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THE COMMODIFICATION OF CULTURE AND THE PARENS PATRIӔ ROLE OF THE STATE

Gwendolyn Yvonne Alexis, Ph.D., J.D.Associate Professor of Management

Leon Hess Business Schoolgalexis@monmouth.edu

Faculty Fellows SymposiumGlobal Culture: Concepts and Paradigms Revisited

Monmouth University Institute for Global Understanding, September 20-22, 2012Session II: Culture, State and Globalization

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Globalization of markets: the fact that in many industries historically distinct and separate national markets are merging into one huge global marketplace in which the tastes and preferences of consumers in different nations are beginning to converge upon some global norm.

Culture: “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another…” (Sociologist Geert Hofstede)or, more simply,“Culture is a design for living”

What is the Impact of the “Globalization of Markets” on Culture?

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Are we to believe that simplyEmbracing modern technology(e.g., computer use) will causeObservant Muslim women to go

From this

Hence, Consumption Patterns would seem to have little effect on culture!

To this?Highly unlikely, since Culture includes a system of values. And, values (many of which are grounded in religious beliefs and traditions) change slowly, if at all!

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Nonetheless, changes in consumption patterns are not insignificant!The State, the Market and Civil Society(a sociological perspective: a way of looking at the social world within a single nation, with the prototype being a Developed Western (democratic) Nation

State

Civil Society

Market

voluntary associations, civic groups, special interest groups such as NGOs, church groups and religious organizations, nonprofit organizations, political action groups

business, commercial sectorgovernment, the state bureaucracy

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How a global marketplace with declining trade and investment barriers (i.e., “Free Trade”) alters the usual dynamics

Market

Civil Society

State

The Multinational corporation (MNC)

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The Globalization DebateIs the shift toward a more integrated and interdependent global economy a good thing?

Anti-globalization Protests: Anti-Globalists fear that globalization is forever changing the world in a negative way

•“Teamsters and Turtles” protestors in Seattle in 1999 led to a total disruption of that World Trade Organization (WTO) Meeting. They decried the destruction of other cultures by means of a global capitalism that was resulting in a “McDonaldization of the world.”

Anti-globalization protesters now turn up at almost every major meeting of a global institution

Pro Global Capitalism: Globalists point out that it makes it possible for businesses to standardize products around the world and thereby achieve economies of scale (as well as engage in predatory pricing). This mass production means lower prices for the consumer!

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Pro Global Capitalism, cont’dDevelopment of GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS to promote establishment of multinational treaties to govern the global business system

Examples of Global Institutions: World Trade Organization (WTO): responsible for policing the world trading system and ensuring that nations adhere to the rules established in WTO treaties International Monetary Fund (IMF): maintains order in the international monetary system World Bank: promotes economic development United Nations (UN): maintains international peace and security, develops friendly relations among nations, cooperates in solving international problems and promotes respect for human rights, and is a center for harmonizing the actions of nations; however behind UNEP and “Global Compact”

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Controlling MNCs

• World Trade Organization (WTO)

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• World Bank• United Nations (UN)

International BodiesPropounding “International Law”

Corporate Codes of Conduct

• UN “Global Compact”• Individually Adopted

Corporate Creeds, Mission Statements, Global Ethics Codes

• CERES Principles• Kyoto Accord (U.S.

not signatory)

The Voluntariness of “International Law”

Host Country Laws andRegulations

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Critics of globalization worry that economic power is shifting away from national governments and toward supranational organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Union (EU), and the United Nations

–E.g., The EU instituted restrictions on the import of hormone treated beef from the U.S. because it was feared that the product might lead to health problems. The WTO stated that the restrictions were prohibited under WTO agreements and ordered the EU to lift the restrictions or face retaliatory measures. (The U.S. retaliated against EU bans on beef imports by imposing a 100% tariff on some EU products.)

–.

Globalization and National SovereigntyAnti-Globalists, cont’d

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Global Institutions as Threat to National SovereigntyAnti-Globalists, cont’d

This documentary chronicles the fact that Jamaica was forced to open up to free trade as a precondition to obtaining a loan from the IMF. As a consequence, subsidized agricultural goods from the West were “dumped” into the Jamaican economy with the result that Jamaica’s indigenous dairy and farming industries were unable to compete pricewise and went under, leaving Jamaica dependent upon Western imports. Being unable to sustain the small local farms and cottage industries that were integral to Jamaican culture meant a loss of pride, self-worth, and sense of national identity for the Jamaican people.

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“Because of the purchase of all of the Swedish dairies by a Danish MNC, the Swedish population will be forced to drink Danish milk from grotesques cows that are fed with genetically modified feed. The Swedish dairy farms will be shut down and the dairy farmers lose their source of livelihood.”

… November 19, 2011 article in Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet

The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops. …Prince Charles has set up charity Bhumi Vardaan Foundation to address the plight of suicide farmers in India. Ranged against the Prince are powerful GM lobbyists and prominent politicians, who claim that genetically modified crops have transformed Indian agriculture, providing greater yields than ever before. The rest of the world, they insist, should embrace

… Daily Mail Article by Andrew Malone (Nov 2008)<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html>

The State’s Parens Patriӕ Role (Guardian of the Public Welfare)

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Indian government agency, the National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA), has decided to sue Monsanto, the St. Louis, MO-based biotechnology power-house, and the company’s Indian partners who developed the Bt eggplant.– The lawsuit by the NBA is based on a complaint filed in 2010

by the Bangalore-based Environment Support Group (ESG) – a nongovernmental organization NGO -- which alleges that the developers violated India’s Biological Diversity Act of 2002 by using local eggplant varieties in developing Bt eggplant without prior approval from NBA.

< http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/08/12/india-sues-monsanto-over-genetically-modified-eggplant/>

India Sues Monsanto Over Genetically-Modified Eggplant

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Generally, one does not find robust laws (e.g., India’s Biological Diversity Act of 2002) in an LDN! LDNs are hungry for FDI and will not enact robust laws, which have the potential to scare away corporations willing to invest in their economy.

•Global Civil Society and the Mobilization of Public Outrage

Civil Society can bring forces to bear on the business sector. Killer Coke

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NGO’s have become Transnational Watchdogs in terms of policing the misdeeds of MNCs!

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People living in LDNs increasingly look to NGOs for “Global Governance” as they have no confidence in the ability of their own governments or intergovernmental organizations like the UN, WTO, World Bank and the IMF to “ride herd over” powerful MNCs.

The NGOization of the global public policy arena:– “Many of the people and communities left behind by the

development and globalization projects look to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), rather than to states or international agencies, to represent them and to meet their needs. Indeed, we are currently in a phase of 'NGOization,' in that national governments and international institutions have lost much of their legitimacy, and NGOs take considerable initiative in guiding grassroots development activities.”

..... Philip McMichael, Development and Social Change

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NGO Mobilization of Public Outrage and Shifting Targets

Motivation for NGOs to shift from a focus on countries to a focus on MNCs is that the annual sales revenue of the largest MNCs exceed the GNP of 8 nations with 1/10th of the world’s population

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Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs ) areEmpowering Third World Stakeholders

Center for Constitutional Rights

(CCR)

(NGOs)

Earth Rights International (ERI)

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The End