While some nations have been thriving off of capitalism, many developing countries have yet to see any benefits of having this booming global economy. Western nations have had plenty of economic freedom and opportunity to establish a strong economic presence. If developing countries had the same opportunities as western countries, would they see the same economic progress?
Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto believes that globalization in Peru has not been as effective as it has in more developed countries because they lack the opportunity to have property rights. De Soto believes there are two groups of people in the world: the ones with property rights and the ones without property rights. He argues that people without the same opportunities to own land cannot turn their resources into income. Since western countries have much more defined property rights, these countries have been able to prosper in this developing economy. Hernando de Soto is convinced that if every country had the same opportunity and access to property rights, they would be able to utilize their potential as a competitor in production and begin to see benefits of globalization.
Similarly, the President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, says that Tanzania and other countries with less wealth would not need foreign aid if they were given the opportunity to trade with Western nations. Mkapa believes that globalization actually causes more separation than unity and removes moral authority and relevance of leaders from poorer countries. The idea is that if Tanzania was given the opportunity to compete in the global market, they would be able to benefit themselves and benefit other countries by providing trade. Mkapa argues that Tanzania should not only get the opportunity to trade with western countries, but it would also eliminate the need for foreign aid.
Lastly, although Japan is generally not considered a developing country, it has still seen some economic difficulty due to the fact that they did not take advantage of certain opportunities. For example, Japan has seen a significant economic decline because they haven't taken advantage of the opportunity to trade with other countries. Since they wanted to protect domestic industries, Japan was hesitant to trade with other countries making them slow to develop to the modern economy.
In all, many countries lack economic strength because of limited access to opportunity, or inability/unwillingness to take advantage of certain opportunities.
Sources:
I agree with your point that many developing countries lack the economic strength due to their inability to access certain oppurtunity required. Much like we saw in the documentary in class, many western nations deny developing countries this oppurtunity and are able to sell the idea to the public by claiming they are helping out these countries by bringing in industries. When in reality they are really hurting them because they aren't allowing the developing coutnries to compete with larger nations domestic industries. This is a major issue that needs to be solved to some degree. While I belive that one could argue that it is important to potect domestic industries in America, it is more economical for us to be helping out these developing countries by trading with them, which in turn will help the consumers as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point and think it is a very interesting case. I think Haiti has fallen victim to this as well. Not only is their government corrupt but the US has crippled their economy. Instead of supporting Haitian rice the US subsidized their own rice which lead to a surplus. The surplus was then sent to Haiti for a very low price lower than what Haitian farms could sell their own rice for. This destroyed the Haitian rice industry.
ReplyDeleteI feel like there's an important distinction between developed countries and undeveloped countries. Developed countries like Japan have the choice to weigh the opportunity costs of two options, such as whether to open their country for trade or to become isolationist. Undeveloped countries don't have as much liberty, as they have to gain money from the global economy or they will remain stagnant.
ReplyDelete