Globalization and Pluralism: New Challenges to Ethics
Globalization has renovated the globe from a collection of separate communities interacting infrequently into a virtually one multi-faceted community. Politically, economically, and culturally therefore, communities across the world now function in what is fundamentally a shared space although divided into artificial political condominiums called nation-states.
The transnational relations made possible by globalizing forces and processes have opened up new forms of social bonds and responsibilities.
In a globalized era, peoples and communities across the world have become culturally connected, the distinction between the global and the local has become progressively blurred and actions and events in one locality carry with it the potential to breed transnational and transgenerational impacts. It is precisely for these reasons that moral reflection about our responsibilities and obligations in a globalized age has become an imperative.
In this lesson, we will deal with the ethical challenges and problems brought about by globalization. And in addition to various theories in Ethics discussed in this book, we will discuss in this lecture another ideology, called Pluralism, which has arisen in the age of globalization.
Pluralism
Pluralism. As a philosophical doctrine, Pluralism is a concept used in many diverse ways, but, in general terms, it is the philosophical theory that there is more than one basic substance or principle, whether it be the constitution of the universe, of the mind and body, the sources of truth, or the basis of morality. In this discussion, we are more concerned with moral pluralism. (Read the detailed discussion on Moral Pluralism and its effects)
Globalization
Globalization may be defined as the world-wide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas. British sociologist Anthony Giddens (born 1938) defines it as “intensification of worldwide relationships which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa” (as quoted in “Globalization,” n.d.).
Various interrelated definitions are given for the concept globalization. However, the common theme that runs through the definitions is the stress on the trans-nationalization of the connections taking place in the world today.
Globalization emphasizes the increasing trans-border or transnational relations, which are occurring in the contemporary world. Globalization, in effect, restructures our social space or geography from one that is mainly territorial to one that is increasingly transnational. In other words, whereas individuals usually have most of their interactions and affiliations in the past with others who share the same territorial space (e.g., the village, town, or nation), there is massive mushrooming of interactions and affiliations across these territories today because of globalization. Evidently, globalization has brought about the escalation of global relations.
Globalization is said to have begun after World War II but has accelerated since the mid 1980s, driven by two factors. The first is the technological advances that have reduced the cost of transportation, communication, and computation to the degree that it has become economically viable for a firm to place different phases of production in various countries.
The other factor has to do with the business escalating liberalization of trade and capital markets. More and more governments are declining to protect their economies from foreign competition or influence through import tariffs and nontariff obstacles like import quotas, legal prohibition, and export restraints.
Many international institutions founded after World War II, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (succeeded in 1995 by the World Trade Organization) have played a crucial role in endorsing free trade in place of protectionism.
Some Problems with Globalization
Although generally seen as downright ”good” especially by many economists, globalization unfortunately has a dark side. Author Gail Tverberg enumerates some reasons why globalization is not living up to what was ideally expected of it, and is, in fact, our very major problem today. The following is a summarized version of her online article, Twelve Reasons Why Globalization is a Huge Problem (Tverberg, 2013):
- Globalization uses up finite resources more quickly. As an example, China joined the World Trade Organization in December 2001. In 2002, its coal use began rising rapidly. In fact, there is also a huge increase in world coal consumption. India’s consumption is increasing as well, but from a smaller base.
- Globalization increases world carbon dioxide emissions. If the world burns its coal more quickly, and does not cut back on other fossil fuel use, carbon dioxide emissions increase.
- Globalization makes it virtually impossible for regulators in one country to foresee the worldwide implications of their actions. Actions which would seem to reduce emissions for an individual country may indirectly encourage world trade, ramp up manufacturing in coal-producing areas, and increase emissions over all.
- Globalization acts to increase world oil prices. Oil supply is not growing very much, due to limits we are reaching, and partly because demand is exploding due to globalization. If we look at world oil supply, it is virtually flat. Part of our problem now is that with globalization, world oil demand is rising very rapidly. Chinese buyers purchased more cars in 2012 than did European buyers. Rapidly rising world demand, together with oil supply which is barely rising, pushes world prices upward. The East has sufficient pent-up demand that it will make use of any oil that is made available to the market.
