McWorld

1
McWorld

• The American empire is unlike any other
• The totalizing effects of American culture
• The hegemony of market capitalism
• The outcome of two centuries of westernization
  and modernization
• Based on Benjamin R. Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld
  How Globalism and Tribalism are Reshaping the
  World. (New York Ballantine Books, 1995.

2
Markets and Democracy

• Stability and even tyranny preferred over
  democratic values
• Creation of common culture and consumption, not
  common law or interests

3
Markets and Democracy

• Globalization as the spread of capitalism, not
  democracy
• The decline of national sovereignty to facilitate
  trade and profit

4
Market Capitalism

• Erosion of national sovereignty
• Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
• World Bank, World Trade Organization
• International Monetary Fund
• Privatization of interests
• Loss of social responsibility
• Creation of common language, currency, and
  culture
• Need to facilitate global consumption

5
Consumption

• Images
• Celebrity
• Advertising
• Propaganda

6
Requirements of Democracy

• Civic responsibility and accountability
• Autonomous, educated individuals
• Social justice
• Critical evaluation of policies

7
Requirements of Global Capital

• Suggestible consumers
• Authoritarianism
• Globalization
• Efficiency
• Productivity
• Elasticity
• Profitability

8
Commonalities and Oppositions

• End to parochialism and religious conflicts
• Promotion of social mobility
• Other than on these issues, global market
  capitalism and democratic nation-states are not
  similar

9
Transnational Corporations

• Multinational as both post-national and
  anti-national
• Individuals as customers and consumers, not
  citizens or members
• The end of national products
• Buy American
• Boycott France

10
The Virtual Corporation

• No defined place or mission
• Electronic relationships
• Virtual employees
• Robots (automation)
• Temps (entrepreneurial employees)

11
Role of Government

• Socialization of risk for corporations
• Isolation of risk for individuals
• Enforcement of contracts
• Removal of regulation and restraints
• Minimizing public effects of private acts
• Economic consequences of personal decisions
  mitigated
• Employment and environmental issues not enforced

12
Anarchic World System

• Applied to international business
• Producer-consumer relationship predominant
• Individual-citizen relationship minimized
• Horizontal authority structure
• Nation-states enfeebled
• Global institutions tied to members interests

13
North-South Divide

• 3 vs 30 agriculture
• 58 vs 18 service industries
• Imbalanced resource allocation
• Increased demand from South as development
  advances
• Resistance from North to giving up resource share

14
Transformation of Capitalism

• Modern Capitalism
• Products manufactured for profit
• Met unmediated needs of consumers
• Postmodern Capitalism
• Needs manufactured for profit
• Met the mediated needs of producers
• The infinite needs of the soul over the finite
  needs of the body

15
Nike/Coke as Paradigm

• Manipulation of emotion
• Pervasive image ideology
• Sports as symbolic of health, victory, sex, money
  and energy
• Shoes or drinks as less about the needs for
  protection or nourishment
• Destruction of local culture
• Sneakers for sandals
• Soda for tea

16
Infotainment Telesector

• Selling spirit, pop culture, and lifestyles
• Advertising budgets and branding
• Colonization of all available space

17
Infotainment Telesector

• Advertorials and infomercials
• Product placement and promotion masked as
  magazines
• Public interest defined as information about
  product choice

18
Postmodern Sovereignty

• The ideology of consumerism
• Politics and religions as avenues for profit
• Freedom as item choices within brand choices
• No workers, no citizens, no differences, only
  consumers
• Interpretation of material world through images
  and emotions
• Repackaging ideals and values as products
• American pop culture as international culture

19
Characteristics of McWorld

• Blurring of lines between Economically Developed
  Countries and Less Economically Developed
  Countries
• Blurring of lines between democratic and
  authoritarian governments

20
Characteristics of McWorld

• Increasing interdependence and power of
  transnational actors
• IGOs (Intergovernmental Organizations)
• NGOs (Nongovernmental Organizations)
• TNCs (Transnational Corporations)

21
Characteristics of McWorld

• Decreasing national sovereignty
• blurring of international and national issues
• Increasing difficulty of unilateral action
• Limited control over economic and social change