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Globalization or (globalisation) is the process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. Globalization is often used to refer to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.[1] This process is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political and biological factors.[2] The term can also refer to the transnational dissemination of ideas, languages, or popular culture.

[edit] Definitions
The term "globalization" has been used in the social sciences since the 1960s; however, the term did not achieve widespread use until the later half of the 1980s. An early description of globalization was penned by the American entrepreneur-turned-minister Charles Taze Russell who coined the term 'corporate giants' in 1897.[3] Since its popularization by economists and journalists in the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of globalization has inspired numerous competing definitions and interpretations. [4]

The United Nations ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour...although considerable barriers remain to the flow of labour...Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but its spread slowed during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inwardlooking policies pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries.. however, the pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century..."[5]

Saskia Sassen writes that "a good part of globalization consists of an enormous variety of micro-processes that begin to denationalize what had been constructed as national - whether policies, capital, political subjectivities, urban spaces, temporal frames, or any other of a variety of dynamics and domains."[6]

Tom G. Palmer of the Cato Institute defines globalization as "the diminution or elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result."[7]

Thomas L. Friedman has examined the impact of the "flattening" of the world, and argues that globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces have changed the world permanently, for both better and worse. He also argues that the pace of globalization is quickening and will continue to have a growing impact on business organization and practice.[8]

Noam Chomsky argues that the word globalization is also used, in a doctrinal sense, to describe the neoliberal form of economic globalization.[9]

Herman E. Daly argues that sometimes the terms internationalization and globalization are used interchangeably but there is a significant formal difference. The term "internationalization" refers to the importance of international trade, relations, treaties etc. owing to the (hypothetical) immobility of labor and capital between or among nations.

History
The historical origins of globalization are the subject of on-going debate. Though some scholars situate the origins of globalization in the modern era, others regard it as a phenomenon with a long history.

Perhaps the most extreme proponent of a deep historical origin for globalization was Andre Gunder Frank, an economist associated with dependency theory. Frank argued that a form of globalization has been in existence since the rise of trade links between Sumer and the Indus Valley Civilization in the third millenium B.C.[10] Critics of this idea point out that it rests upon an overly-broad definition of globalization.

Others have perceived an early form of globalization in the trade links between the Roman Empire, the Parthian empire, and the Han Dynasty. The increasing articulation of commercial links between these powers inspired the development of the Silk Road, which started in China, reached the boundaries of the Parthian empire, and continued onwards towards Rome. The Islamic Golden Age was also an important early stage of globalization, when Muslim traders and explorers established a sustained economy across the Old World resulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology. The advent of the Mongol Empire, though destabalizing to the commercial centers of the Middle East and China, created a greater integration along the Silk Road which permitted travelers such as Marco Polo to journey successfully (and profitably) from one end of Eurasia to the other. These pre-modern phases of global or hemispheric exchange are sometimes known as archaic globalization.

The sixteenth century witnessed a qualitative difference in the patterns of globalization because it was the first period in which the New World began to engage in substantial cultural, material and biologic exchange with Africa and Eurasia. This phase is sometimes known as proto-globalization. It was characterized by the rise of maritime European empires, particularly the Portuguese Empire, the Spanish Empire, and later the British Empire and Dutch Empire. It can be said to have begun shortly before the turn of the 16th century, when the two Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula - the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Castile, began to send exploratory voyages to the Americas and around the Horn of Africa. These new sea routes permitted sustained contact and trade between all of the world's inhabited regions for the first time.

Global integration continued through the expansion of European trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Portuguese and Spanish Empires colonized the Americas, followed eventually by France and England. Globalization has had a tremendous impact on cultures, particularly indigenous cultures, around the world. In the 15th century, Portugal's Company of Guinea was one of the first chartered commercial companies established by Europeans in other continent during the Age of Discovery, whose task was to deal with the spices and to fix the prices of the goods.

In the 17th century, globalization became a business phenomenon when the British East India Company (founded in 1600), which is often described as the first multinational corporation, was established, as well as the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602) and the Portuguese East India Company (founded in 1628). Because of the large investment and financing needs and the high risks involved with international trade, the British East India Company became the first company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership of companies through the issuance of shares of stock: an important driver for globalization.

