Globalisation: Marginalisation of the Poor

The poor are being marginalized. Globalisation is a means for exclusion, deepening inequality and reinforced division of the world into core and periphery: it is a new form of Western imperialism which dominates and exploits through TNC capital and instrumental global governance such as the World Bank and IMF.

Globalisation has intensified global and national inequality. There is an increased economic and social gap within countries and between countries, the richer are becoming richer and the poorer are becoming poorer. Globalisation is an uneven process causing world fragmentation. There has been increasing inequality in trade too, resulting in the amplification of the trade gap. Through increasing globalisation the value of world trade is 17 times greater than 50 years ago, but Latin America’s share has fallen from 11% to 5% and Africa’s from 8% to 2%. The terms of trade have increasingly moved against LEDCs and their poor.

Globalisation exploits LEDCs and their poor through TNCs. The World Guide (known as the Third World Guide) says that globalisation is a ‘euphemism for transnationalisation’ – the spread of powerful companies over the globe, wherever suits corporate interest best.

Increased global integration means that poorer countries become more vulnerable to world financial markets. The East Asian Crisis was a direct result of globalisation and resulted in intensifying poverty. The crisis shows that even the strongest developing states are at the mercy of global economic forces that serve the interest of the dominant capitalist powers. Globalisation also meant that there was a speedy transition of the crisis to the other East Asian countries – the ‘contagion effect’ – having devastating human consequences.The benefits of the global market accrue to a relatively small proportion of the world’s population. The stronger become stronger and the weak become weaker.

Globalisation is a form of disempowerment. Outside interference of the World Bank and IMF has made LEDCs economies worse and has constrained the development strategies that nation-states may pursue. International negotiations to reduce and eliminate foreign debt have led to increasing exports of capital and the further indebtedness of the countries affected.