- Globalization transfers consumption of limitedoilsupplyfrom developed countries to developing countries. If world oil supply isn’t growing by very much, and demand is growing rapidly in developing countries, oil to meet this rising demand must come from somewhere. The way this transfer takes place is through the mechanism of high oil prices. High oil prices are particularly a problem for major oil importing countries, such as the United States, many European countries, and Japan. Because oil is used in growing food and for commuting, a rise in oil price tends to lead to a cutback in discretionary spending, recession, and lower oil use in these countries.
Developing countries are better able to use higher-priced oil than developed countries. In some cases (particularly in oil-producing countries) subsidies play a role. In addition, the shift of manufacturing to less developed countries increases the number of workers who can afford a motorcycle or car. Job loss plays a role in the loss of oil consumption from developed countries.
- Globalization transfers jobs from developed countries to less developed countries. Globalization levels the playing field, in a way that makes it hard for developed countries to compete. A country with a lower cost structure (lower wages and benefits for workers, more inexpensive coal in its energy mix, and more lenient rules on pollution) is able to out-compete a typical OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) country. In the United States, the percentage of U.S. citizens with jobs started dropping about the time China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
- Globalization transfers investment spending from developed countries to less developed countries. If an investor has a chance to choose between a country with a competitive advantage and a country with a competitive disadvantage, which will the investor choose? A shift in investment shouldn’t be too surprising.
In recent years, the U.S. domestic investment has dropped off and is now close to consumption of assets (similar to depreciation, but includes other removals from service, such as removals because manufacturing has moved overseas). The assets in question include all types of capital assets, including government-owned assets (schools, roads), business owned assets (factories, stores), and individual homes. A similar pattern applies to business investment viewed separately.
- With the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, globalization leads to huge U.S. balance of trade deficits and other imbalances. With increased globalization and the rising price of oil since 2002, the U.S. trade deficit has soared. A major reason for this is the fact that the U.S. dollar is the world’s “reserve currency.” With the current working mechanism, the result is that the United States can run deficits year after year, and the rest of the world will take their surpluses, and use it to buy U.S. debt. With this arrangement, the rest of the world funds the United States’ continued overspending.
High oil prices together with globalization have led to huge U.S. deficit spending since 2008. This has occurred partly because a smaller portion of the population is working (and thus paying taxes), and partly because
U.S. spending for unemployment benefits and stimulus has risen. The result is a mismatch between government income and spendingGlobalization tends to move taxation away from corporations, and onto individual citizens. Corporations have the ability to move to locations where the tax rate is lowest.
Individual citizens have much less ability to make such a change. Also, with today’s lack of jobs, each community competes with other communities with respect to how many tax breaks it can give to prospective employers.
High oil prices seem to lead to depressed U.S. wages. If wages are low at the same time that wage-earners are being asked to shoulder an increasing share of rising government costs, this creates a mismatch that wage-earners are not really able to handle.
- Globalization sets up a currency “race to the bottom,” with each country trying to get an export advantage by dropping the value of its currency. Because of the competitive nature of the world or global economy, each country needs to sell its goods and services at as low a price as possible. (Related: The Global Economy (And the Economic Globalization). This can be done in various ways–pay its workers lower wages; allow more pollution; use cheaper more polluting fuels; or debase the currency by Quantitative Easing (also known as “printing money,”) in the hope that this will produce inflation and lower the value of the currency relative to other currencies.
There is no way this race to the bottom can end well. Prices of imports become very high in a debased currency–this becomes a problem. In addition, the supply of money is increasingly out of balance with real goods and services. This produces asset bubbles, such as artificially high stock market prices, and artificially high bond prices (because the interest rates on bonds are so low). These assets bubbles lead to investment crashes. Also, if the printing ever stops (and perhaps even if it doesn’t), interest rates will rise, greatly raising cost to governments, corporations, and individual citizens.