Globalization was achieved by the British Empire (the largest empire in history) due to its sheer size and power. British ideals and culture were imposed on other nations during this period.

The 19th century is sometimes called "The First Era of Globalization." It was a period characterized by rapid growth in international trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and, later, the United States.

It was in this period that areas of sub-saharan Africa and the Island Pacific were incorporated into the world system. The "First Era of Globalization" began to break down at the beginning of the 20th century with the first World War. Said John Maynard Keynes[11],

“The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914. ”

The "First Era of Globalization" later collapsed during the gold standard crisis and Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

In early 2000s much of the industrialized world entered into a deep recession.[12] Some analysts say the world is going through a period of deglobalization after years of increasing economic integration.[13][14] Up to 45% of global wealth had been destroyed by the global financial crisis in little less than a year and a half.[15]

Modern globalization
Globalization, since World War II, is largely the result of planning by politicians to breakdown borders hampering trade to increase prosperity and interdependence thereby decreasing the chance of future war. Their work led to the Bretton Woods conference, an agreement by the world's leading politicians to lay down the framework for international commerce and finance, and the founding of several international institutions intended to oversee the processes of globalization.

These institutions include the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund. Globalization has been facilitated by advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on free trade.

Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - GATT. Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included:

Promotion of free trade:
elimination of tariffs; creation of free trade zones with small or no tariffs
Reduced transportation costs, especially resulting from development of containerization for ocean shipping.
Reduction or elimination of capital controls
Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses
Creation of subsidies for global corporations
Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with more restrictions
Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China would be recognized in the United States)
Cultural globalization, driven by communication technology and the worldwide marketing of Western cultural industries, was understood at first as a process of homogenization, as the global domination of American culture at the expense of traditional diversity. However, a contrasting trend soon became evident in the emergence of movements protesting against globalization and giving new momentum to the defense of local uniqueness, individuality, and identity, but largely without success. [16]

The Uruguay Round (1986 to 1994)[17] led to a treaty to create the WTO to mediate trade disputes and set up a uniform platform of trading. Other bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade.

World exports rose from 8.5% of gross world product in 1970 to 16.1% of gross world product in 2001. [6]

Measuring globalization
Looking specifically at economic globalization, demonstrates that it can be measured in different ways. These center around the four main economic flows that characterize globalization:

Goods and services, e.g. exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population
Labor/people, e.g. net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population
Capital, e.g. inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population
Technology, e.g. international research & development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband)
As globalization is not only an economic phenomenon, a multivariate approach to measuring globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank KOF. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data is available on a yearly basis for 122 countries, as detailed in Dreher, Gaston and Martens (2008).[18] According to the index, the world's most globalized country is Belgium, followed by Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Haiti, Myanmar the Central African Republic and Burundi.[19]

A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy Magazine jointly publish another Globalization Index. According to the 2006 index, Singapore, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark are the most globalized, while Indonesia, India and Iran are the least globalized among countries listed.

Effects of globalization
Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as:

