ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION BETWEEN EXPANSION AND LIMITS. SOME CONCEPTUAL CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

This article tries to answer to the question if the actual wave of globalization may be considered viable under the conditions of increasing inequalities, poverty, environmental degradation, behavioral rules of international markets and other important factors. The author considers that the last wave of globalization cannot be fully feasible on the long run, based upon several arguments offered by the specialized studies in the field and from important data evidence reported by some international economic organizations. By definition, the globalization of the economy reflects a reality that has various meanings. Being focused on the free movement of goods and capital, this phenomenon does not necessarily imply a political globalization, although it cannot be completely detached from this field. That is why, from the beginning, it has offered the possibility to large multinational corporations to operate everywhere in the world, thanks to the unprecedented development of transport and communications that have reduced material production costs and permitted companies to be in close and permanent contact. Moreover, the author tries to demonstrate that contemporary economic globalization, in the same respect, is less integrated and interconnected, therefore more limited, than many could realize. Those limits influence important aspects of economic life and especially the economic environments in different countries, regardless of the characteristics and level of development. Factors such as economic gaps between nations, poverty and inequality, international migration and the new protectionism could, and most probably will, have an important impact upon the shape and pace of the economic globalization phenomenon. Realities such as different economic standards for North and South, fragmentary character of protectionism, intense fluctuations of international remittances remain as essential arguments supporting this idea.