Term Paper on Globalization in Africa

The Globalization is a particular way of defining the current era: as an age characterized by the homogenizing and alienating force of capitalist economic integration. The term has cultural connotations, suggesting, for instance, the rise of an international mass culture powered by new communication technology and the market's penetration into greater spheres of human activity. Globalization seeks to encompass allcountries into one economic unit, possibly without governments or borders.

Particularly after the 15th century, the various explorations, trading and colonizing countries of the West traversed East Indies, North America, South America and Africa in search of economic gains and empires usually at the expense of those with whom they made contacts, conquered or colonized. For example, it was at the Berlin (Germany) Conference of 1884 that the European powers partitioned Africa among themselves. Their political and economic domination of Africa assisted and complemented the Christian missionary evangelists and Islamic Crusaders who brought new and different cultures Goods and Gods into Africa. All these worldwide enterprises were globalization of a sort and were undertaken by almost the same groups of countries and races that are the main protagonists of today's globalization. Even though the present day globalization differs in scope, manner and intensity from these earlier international processes, like slavery, colonialism or religious fervor, it benefits the same powerful nations at the expense of more or less the same weak nations.

Click Here To View Top 3 Term Paper Sites

While each sovereign nation is trying to have a voice in international affairs on equal footing, not all countries are participating in the global economy on anything near an equal footing. This is because there are three regions in the world today, which emphasize and wish to impose globalization. They are the European Union, North America (USA and Canada), and the Pacific Rim countries. The dominance of these three Zones in the economy of the world and the direction in which they seek to lead the other countries of the world, has led some economists to say that they should not really be talking of globalization but of Trade throughout the world by the three regions.

The African continent remains marginal to almost all the major global trends. Particularly during the last three decades, the share of African countries in the global distribution of wealth and power has shrunk almost irretrievably. Whatever aspect one considers security, foreign investment, aid, trade, the information revolution, and skilled labor force Africa’s prospects give little cause for jubilation. While the dynamics of intense economic competition, technological advancement and economic integration were underway in much of the world in the past two decades; Africa’s economies and polities experienced one crisis after another. Not surprisingly, the short- and medium-term prospects for most African countries and peoples are depressing, while the challenges to be faced in order to survive are equally daunting. In order to arrest and reverse the scourge of marginalization and exclusion, Africans have to embrace fully the strategy of cooperation and integration as the premium mobile for sustainable social and economic development.

The individual country’s capacity to function effectively and sustaining is becoming increasingly compromised. Particularly since the late 1970s, the social and economic conditions on the continent have been widely rated as the most deplorable in the world.
 

In short, colonialism culminated in the distortion, disarticulation and underdevelopment of African economies and societies. State structures were severely deformed, dominant classes marginalized, and cultural forms perverted. As Deborah Brautigam (1994) notes, “most of today’s countries were totally new states at independence in 1960, and they were given the mantle of statehood without, in most cases, building a united nation. These new states had only a short period of time in which to learn how to manage complex bureaucracies before the economic crisis beginning in the middle to late 1970s caused virtual breakdown of the public sector”. Viewed retrospectively, the resultant political and social instabilities in Africa are largely attributable to colonial history.

In the economic realm, nationalist leaders came to preside over economies that had been grossly distorted to suit the needs of colonial powers. Health, education, science, government, law, rail and air transport, agriculture, and the financial sector were all-underdeveloped and designed to service the old colonial relationships rather than respond to the rising needs and expectations of the masses. Worse still, little attention had been given to preparing colonies for independence or even self-government. Human capital was poorly developed, especially in terms of technical and professional education, modern technologies, and physical infrastructure was grossly inadequate to enable Africa to put her economies on a stable growth path. Surprisingly, inadequate attention was paid by most African nationalist leaders to interrogate seriously the forms and content of inherited national economies, let alone to analyze the world economy within which these leaders were marginal players. Rather than seek to restructure the colonial foundations of inherited economies, post-independence African thinking continued to be trapped in an obsolete inter-national division of labor. It is also important to point out that, for all their rhetoric and pronouncements of idiosyncratic versions of socialism, African economies remained largely market economies of varying levels of control.