Industrial - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies. Particularly movement of material and goods between and within national boundaries.[citation needed]
Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for borrowers. As these worldwide structures grew more quickly than any transnational regulatory regime, the instability of the global financial infrastructure dramatically increased, as evidenced by the financial crises of late 2008.[citation needed]
Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital. The interconnectedness of these markets, however meant that an economic collapse in any one given country could not be contained.[citation needed]
Political - some use "globalization" to mean the creation of a world government which regulates the relationships among governments and guarantees the rights arising from social and economic globalization. [20] Politically, the United States has enjoyed a position of power among the world powers; in part because of its strong and wealthy economy. With the influence of globalization and with the help of The United States’ own economy, the People's Republic of China has experienced some tremendous growth within the past decade. If China continues to grow at the rate projected by the trends, then it is very likely that in the next twenty years, there will be a major reallocation of power among the world leaders. China will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the United States for the position of leading world power.[21]
Informational - increase in information flows between geographically remote locations. Arguably this is a technological change with the advent of fibre optic communications, satellites, and increased availability of telephone and Internet.
Language - the most popular language is English.[22]
About 35% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English.
Approximately 40% of the world's radio programs are in English.
About 50% of all Internet traffic uses English.[23]
Competition - Survival in the new global business market calls for improved productivity and increased competition. Due to the market becoming worldwide, companies in various industries have to upgrade their products and use technology skillfully in order to face increased competition.[24]
Ecological - the advent of global environmental challenges that might be solved with international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Since many factories are built in developing countries with less environmental regulation, globalism and free trade may increase pollution. On the other hand, economic development historically required a "dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that developing countries should not, via regulation, be prohibited from increasing their standard of living.
Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture". Some bemoan the resulting consumerism and loss of languages. Also see Transformation of culture.
Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies). Some consider such "imported" culture a danger, since it may supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation. Others consider multiculturalism to promote peace and understanding between peoples.
Greater international travel and tourism. WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time.[25]
Greater immigration, including illegal immigration
Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture).
Worldwide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace. Accessible to those who have Internet or Television, leaving out a substantial segment of the Earth's population.
Worldwide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Incorporation of multinational corporations in to new media. As the sponsors of the All-Blacks rugby team, Adidas had created a parallel website with a downloadable interactive rugby game for its fans to play and compete.[26]
Social - development of the system of non-governmental organisations as main agents of global public policy, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts.[27]
Technical
Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater transborder data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones
Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g. copyright laws, patents and world trade agreements.
Legal/Ethical
The creation of the international criminal court and international justice movements.
Crime importation and raising awareness of global crime-fighting efforts and cooperation.
The emergence of Global administrative law.

Cultural effects
The internet breaks down cultural boundaries across the world by enabling easy, near-instantaneous communication between people anywhere in a variety of digital forms and media. The Internet is associated with the process of cultural globalization because it allows interaction and communication between people with very different lifestyles and from very different cultures. Photo sharing websites allow interaction even where language would otherwise be a barrier.

Someone in America can be eating Japanese noodles for lunch while someone in Sydney Australia is eating classic Italian meatballs. One classic culture aspect is food. India is known for their curry and exotic spices. Paris is known for its cheeses. America is known for its burgers and fries. McDonalds was once an American favorite with its cheery mascot, Ronald, red and yellow theme, and greasy fast food. Now it is a global enterprise with 31,000 locations worldwide with locations in Kuwait, Egypt, and Malta. This restaurant is just one example of food going big on the global scale.

Meditation has been a sacred practice for centuries in Indian culture. It calms the body and helps one connect to their inner being while shying away from their conditioned self. Before globalization Americans did not meditate or practice yoga. After globalization this is a common practice, it is even considered a chic way to keep your body in shape. Some people are even traveling to India to get the full experience themselves. Another common practice brought about by globalization would be Chinese symbol tattoos. These specific tattoos are a huge hit with today’s younger generation and are quickly becoming the norm. With the melding of cultures using another country's language in one's body art is now considered normal.

Culture is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these activities significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold, and activities they practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and made it into something different. As Erla Zwingle, from the National Geographic article titled “Globalization” states, “When cultures receive outside influences, they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start to transform them.”[28]

Negative effects
It is too easy to look at the positive aspects of Globalization and the great benefits that are apparent everywhere, without acknowledging several negative aspects. They are often the result of globalized corporations and the delocalization of economies that were once self-sustaining.

Globalization–the growing integration of economies and societies around the world–has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in international economics over the past few years. Rapid growth and poverty reduction in China, India, and other countries that were poor 20 years ago, has been a positive aspect of globalization. But globalization has also generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality and environmental degradation.[29] In the Midwestern United States, globalization has eaten away at its competitive edge in industry and agriculture, lowering the quality of life in locations that have not adapted to the change.[30]

Sweatshops
It can be said that globalization is the door that opens up an otherwise resource poor country to the international market. Where a country or nation has little material or physical product harvested or mined from its own soil, an opportunity is seen by large corporations to take advantage of the “export poverty” of such a nation. Where the majority of the earliest occurrences of economic globalization are recorded as being the expansion of businesses and corporate growth, in many poorer nations globalization is actually the result of the foreign businesses investing in the country to take advantage of the lower wage rate: even though investing, by increasing the Capital Stock of the country, increases their wage rate.

