Globalization
...cultural change. From a global perspective, the interconnectedness of globalization can include increasing amounts of global trade, production processes, financial investments to political interaction, and social and cultural contact. As defined in the textbook, globalization is defined as the shift toward a more integrated and interdependent world economy. The national economies that were once separate entities and isolated from each other are now merging together and forming a more global and economic system. The trend towards greater globalization over the second half of the twentieth century can be explained by the decline of trade barriers, including international marketing and outsourcing, technological change, including communication and transportation, and international trade running the global economy.
Decline of Trade Barriers
One factor that aided the growth of globalization was the decline in trade barriers of goods, services and capital. During the 1920's to the 1930's, international trade barriers took the form of high tariffs on imports of manufactured goods. The idea was to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. The results from this contributed to countries raising trade barriers against one another and continued towards what is known as the Great Depression. After World War II, the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) worked to lower barriers to the free flow of goods and services. The lowering of trade barriers led to the globalization of production and market. According to "CSIS Globalization 101-Trade and Globalization," the volume of world trade since 1950 has increased from $320 billion to $6.8 trillion. The trade of manufactured goods exceeds the increase of the rate of production of these goods by three times. As international trade barriers are lowered, businesses are now able to market globally as opposed to...
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