Essay Example on Globalisation had been widely explored by Academia

The concept of globalisation had been widely explored by academia especially by social scientists from the 1990s onwards after emerging within the financial and business publications in the 1980s Ampuja 2015 The phenomenon of neoliberalism is often used by many authors especially those who are critical about the intent and the exploitive outcome of neoliberalism to explore the nature of globalisation Harvey 2005 argues that from the 1970s onwards neoliberalism started to become the mainstream of political economic practices and states began to withdraw from social provision In addition Litonjua 2008 p 254 suggests that globalisation is promoted by the ideology of neoliberalism the goal is a wholly deregulated global market society They suggest that the process of globalisation requires a neoliberalism global market and globalisation is a product of neoliberalism It can be seen that neoliberalism plays an important role in creating the phenomenon of globalisation from their perspectives However some other authors suggest that instead of being a fundamental causation globalisation should be viewed as a separate phenomenon from neoliberalism Wikan 2015 This essay attempts to critically discuss the relationship between neoliberalism and globalisation with reference to a case study of neoliberalism in China's reform and a case study of foreign direct investment 

Firstly the phenomenon of neoliberalism and globalisation and their possible relationship will be explained and explored Case studies of China's reform and foreign direct investment will be used to argue that there is no causality between neoliberalism and globalisation Concepts of neoliberalism and globalisation There are controversies in the elusive meaning and form of neoliberalism and Wu 2010 summarises that firstly it could be either an ideology and practices it involves either rolling back and rolling out of the state it could be in the scale of either local and national it should be also distinguished between means and ends Therefore as a sophisticated concept neoliberalism should be re evaluated in terms of the relation to globalisation To define neoliberalism in terms of being an ideology Marxist geographer David Harvey 2005 p 2 suggests that neoliberalism is a theory that proposes that human well being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights free markets and free trade Moreover in practice neoliberalism promotes minimising government intervention and deregulation of trade and finance Kelly and Prokhovnik 2004 However Harvey 2005 critically argues that neoliberalism can be also interpreted as a political hegemonic project to reinforce the power of elites through the process of capital accumulation The reinforcement of power can be achieved through neoliberal practices because neoliberalism is a doctrine that favours privatising state owned enterprises such as health care education and public utility Wills 2005 Globalisation refers to the economic political social and cultural processes whereby places across the globe are increasingly interconnected social relations and economic transactions increasingly occur at the intercontinental scale and the globe itself comes to be a recognisable geographical entity Wills 2005 p 573 This definition explores the nature of increasing connectedness across different regions on a global scale under the process of globalisation and multiple aspects of globalisation 

As a hotspot of foreign direct investment and exports of commodities China is undoubtedly a key player in economic globalisation As Zheng 2004 p 2 suggests the tide of globalization became irreversible after capitalism had been legitimised in China China's reform towards a market oriented economy took place from 1978 when the Chinese Communist Party started to promote a socialist market economy in China Nonini 2008 Lee and Zhu 2006 point out that the economic reform of China can be viewed as a form of neoliberal practice Moreover China was used as an example by Harvey 2005 in his work A Brief History of Neoliberalism to demonstrate the negative impact of neoliberal practices It can be seen that both of them suggest the open up and globalisation of Chinese market are strongly relative to a neoliberal transition within the country For instance the emergence of small and medium sized enterprises the reduction of tariffs the opening up for foreign direct investment and the establishment of an exports focus economy could be considered as an evidence of neoliberal transition Breslin 2007 This is similar to the neoliberal policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher attempt to attract an influx of foreign investment Harvey 2005 In order to attract foreign direct investment a good infrastructure is considered to be necessary Asiedu 2006 As a consequence China has been investing in building infrastructure for decades and the state is applying its power for trying to stimulate the economy by providing a decent environment for investment