One example used by anti-globalization protestors is the use of sweatshops by manufacturers. According to Global Exchange these “Sweat Shops” are widely used by sports shoe manufacturers and mentions one company in particular – Nike.[31] There are factories set up in the poor countries where employees agree to work for low wages. Then if labour laws alter in those countries and stricter rules govern the manufacturing process the factories are closed down and relocated to other nations with more conservative, laissez-faire economic policies.[citation needed]

There are several agencies that have been set up worldwide specifically designed to focus on anti-sweatshop campaigns and education of such. In the USA, the National Labor Committee has proposed a number of bills as part of the The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act, which have thus far failed in Congress. The legislation would legally require companies to respect human and worker rights by prohibiting the import, sale, or export of sweatshop goods. [32]

Specifically, these core standards include no child labor, no forced labor, freedom of association, right to organize and bargain collectively, as well as the right to decent working conditions. [33]

Tiziana Terranova has stated that globalization has brought a culture of "free labour". In a digital sense, it is where the individuals (contributing capital) exploits and eventually "exhausts the means through which labour can sustain itself". For example, in the area of digital media (animations, hosting chat rooms, designing games), where it is often less glamourous than it may sound. In the gaming industry, a Chinese Gold Market has been established. [34]

Financial clashes of interest
Alan Greenspan has proclaimed himself "shocked" that "the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity" proved to be an illusion... The Reagan-Thatcher model, which favored finance over domestic manufacturing, has collapsed. ... The mutually reinforcing rise of financialization and globalization broke the bond between American capitalism and America's interests. ...we should take a cue from Scandinavia's social capitalism, which is less manufacturing-centered than the German model. The Scandinavians have upgraded the skills and wages of their workers in the retail and service sectors—the sectors that employ the majority of our own workforce. In consequence, fully employed impoverished workers, of which there are millions in the United States, do not exist in Scandinavia.[35]

Pro-globalization (globalism) 
Globalization advocates such as Jeffrey Sachs point to the above average drop in poverty rates in countries, such as China, where globalization has taken a strong foothold, compared to areas less affected by globalization, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty rates have remained stagnant.[36]Supporters of free trade claim that it increases economic prosperity as well as opportunity, especially among developing nations, enhances civil liberties and leads to a more efficient allocation of resources. Economic theories of comparative advantage suggest that free trade leads to a more efficient allocation of resources, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. In general, this leads to lower prices, more employment, higher output and a higher standard of living for those in developing countries.[36][37]

One of the ironies of the recent success of India and China is the fear that... success in these two countries comes at the expense of the United States. These fears are fundamentally wrong and, even worse, dangerous. They are wrong because the world is not a zero-sum struggle... but rather is a positive-sum opportunity in which improving technologies and skills can raise living standards around the world.

—Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty, 2005
Dr. Francesco Stipo, Director of the USA Club of Rome suggests that “the world government should reflect the political and economic balances of world nations. A world confederation would not supersede the authority of the State governments but rather complement it, as both the States and the world authority would have power within their sphere of competence". [38]

Proponents of laissez-faire capitalism, and some Libertarians, say that higher degrees of political and economic freedom in the form of democracy and capitalism in the developed world are ends in themselves and also produce higher levels of material wealth. They see globalization as the beneficial spread of liberty and capitalism. [36]

Supporters of democratic globalization are sometimes called pro-globalists. They believe that the first phase of globalization, which was market-oriented, should be followed by a phase of building global political institutions representing the will of world citizens. The difference from other globalists is that they do not define in advance any ideology to orient this will, but would leave it to the free choice of those citizens via a democratic process[citation needed].

Some, such as former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, O.C., simply view globalization as inevitable and advocate creating institutions such as a directly-elected United Nations Parliamentary Assembly to exercise oversight over unelected international bodies.

