation, and in many cases globalization has been actively promoted by governements and others. For example, there are economic arguments suggesting that free trade leads to a more efficient allocation of resources, with all those involved in the trade benefitting.

Barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered since World War II through international organisations such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Particular initiatives carried out through the GATT and its successor organisation, the World Trade Organisation have included:

• Promotion of Free trade
  • Of goods: reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zones with small or no tariffs.
  • Of capital: reduction or elimination of capital controls
  • Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses.
• Intellectual Property Restrictions
  • Harmonization of intellectual property laws across nations (generally speaking, with more restrictions)
  • Supernational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China would be recognized in the US)

The Anti-Globalization movement

Various aspects of globalization are seen as harmful by the Anti-globalization movement, a loose conglomeration of various protest movements.

There are common themes in the protests of many of these groups, opposing:

• the globalization of capitalism in the name of free trade
• what they see as the United States' economic and military domination of the world
• global corporatism displacing the power of national governments
• what they see as environmental catastrophe as a consequence of the above

Few of them seem to oppose the creation of a more interconnected world as such. However, many resent what they see as the imposition of a neo-liberal agenda by powerful western governments allied to multinational corporations and international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The aims of this agenda are alleged to include:

• Governmental Reforms (aka Structural adjustment)
  • Privatization of social services, such as health care or water supplies.
  • Imposition of "user fees" on remaining un-privatized services
  • Reductions in non-military governmental spending (e.g. pensions, welfare programs)
  • In poor countries (aka Third World Countries, Newly Industrializing Countries, or Developing Economies):
    • Encouragement of export crops over subsistence crops
• Elimination of labor and environmental restrictions

Members of the anti-globalization movement argue that this form of globalization leads to a "race to the bottom" as countries compete with one another on eliminating environmental and labor standards, and argue further that poor countries get caught in an ever-increasing debt trap, worsened by structural adjustment policies. Members of this movement tend to advocate for "globalization from below," which emphasizes elimination of restrictions on movement of humans, cross-border solidarity between workers, and world minimum standards on labor and environmental conditions.

See also:

• Continental trading bloc
• Free trade zone
• GATT
• International law
• Internet
• World Intellectual Property Organization