Click Here To View Top 3 Term Paper Sites

Addressing possible futures of Africa is admittedly full of pitfalls. Even though prediction techniques and instruments have been substantially developed, the future is, as ever, uncertain. The art of prediction is largely dependent on the assumption that certain conditions will remain constant, which in today’s rapidly changing world, they are unlikely to be. Nonetheless, in an attempt to construct and predict Africa’s futures, several assumptions have been made. We start with the assumption that the development pattern in the global political economy will be increasingly guided by the neo-liberal economic doctrine. It is also assumed that despite considerable diversification of economic links by African states in the last three decades since independence, Europe will remain the most significant economic partner for most of Africa. It should be briefly mentioned that Europe would strive to multi-lateralize its African relations largely through WTO. It is further assumed that African economies will not belong formally to any of the three major trading blocs. However, singly and/or collectively, African countries will be vertically integrated in EU and NAFTA markets through the post-Lomé Convention and Africa Growth and Opportunity Act arrangements respectively. As relatively weak actors in the prevailing international economic and political systems, the behavior of African states is likely to be reactive rather than proactive.

Economical Globalization of Liberia
Liberia is a very poor country whose market-based economy had yet to recover from the ravages of the 1989-1996 civil wars before the UN sanctions were imposed earlier this year. Average per capita income is estimated at US$ 170 - only a small fraction of the pre-war level - and the unemployment rate of 85 percent indicate that even this low number is unevenly allocated. Despite the country's rich natural resources and potential self-sufficiency in food, government officials and former combatants reportedly are exploiting these resources for personal benefit. The UN Security Council faces its classical dilemma when it comes to impose sanctions against a country; while they usually are a response to unacceptable government policies, the real victims of the sanctions are innocent, poor nationals. While there is little doubt warlord Charles Taylor's government responsibilities regarding the regional conflicts and civilian suffering, it is the Liberian population, only electing Taylor in an atmosphere of intimidation, which is most severely hurt by the UN sanctions.

Conclusion
In recent years some parts of Africa have made steps on the road to recovery. Gains in terms of liberalization and economic growth have been undermined by human development setbacks such as AIDS and civil strife. In some countries, liberalization appears to have come too soon, while in others export diversification has led to unprecedented growth. Regional integration may help to distribute the benefits of globalization while strengthening the response to the threats, and it is in the political interests of the international community’s globalizers to ensure that Africa begins to close the economic gap with the rest of the world.

Liberalization in much of Africa has not yet led to sustained and sufficient improvements in the quality of life of the continent’s people. Policies need to move beyond liberalization, therefore, and focus on boosting the supply-side of Africa’s economy. Growth-oriented strategies should be based on encouragement to domestic businesses and measures to attract beneficial foreign investment. Poor health, insecurity and corruption mar the region’s standing in the eyes of the rest of the world.

References

Beinart, Peter. Globalization and Africa: An Interpretation
Aluko, Sam, the Economic and Political Failure of Globalization in Africa. Nigeria
Afrol News. (Oct 31, 2001). Disagreement on UN Sanctions against Liberia
Rodney, W. (1972) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, London
Brautigam, D. (1994), “State Capacity and Effective Governance”, in B. Ndulu, and N. van de Walle (eds.), Agenda for Africa’s Economic Renewal. New Brunswick, NJ.
World Bank (1989), Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth. Washington, DC: The World Bank
Onimode, B. (1989), IMF, the World Bank and Africa’s Debt: The Economic Impact. London.
Streeten, P. (1998) “Globalization: Threat or Solution”, in A. Bhalla (ed.), Globalization, Growth and Marginalization. New York.
Ankie M. M. Hoogvelt. (1997), Globalization and the Postcolonial World: the New Political Economy of Development Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University; New York: Peter Lang, c2000.