Globalization has political and economic ramifications which will prove detrimental to democracy.Whereas the Industrial Revolution created more jobs than it destroyed, the Technological Revolution threatens to destroy more jobs than it creates.
Further, it will erect new and rigid class barriers between the well-educated and the ill-educated. Huge transfers of wealth from lower-skilled middle class workers to the owners of capital assets and to a new technological aristocracy will exacerbate the income disparities which already are evident in developed counties. In less developed countries such a transfer of wealth, and with it political power, could be devastating, and it could preclude progress toward democracy (Bill, 2002).
Unequal distribution of wealth and profits is just one of the negative consequences brought about by economic globalisation. The gap between the rich and the poor has increased, leaving developing nations poor, while maintaining the wealth of the powerful and rich nations. Globalisation has heightened this gap.
Globalization through the creation of international, multinational or regional trade and economic institutions can lead to a feeling of loss of political power by groups within states. The sense of loss of power, in turn, leads to a fostering of tribalism and other revived or invented identities and traditions which abound in the wake of the uneven erosion of national, identities, national economies and national state policy capacity. The upsurge of religious fundamentalism is one case in point (Bill, 2002). The hostility of fundamentalism to freedom of expression and belief has ominous implications for democracy.
As MNCs search for ways in which to maximize their profits, wastes are often exported to poor countries, where they are dumped and not disposed of properly. It is in these poor states that governments frequently sacrifice the environment in their willingness to trade off economic benefits. Not only do MNCs.......