Supporters of globalization argue that the anti-globalization movement uses anecdotal evidence[citation needed] to support their protectionist view, whereas worldwide statistics strongly support globalization:

From 1981 to 2001, according to World Bank figures, the number of people living on $1 a day or less declined from 1.5 billion to 1.1 billion in absolute terms. At the same time, the world population increased, so in percentage terms the number of such people in developing nations declined from 40% to 20% of the population.[39] with the greatest improvements occurring in economies rapidly reducing barriers to trade and investment; yet, some critics argue that more detailed variables measuring poverty should be studied instead [40].
The percentage of people living on less than $2 a day has decreased greatly in areas affected by globalization, whereas poverty rates in other areas have remained largely stagnant. In East-Asia, including China, the percentage has decreased by 50.1% compared to a 2.2% increase in Sub-Saharan Africa.[37]
Due to definitional issues and data availability, there is disagreement with regards to the pace of the decline in extreme poverty. As noted below, there are others disputing this. The economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin in a 2007 analysis argues that this is incorrect, income inequality for the world as a whole has diminished. [7]. Regardless of who is right about the past trend in income inequality, it has been argued that improving absolute poverty is more important than relative inequality. [8]
Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since World War II and is starting to close the gap between itself and the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, the least developed region, life expectancy increased from 30 years before World War II to about a peak of about 50 years before the AIDS pandemic and other diseases started to force it down to the current level of 47 years. Infant mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.[41]
Democracy has increased dramatically from there being almost no nations with universal suffrage in 1900 to 62.5% of all nations having it in 2000.[42]
Feminism has made advances in areas such as Bangladesh through providing women with jobs and economic safety.[36]
The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s.[43]
Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000.[44]
There are increasing trends in the use of electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as a growing proportion of the population with access to clean water.[45]
The book The Improving State of the World also finds evidence for that these, and other, measures of human well-being has improved and that globalization is part of the explanation. It also responds to arguments that environmental impact will limit the progress.
Although critics of globalization complain of Westernization, a 2005 UNESCO report[46] showed that cultural exchange is becoming mutual. In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's and the European Union's shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia's cultural exports grew to surpass North America.

Anti-globalization
Main article: Anti-globalization movement
The Anti-globalization movement is a term used to describe the political group who oppose the neoliberal version of globalization, while criticisms of globalization are some of the reasons used to justify this groups stance.

"Anti-globalization" may also involve the process or actions taken by a state in order to demonstrate its sovereignty and practice democratic decision-making. Anti-globalization may occur in order to maintain barriers to the international transfer of people, goods and beliefs, particularly free market deregulation, encouraged by organizations such as the IMF or the WTO. Moreover, as Naomi Klein argues in her book No Logo anti-globalism can denote either a single social movement or an umbrella term that encompasses a number of separate social movements [47] such as Nationalists and socialists. In either case, participants stand in opposition to the unregulated political power of large, multi-national corporations, as the corporations exercise power through leveraging trade agreements which in some instances damage the democratic rights of citizens[citation needed], the environment particularly air quality index and rain forests[citation needed], as well as national government's sovereignty to determine labor rights,[citation needed] including the right to form a union, and health and safety legislation, or laws as they may otherwise infringe on cultural practices and traditions of developing countries.[citation needed]

Some people who are labeled "anti-globalist" or "sceptics" (Hirst and Thompson)[48] consider the term to be too vague and inaccurate [49][50]. Podobnik states that "the vast majority of groups that participate in these protests draw on international networks of support, and they generally call for forms of globalization that enhance democratic representation, human rights, and egalitarianism."

Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton write[51]:

“The anti-globalization movement developed in opposition to the perceived negative aspects of globalization. The term 'anti-globalization' is in many ways a misnomer, since the group represents a wide range of interests and issues and many of the people involved in the anti-globalization movement do support closer ties between the various peoples and cultures of the world through, for example, aid, assistance for refugees, and global environmental issues. ”

Some members aligned with this viewpoint prefer instead to describe themselves as the Global Justice Movement, the Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement, the Movement of Movements (a popular term in Italy), the "Alter-globalization" movement (popular in France), the "Counter-Globalization" movement, and a number of other terms.

Critiques of the current wave of economic globalization typically look at both the damage to the planet, in terms of the perceived unsustainable harm done to the biosphere, as well as the perceived human costs, such as poverty, inequality, miscegenation, injustice and the erosion of traditional culture which, the critics contend, all occur as a result of the economic transformations related to globalization. They challenge directly the metrics, such as GDP, used to measure progress promulgated by institutions such as the World Bank, and look to other measures, such as the Happy Planet Index,[52] created by the New Economics Foundation[53]. They point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequences--social disintegration, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment, the spread of new diseases, increasing poverty and alienation"[54] which they claim are the unintended but very real consequences of globalization.

