Globalisation - Richard (notes) optimism - likes the world Globalism is not a random force - a lot of randomness, but a lot of historical ramifications. To understand let's go back to enlightenment Enlightenment: the Elites- no question about it A wealthy elite began to have more power than the kings, church and nobility When revolutions happened: Rhetoric / history books say end of tyrants; triumph for democracy. Many old elites overthrown: kings etc. and how much of that turned into democracy and how much of that was wealthy people, "capitalists", taking over? Republics set up so people could run things without nobility interfering with economics Imperialism was the announced public policy In the home countries imperialism was thought to be a good thing. A nation had an empire; the business interests had interests in these areas Western nations: developed infrastructure + business. Oligarchy or democracy - We can accredit a lot to the power of democracy But it all was to the benefit of capitalism. Was it us getting it cause we are a democracy or because it suited the oligarchy? In 1945 the whole rug was pulled out from under others' feet + the US became the main military who dominated the world. 40% of all the world's ind. capacity 40% of all the world's wealth. US domination much higher than it is now. It could've tried to become the next B. Empire. About 1945, the replacement of competitive imperialism with collective imperialism. Was the postwar era the beg. of democracy or a new kind of imperialism. 1938 - 1941 in the US. As the US decided a strategy - they talked about IMF, WTO was all planned. European imperialism was about colonialism American imperialism was about creating conditions in a country so business could operate American imp. more flexible, efficient The collective imp. since WWII were on the American model. - So imperialism looked like it was overthrown in the wars but in effect Amer. Imp. model was happening. Pre WWII: relatively happy nation; western, its own competitive empire PostWWII: a prosperous west; not fighting; keep people in the west happy. 1980: changed: During 60s & 70s prosperous west weren't grateful for what they got; for the prosperity. 60s & 70s prosperity, protesting against foreign policy which gave the west the prosperity. Democracy - the price capitalism paid for imperialism - was becoming a drag on the country. Strong nation states (UK, US) become unnecessary for imperialism. All you need is high tech weapons + some prof. soliders, eg Balkan war Globalisation is about the replacement of the sovereign nation state system with the global government which has none of the democracy nations have had. WTO, IMF, OECD all very undemocratic WTO works with comittees, 100% people from multinations. Codex has authority for drug testing standards; the people on are all from pharmaceuticals. WTO is transparent. They are a world government. Free trade treaties transfer local government power to the places to WTO. Capitalism isn't free enterprise. Capitalism isn't opposite to communism. A capitalist is about growth of wealth. A capitalist economy is one based on investment pools seeking more money. "Cycle of capitalism" eg: A certain political regime; capitalism makes as much money; competition, shakeout, monopoly - then it runs to the limit of being able to make money. Then it changes the regime in order to grow more. With privatisation. Deregulations: the Reagan / Thatcher revolution was a change of regime. It's necessary for capitalism for the regime to change. Capitalist elites do develop; social engineering is needed to form it to maintain the regime. Capitalism the most remarkable radical things Change is only necessary eg: - shopping centres evolution - shopping malls like cities - shopping malls like warehouses Tear down one shopping centre; make another. Noam Chomsky is good on this. In the Enlightenment, supposedly democracy triumphed. In order to keep myth going; propaganda has been NB part of creation and making of the republics. Pressures are subtle and many. Farmer in India wants to plant a field. (1) Money from bank; they say they won't lend money for this variety they will only lend for this. Through banking, and bribing there is a great deal of pressure. Balkan war, Gulf War all part of globalisation. Imperialism -> was American interventionism Gulf War / Balkan war -> a propagandisation, justification for the invasion People in the West can understand that the fabric of society of democracy is being realised. A global revolution is going on. A new world order will form. We can choose to make it our revolution. Globalisation is global fascism. During the Enlightenment a mass change in consciousness. The book "Common Sense" published in America. Big seller. It made the difference between not wanting independence + wanting independence from Great Britain. Democracy is running our own communities. Not looking for funding.