- Globalization encourages dependence on other countries for essential goods and services. With globalization, goods can often be obtained cheaply from elsewhere. A country may come to believe that there is no point in producing its own food or clothing. It becomes easy to depend on imports and specialize in something like financial services or high-priced medical care–services that are not as oil-dependent.
As long as the system stays together, this arrangement works, more or less. However, if the built-in instabilities in the system become too great, and the system stops working, there is suddenly a very large problem. Even if the dependence is not on food, but is instead on computers and replacement parts for machinery, there can still be a big problem if imports are interrupted.
- Globalization ties countries together, so that if one country collapses, the collapse is likely to ripple through the system, pulling many other countries with it. History includes many examples of civilizations that started from a small base, gradually grew to over-utilize their resource base, and then collapsed. We are now dealing with a world situation which is not too different. The big difference this time is that a large number of countries is involved, and these countries are increasingly interdependent.
There are significant parallels between financial dislocations now happening in the United States and the types of changes which happened in other societies, prior to collapse. It is not just the United States that is in perilous financial condition. Many European countries and Japan are in similarly poor condition.
The failure of one country has the potential to pull many others down, and with it much of the system. The only countries that remain safe are the ones that have not grown to depend on globalization, of which there are probably not many today–perhaps landlocked countries of Africa.
Ethical Challenges of Globalization
The previous section deals mainly with economic aspects of globalization. This portion, nonetheless, contend with their ethical implications and other moral challenges posed by globalization itself.
One criticism against the presently unfolding neoliberal globalization is that it concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, leaving the majority in the condition of poverty. While advocates of globalization paint a pretty picture of a globalized world marked by the spread of liberal democracy, prosperity, and peace, globalization has actually caused radical inequality, a deepening of exclusions brought about by inequalities that present the world to be a fragmented space where some benefit at the expense of others. Critics thus describe globalization as a process driven by progressive capitalist countries to perpetuate their economic and political domination.
That globalization and the propagation of the laissez-faire capitalism deepen the inequalities within and between nations is ethically condemnable from both the consequentialist and deontological standpoints. From the consequentialist viewpoint, the moral argument against globalization is that it fails to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people. From a deontological perspective, particularly in Kantian ethics, globalization is condemnable on the account that exploited populations are treated as means to an end and not as end in themselves.
Another problem with globalization is that states are in effect increasingly losing their sovereignty. In a globalized world, organizations such as the IMF, World Bank, and WTO virtually take over their traditional functions. For example, the World Bank and the IMF usually prescribe dislikeable neoliberal policies such as currency devaluation, subsidy removal, and the privatization of strategic public enterprise as conditions for granting loans to financially distraught states.
The disastrous repercussion of this is that elected indigenous leaders cede their prerogative over economic management to unelected officials of international organizations. This scenario generated by globalization is thus seen as morally condemnable intrusiveness of international economic organizations, characterized by lack of accountability to the people openly affected by their policies and the tendency to impose agonizing conditions on indebted governments.
Ecologically speaking, another moral challenge arising out of globalization is the problem of handling the global environment in order to prevent a global ecological collapse, a scene that threatens humanity with the threat of annihilation. It is now a basic knowledge among environmentally literate people that today the world is threatened by a host of environmental problems that carry with them potential planetary costs.
Theseproblemsinvolveanthropogenicgreenhouseeffectthatissupposedly generating global climate change, commonly known as global warming. There is also the challenge of ozone layer depletion, which progressively extinguishes the protective blanket that shields the world’s population from unsafe ultra violet rays being discharged from the sun. The global biosphere is also encountering a speedy reduction in the diversity of ecosystems, in the number of species of life, and in the variety of genes that circulate within individual species.