The terms globalization and anti-globalization are used in various ways. Noam Chomsky believes that[55][56]

“The term "globalization" has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to a specific form of international economic integration, one based on investor rights, with the interests of people incidental. That is why the business press, in its more honest moments, refers to the "free trade agreements" as "free investment agreements" (Wall St. Journal). Accordingly, advocates of other forms of globalization are described as "anti-globalization"; and some, unfortunately, even accept this term, though it is a term of propaganda that should be dismissed with ridicule. No sane person is opposed to globalization, that is, international integration. Surely not the left and the workers movements, which were founded on the principle of international solidarity - that is, globalization in a form that attends to the rights of people, not private power systems. ”
“ The dominant propaganda systems have appropriated the term "globalization" to refer to the specific version of international economic integration that they favor, which privileges the rights of investors and lenders, those of people being incidental. In accord with this usage, those who favor a different form of international integration, which privileges the rights of human beings, become "anti-globalist." This is simply vulgar propaganda, like the term "anti-Soviet" used by the most disgusting commissars to refer to dissidents. It is not only vulgar, but idiotic. Take the World Social Forum, called "anti-globalization" in the propaganda system -- which happens to include the media, the educated classes, etc., with rare exceptions. The WSF is a paradigm example of globalization. It is a gathering of huge numbers of people from all over the world, from just about every corner of life one can think of, apart from the extremely narrow highly privileged elites who meet at the competing World Economic Forum, and are called "pro-globalization" by the propaganda system. An observer watching this farce from Mars would collapse in hysterical laughter at the antics of the educated classes. ”

Critics argue that:

Poorer countries suffering disadvantages: While it is true that globalization encourages free trade among countries, there are also negative consequences because some countries try to save their national markets. The main export of poorer countries is usually agricultural goods. Larger countries often subsidise their farmers (like the EU Common Agricultural Policy, which lowers the market price for the poor farmer's crops compared to what it would be under free trade.[57]
Exploitation of foreign impoverished workers: The deterioration of protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labor. Due to the lack of protections, companies from powerful industrialized nations are able to offer workers enough salary to entice them to endure extremely long hours and unsafe working conditions, though economists question if consenting workers in a competitive employers' market can be decried as "exploited". It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in many poorer countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and possible even his/her family if their previous jobs were unavailable.[58]
The shift to outsourcing: The low cost of offshore workers have enticed corporations to buy goods and services from foreign countries. The laid off manufacturing sector workers are forced into the service sector where wages and benefits are low, but turnover is high .[citation needed] This has contributed to the deterioration of the middle class[citation needed] which is a major factor in the increasing economic inequality in the United States .[citation needed] Families that were once part of the middle class are forced into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to another country. This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a stepping stone. [59]
Weak labor unions: The surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever growing number of companies in transition has caused a weakening of labor unions in the United States. Unions lose their effectiveness when their membership begins to decline. As a result unions hold less power over corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for lower wages, and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore. [57]
Increase exploitation of child labor: for example, a country that experiencing increases in labor demand because of globalization and an increase the demand for goods produced by children, will experience greater a demand for child labor. This can be "hazardous" or “exploitive”, e.g. quarrying, salvage, cash croping but also includes the trafficking of children, children in bondage or forced labor, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities.[60]
In December 2007, World Bank economist Branko Milanovic has called much previous empirical research on global poverty and inequality into question because, according to him, improved estimates of purchasing power parity indicate that developing countries are worse off than previously believed. Milanovic remarks that "literally hundreds of scholarly papers on convergence or divergence of countries’ incomes have been published in the last decade based on what we know now were faulty numbers." With the new data, possibly economists will revise calculations, and he also believed that there are considerable implications estimates of global inequality and poverty levels. Global inequality was estimated at around 65 Gini points, whereas the new numbers indicate global inequality to be at 70 on the Gini scale. [61] It is unsurprising that the level of international inequality is so high, as larger sample spaces almost always give a higher level of inequality.

