SOC 451GLOBALIZATION OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONAsst. Prof. Fatma Altınbaş Sarıgül

NEO-LIBERALISM• Theory of the belief in the free market and opposition to

state intervention in it.

• Neo-Liberal economist- William Easterly.• Easterly is opposed to collectivism and state planning

because it inhibits and destroy freedom.• To Easterly, economic freedom is highly correlated with

economic success.

• George Soros, economic fundamentalism; the idea that market will take care of all our needs.

NEO-LIBERALISM• Free market=Free trade

• Deregulation: commitment by nation-states to limit or eliminate restraints on the free market and free trade

• ‘Banana War’ example.

• Free markets and free trade are linked to a democratic political system.

• Tax cuts issue in favor of free market.

• Spending on welfare should be minimized and the safety net for the poor should be minimized.

NEO-LIBERALISM• Neo-liberal state is very interested in privatizing various

sectors such as transportation, telecommunications, oil and other natural resources, utilities, social housing, education, in order to open up these areas for business and profit making.

• Neo-liberal state reduces barriers to the free movement of capital across national borders and wishes to create new global markets.

POPULAR NEO-LIBERAL THEORY‘The Lexus and the Olive tree’- THOMAS FRIEDMAN

If a country accepts neo-liberalism, it accepts;• Privatization• Price stability• Reduction of state bureaucracy• Lowering or elimination of tariffs on imported goods• Elimination of restrictions on foreign investment• Dropping of quotas• Increase of exports• Deregulation of capital markets• Making currency convertible• To be open to direct foreign investment• Opening of banking and telecommunications to private ownership

THE WORLD IS FLAT• In his book, The World is Flat,

Friedman recounts a journey to Bangalore, India, when he realized globalization has changed core economic concepts.

• The World is Flat won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005.

Factors for the emergence of the flat world

• The end of the Cold War• The destruction of the Berlin Wall• The arrival of IBM computers and Windows• Internet• Availability of communication networks• Open sourcing unlimited• Outsourcing and offshoring leading to new forms of

collaboration in different locals• Supply-chaining• Insourcing• In-forming• New technologies

CRITIQUE OF NEO-LIBERALISM• Karl Polanyi, 1944, ‘The Great Transformation: The

Political and Economic Origins of Our Time’

• Does everyone on the world wants very narrow and specific types of economic well being and political freedom (democracy)??

• What about the financial crises that neo-liberal policies caused?

• The degradation of environment

Neo-liberalism as exception• Special Economic Zones• Export Processing Zones

CRITIQUE OF NEO-LIBERALISM• Francis Fukuyama, 1992: ‘The End Of History’

• Leslie Sklair, 2002 : ‘Transnational Capitalism’

• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, 2004: ‘Empire’