‘Globalisation is simply Americanisation in disguise.’ Discuss.
Globalisation can be viewed as ‘Americanisation in disguise’ for a number of reasons.
These include the following:
• The USA remains the world’s largest economy and so is deeply implicated in economic globalisation. The period of accelerated globalisation that commenced in the 1980s was linked to a significant improvement in the USA’s economic position relative to key rivals, notably Japan and Germany.
• Globalisation and free trade advance the interests of powerful states, and the USA in particular, by forcing other states to open up their market.
• Globalisation has been structured by ideological forces that have their origin in the USA. This is reflected in the extent to which the institutions of global economic governance support neoliberalism as dictated by the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’.
• Cultural globalisation is closely linked to the spread of ‘Americanisation’, in that a large proportion of global goods, films, television programmes and global celebrities are American in origin. Cultural homogenisation therefore facilitates the spread of US ideas, images and institutions.
However, globalisation is not just an ‘American game’. This applies for a number of reasons, including the following:
• Globalisation can be seen to benefit all states that participate in it, not just economically powerful ones such as the USA. This is reflected in the progress made in recent decades by newly industrial states and emerging powers.
• The US version of globalisation has been revealed as unsustainable by the global financial crisis of 2007-08, badly damaging, for example, the status of the dollar and the relative strength of the US economy.
• If accelerated globalisation benefited the USA in its early decades, since the 1990s it has increasingly benefited China, which is projected to overtake the USA in economic terms, perhaps by 2025. Globalisation can therefore no longer be viewed as simply Americanisation in disguise.
• The USA remains the world’s largest economy and so is deeply implicated in economic globalisation. The period of accelerated globalisation that commenced in the 1980s was linked to a significant improvement in the USA’s economic position relative to key rivals, notably Japan and Germany.
• Globalisation and free trade advance the interests of powerful states, and the USA in particular, by forcing other states to open up their market.
• Globalisation has been structured by ideological forces that have their origin in the USA. This is reflected in the extent to which the institutions of global economic governance support neoliberalism as dictated by the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’.
• Cultural globalisation is closely linked to the spread of ‘Americanisation’, in that a large proportion of global goods, films, television programmes and global celebrities are American in origin. Cultural homogenisation therefore facilitates the spread of US ideas, images and institutions.
However, globalisation is not just an ‘American game’. This applies for a number of reasons, including the following:
• Globalisation can be seen to benefit all states that participate in it, not just economically powerful ones such as the USA. This is reflected in the progress made in recent decades by newly industrial states and emerging powers.
• The US version of globalisation has been revealed as unsustainable by the global financial crisis of 2007-08, badly damaging, for example, the status of the dollar and the relative strength of the US economy.
• If accelerated globalisation benefited the USA in its early decades, since the 1990s it has increasingly benefited China, which is projected to overtake the USA in economic terms, perhaps by 2025. Globalisation can therefore no longer be viewed as simply Americanisation in disguise.