The critics of globalization typically emphasize that globalization is a process that is mediated according to corporate interests, and typically raise the possibility of alternative global institutions and policies, which they believe address the moral claims of poor and working classes throughout the globe, as well as environmental concerns in a more equitable way.[62]

The movement is very broad[citation needed], including church groups, national liberation factions, peasant unionists, intellectuals, artists, protectionists, anarchists, those in support of relocalization and others. Some are reformist, (arguing for a more moderate form of capitalism) while others are more revolutionary (arguing for what they believe is a more humane system than capitalism) and others are reactionary, believing globalization destroys national industry and jobs.

One of the key points made by critics of recent economic globalization is that income inequality, both between and within nations, is increasing as a result of these processes. One article from 2001 found that significantly, in 7 out of 8 metrics, income inequality has increased in the twenty years ending 2001. Also, "incomes in the lower deciles of world income distribution have probably fallen absolutely since the 1980s". Furthermore, the World Bank's figures on absolute poverty were challenged. The article was skeptical of the World Bank's claim that the number of people living on less than $1 a day has held steady at 1.2 billion from 1987 to 1998, because of biased methodology.[63]

A chart that gave the inequality a very visible and comprehensible form, the so-called 'champagne glass' effect,[64] was contained in the 1992 United Nations Development Program Report, which showed the distribution of global income to be very uneven, with the richest 20% of the world's population controlling 82.7% of the world's income.[65]

Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade benefits those with more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the poor.[67]

Americanization related to a period of high political American clout and of significant growth of America's shops, markets and object being brought into other countries. So globalization, a much more diversified phenomenon, relates to a multilateral political world and to the increase of objects, markets and so on into each others countries.

Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as the promotion of corporatist interests.[68] They also claim that the increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities shapes the political policy of countries.[69][70]

全球化定义
　　全球化是20世纪80年代以来在世界范围日益凸现的新现象，是当今时代的基本特征。

　　全球化还没有统一的定义，一般讲，从物质形态看，全球化是指货物与资本的越境流动，经历了跨国化、局部的国际化以及全球化这几个发展阶段。货物与资本的跨国流动是全球化的最初形态。在此过程中，出现了相应的地区性、国际性的经济管理组织与经济实体，以及文化、生活方式、价值观念、意识形态等精神力量的跨国交流、碰撞、冲突与融合。

　　总的来看，全球化是一个以经济全球化为核心、包含各国各民族各地区在政治、文化、科技、军事、安全、意识形态、生活方式、价值观念等多层次、多领域的相互联系、影响、制约的多元概念。“全球化”可概括为科技、经济、政治、法治、管理、组织、文化、思想观念、人际交往、国际关系十个方面的全球化。

　　同时，全球化是个具有煽动性的词。拥护者憧憬它会给整个世界带来空前的进步和繁荣；批评者断言它会给发展中国家带来贫困、战争甚至文化灭绝。

全球化带来什么
　　无论我们是否处在一个空前的全球化过程里，以往的经验都具有启发性。全球化的历史经验可以分成四大类：道义问题；收益问题；趋同与逐异问题；国际主义与民族主义问题。而以下四个全球化特征正对应着这四个问题。

　　1、缺少法治道义的全球化

　　任何国家内部的市场化都是随着法治环境的逐渐成熟而成熟的。国际的市场化却不是在法治环境下进行的，也就不可能“成熟”。只要缺少世界政府，所谓国际市场的法治化是根本不可能的。当立法、司法和执法都归于一家，只有理想主义者才去奢望公平，也只有那些最有能力从不公平中获利的国家才去奢谈国际秩序有多公平。如果没有全球的法治政府，所谓“全球治理”（global governance）就不可能是体现国际公义的治理。

　　2、无法预知国家损益的全球化

　　抽象谈论在全球化中获益或受损的条件非常困难。强国、弱国、大国、小国都可能获益，也都可能吃亏。传统的中国是被全球化击败的，却也是从全球化里高速崛起的。大英帝国是从全球化中崛起的，也是在全球化中衰落的。眼下的美国，虽然一直是全球化最大的获益国，却呈现冷淡全球化的倾向，因为美国开始感受到代价。