Aggravating the various global environmental problems mentioned is the explosive population growth which threatens to surpass the earth’s carrying capacity and bust the biosphere. Combined, these environmental problems essentially elucidate the idea of transnational harm and the interdependent condition of human existence in the 21st century primarily due to globalization. Industrial capitalism, an essential partner of globalization, is chiefly responsible for the damage of the ozone layer and the escalation of global warming, two major environmental problems today.
Global environmental considerations form the need for
international environmental ethics which is an aspect of global ethics. The use
of the global commons or environment ought to be controlled by international
regulations. Sensibly, the regulation of the global
commons should be based on sound ethical principles. One of the ethical
and sound ideologies concerning environmental protection is the so-called “Human-Environment Systems.“
For one thing, this approach categorically affirms the significant relation between
humans and their natural environment and other broad implications of this
connection.
Globalization and Business Ethics
As globalization is largely an economic concept and system, it is rational to have a separate section that deals with the issues and challenges it creates that concern business ethics. Basically, business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines moral principles concerning business environment involving issues about corporate practices, policies, business behaviors, and the conducts and relationships of individuals in the organizations.
Globalization has made the world a global village. Although businesses grew and the globalized environment has provided more markets and numerous opportunities, but with it also came various ethical issues such as duplication of products, child labor, money laundering, environment issues, and many other business malpractices. Additionally, sundry business crimes have existed such as cybercrimes, sexual harassments in work places, and intellectual property and patent thefts.
Focusing on child labor, it is said that globalization paved the way for the existence of this controversial business practice. Like other ethical issues (such as homosexuality), the child labor issue is taken differently in different nations. In Europe, it is seen as an unethical activity whereas in Asian countries, it is somewhat tolerated. In many countries, like India, where poverty is high, children in family after certain age start working to contribute to family income.
The international company Nike in its Vietnamese factory employs children. Nike Vietnam, however, provides free education and food to these children. Fundamentally though, the main reason for employing children is that it reduces the cost of production line. Hence, the practice, in many cases, has resulted in legal conflicts and loss of custom for being seen as immoral.
Globalization as a new challenge to ethics thus requires incorporating ethics (such as business ethics and environmental ethics) as part of companies’ strategic business programs and alliances. Moreover, it mandates top managements to establish clear policies that encourage ethical behavior. For instance, all employees who observe or become aware of criminal practices or corrupt conduct must be encouraged to report the incident to their supervisors. Furthermore, management training seminars and orientation meetings that involve discussion of actual situations can alert employees to potential ethical conflicts.
With the involvement of business ethics as a part of
business strategic decision-making companies are
even expected to gain a competitive advantage, good will, and recognition in the global
business world. They may attract
a good workforce and cater to a healthy
organization climate. All these are anticipated to ultimately lead to good profits
and a healthy competition in the international globalized business world.
Search for Universal Values
Evidently, there are quite a number of moral questions and problems arising from globalization, that is, from global interdependence and interconnection. To address these ethical problems, social scientists and philosophers suggest that the time has come for the world to develop a global ethic, that is, a set of universally accepted principles that could provide the foundation for regulating global interactions.
Indeed, a set of shared ethical values and standards is central for the cohesion of society and for global justice and peace. A shared set of moral values and principles will make for peace and harmony at the global level. The philosophical challenge, however. is that it seems improbable to ascertain normative principles that will be persuasive across cultures. Notwithstanding, in spite of these ethical variations across various cultures, it is still very much possible that basic and fundamental values hold for every society. Developing universally acceptable principles, i.e., global ethics for administering transnational interactions, is possible, for instance, through the process of intercultural dialogue.
In a globalizing world, it is prudent, for example, to advocate universal cultural values such as truth, justice, and love. Situations today also ideally call for working in favor of a universal spirit of fraternity, a solidary altruistic spirit, a decided and generous will, and the universal will to live in peace. In a situation of disequilibrium and disharmony, the reawakening of the human spirit of love and compassion may save us from our own worst extremes. Indeed, material wealth ought to go hand in hand with moral and spiritual wealth … continue reading
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