Is globalization a new phenomenon? Is globalization a new phenomenon synonymous with liberal democracy, free market capitalism and development? Or is it oppressive, exploitative and a variant of imperialism? More recently, particularly in the last two to three decades, changes in the structure of the international system, and advancements in information and communication technology, resulting in the unprecedented incidence and emphasis on globalization has stirred up controversy as to whether globalization is post imperialist or is another variant of imperialism. While opinions may differ on this, it cannot be contested that globalization and imperialism were propelled from the same sources- the developed societies, and are characterized fundamentally by capitalistic production relations. Thus, the process of contemporary economic globalization, like imperialism in the 19th and early 20th century, continues to be characterized by the concomitant construction of dominant centers and dominated peripheries, and their reproduction deepening at each stage. This process which is imminent in the process of capital accumulation on a global scale forms the basis of Samir Amin’s “law of globalized value” (Amin, 2003: 6). According to this law, “the qualitative transformations of the system of accumulation on a global scale from one phase of its history to another shape in their turn the successive forms of asymmetric centers / periphery polarization. The contemporary world will thus remain imperialist throughout the visible future in so far as the fundamental logic of its deployment remains dominated by capitalist production relations”(Amin, 2003: 6). It follows therefore that imperialism as Lenin conceived of it was not the highest stage of capitalism after all. What then, in the nature of the global political economy in the 21st century results in the emphasis on Structural Adjustments and its element of privatization of SOE’s? Thus, while the size of governments in the economies of Africa for example (and by implication Nigeria) was on the increase at the dawn of political independence, the 1980’s saw the rise of a trend in the opposite direction – privatizations. It is however pertinent to note as Petras and Veltmeyer (2001:93) observer, that “the privatization strategy of the imperial centre is in the first instance to homogenize every region of the world economy subject to its penetration. The process of privatization is thus not principally a means of taking over enterprises and penetrating markets so much as it is a means of eliminating alternative structures of production which could compete or challenge an imperially dominated world.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:42:45 +0000
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