　　3、刺激追求差异的全球化

　　全球化导致的“趋同”是浅薄的，全球化导致的“逐异”却是深刻的。追逐不同是全球化时代最深刻的特征。全球化的资本毫无人性可言，它带来激烈的社会变迁，刺激形形色色意识形态的兴起，也必然伴随激烈的社会集团、意识形态乃至民族国家之间的冲突。以往的全球化带来了繁荣和进步，也带来了大革命，带来了国内战争，带来了“世界大战”。

　　4、促进民族主义和国家疆界的全球化

　　毫无疑问，近代以来形形色色的国际主义都产生于全球化。可是，全球化带来了更强大的民族主义，带来了护照和海关，带来了人员交往的阻隔，带来了“神圣不可侵犯的”国家疆界，带来了更先进的武器和更强大的国防。在以往的全球化里，获胜的不是国际主义，而是国家主义，特别是民族主义。在今天，我们看到了“欧洲合众国”主义的兴起，欧洲货币的使用，欧洲边界的巩固，欧洲海关的确立，欧洲防卫的统一。是什么刺激出这种新“西欧民族主义”？美国、日本、西欧……哪一个还在谈论国际主义？当人们已经把保卫疆界安全的战场延伸到外太空，谁还能说全球化消灭国家疆界呢？曾几何时，为普世欢乐而设立的奥林匹克和世界杯居然成了民族的角斗场，国家之间的竞争，甚至成了在民族国家内部进行竞争的资本。

全球化影响
全球范围内的通用标准的数目的增长，例如：版权法
国际贸易的增长比世界经济增长速度更快
由跨国公司控制的世界经济的股份的增长
全球金融体系的发展
更多的国际间的文化影响，例如通过好莱坞电影的出口
文化多样性的减少
国际旅游业的发展
各种文化的融合及创新
通过诸如互联网和电话等的技术使得共享的信息资源不断增长
移民的增长，包括非法移民
恐怖主义也在全球化,参与恐怖袭击的恐怖组织分子很多时候不在本国行动,而且与本国无关.
　　很多的趋势被各种各样的全球化支持者的组织看作是积极的，在很多情况下，全球化受到政府和其它人积极地推动。例如，有这个样一种经济理论：相对优势使自由贸易可以让资源分配变得更加有效，并且对参与贸易的双方都有利。

　　二战后通过很多诸如关贸总协定等的国际组织已经使得国际贸易间的障碍大大降低。特别是从关贸总协定演化而来的世界贸易组织：

提升自由贸易
商品：较少或消除关税；建立自由贸易区来降低关税
资金：减少或消除资金控制(资金控制会影响贸易发展)
减少、消除对当地产业的津贴补助金(达到公平贸易)
知识产权保护
在国家间对知识产权法律进行协调（通常来说，是添加更多限制）
跨国界承认知识产权限制（例如，在中国获得的专利权可以在美国获得承认）
　　也有很多反全球化运动人士认为这些是有害的。

质疑中的全球化
　　对关于全球化是一个现实存在的现象还是只是一个说法还存在学术上的讨论。虽然这个词已经被广泛使用，但是一些学者争论到这个现象在其它的历史时期就已经出现了。另外，很多人注意到，那些令人相信我们是处在全球化进程中的现象，例如国际贸易的增长和跨国公司扮演越来越重要的角色，在它们开始被建立的时候并不是制定了的。因此有很多学者更喜欢使用“国际化”而不是“全球化”。简单的说，它们两者的区别在于国家的角色在国际化中更重要。也就是说，全球化程度比国际化要深。所以，这些学者认为国家的边界还远没有达到要消失的地步，因此，完全的全球化还没有开始，也可能不会开始——从历史上考虑，国际化从来没有变成全球。

全球化真实再发生
　　但是，事实上，边界的存在越来越模糊，例如WTO的关税协定，关税壁垒已成为历史，虽然国家的边界还是存在，但之间真实的隔阂却慢慢消失，全球化并不只于某方面，包括经济、文化、政治，等等，国于国的相互依存度，已经几乎打破国界的隔阂，我想全球化是真实发生的不容质疑的。