Customer Reviews

The Collapse of Globalism: And the Reinvention of the World

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Gimmie that old time religion" ran the gospel classic. Since the early 1970s, says Saul, a new religion has emerged, displacing existing dogmas. It's called "Globalism". Globalism lacks a deity, but provides us with a fresh dogma - "borderless commerce". The ranks of its apostles view the world through a "prism of economics". The new liturgy claims that open, unfettered world "trade" will overcome restrictive government policies, grant peace, freedom, prosperity and will last forever. It will redeem the world of its ills by considering issues through this restrictive prism. It sees humanity as driven solely by economic self-interest. It applies that view to business, government and society in general. It is Mammon in all his finery and power.

Saul's sprightly prose leads us through a chronology of the rise of Globalism, citing some of its most profound proponents along the way. He describes the methods used in creating the "global market". The prophets are known to all who took Economics 101 - Milton Friedman, Samuel Brittain and Robert Norvick. Globalism's converts, following their initiation, tended to remain out of sight, however. Saul notes the irony of an "open" system doing so much so quietly and with so little fanfare. Part of the reason for this covert manner was that avoiding publicity was important to its advocates. While quietly lobbying for "deregulation" or arranging multi-billion dollar mergers, the Globalists operated away from public scrutiny. Knowing the general populace would bear the brunt of paying for their dealings, keeping people ignorant of the impact was important. "Smooth waters and continuity" was the theme of those who avoided confronting reality. No dissent meant acceptance. Saul sees this approach as "management" of problems, not realistic leadership.

Globalism has achieved much, according to Saul. There have been shakeouts of inept or corrupt government-run programmes in many countries. Giant corporations girdling the planet have been established. The movement of material and products has been eased. Work has been given to those who might have never known what a factory was or what it produced. "Agribusiness" was an unknown term in the 1970s - it's a commonplace, now. Products on your table arrive from far away places. The shop's shelves are weighed down with a confusing variety of goods, whether grocery or clothing or electronics.

These accomplishments have come at a price. The transnationals move goods within themselves, creating an artificial trade picture - and an artificial state as a by-product. The maneuvers have led to grand fortunes. The 358 richest people have assets exceeding the combined incomes of countries containing 45 per cent of the world's population. People are dealt with as replaceable machines and community and human values have been shed. If jobs aren't easily exported, labour is invited to relocate. There are 17 million Muslim workers living among 450 million Europeans. These workers face lack of acceptance, an uncertain status and, often, downright hostility. Recent events in London indicate how long this condition has been running without solution.

Throughout the book, New Zealand is offered as the optimum case study. By the onset of Globalism, this island nation had "led the world in women's rights and public programmes". In the early 1980s that Pacific nation endorsed and implemented the gospel of Globalism into their economy and government. "Privatizing" was quietly instituted. The tax burden smoothly shifted from the top levels to the bottom. Over the years social programmes were dismantled, resources drained away by outsiders and the infrastructure fall into foreign ownership. The situation far exceeded the "branch plant" economy often bemoaned of here in Canada. Dissatisfaction on many levels brought a change in government. That turnover heralded a disavowal of Globalism's tenets. The new government had the sense not to attempt any disruptive shifts. The return to a realistic structure has been at a sedate pace. The result is achievement of what Saul calls "positive nationalism". New Zealand was a model for the West in the last century. It has become one again in the new one.

While the 1970s are viewed as a stagnant period, the 1990s displayed lively activity. Globalism seemed to have accomplished its goals. Many crowed of its "victory" over "narrow nationalism". There were a few disturbing signs. One, voiced by a newly elected French President, was his announcement that he was powerless in the face of forces that had destabilised oil prices, brought inflation and increased unemployment. It was the first signal that Globalism had triumphed over civil authority. The triumph wasn't complete, however. The Asian Fiscal Meltdown, which brought cries of "crony capitalism" and "false promises", was quickly quelled. Stability was restored by the Malaysian government striking a new chord. It refused to accept that the crisis was an economic one affecting the nation. Instead, Mohamed Mahathir decreed that the problem was a national one with economic overtones. It was the first sign of the resurrection of the nation-state. While the Globalist choir lamented the betrayal of their programme, two observers in the loft watched with interest - India and China.

Saul describes how a new rise of the nation-state should work. It's not an abrupt restoration. Too many forces exist and many people remain to be convinced it should take place. After New Zealand, the best example is the European Union's acceptance of Spain as a member. China and India follow as models. India, however, has shown how to keep the managers hatched by Globalism at bay and retain its independence. India also realistically deals with economic problems as national issues. Where the first publication of the Davos economic forum declared that "nationalism is indefensible", Saul argues that "positive nationalism" is the mechanism for retrieving us from the vacuum resulting from the collapse of the Globalism balloon. There are no other solutions visible.

This is a book that is needed. And needs to be read. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The Collapse of Globalism is a book-length version of an article John Ralston Saul first published in the March 2004 edition of Harper's magazine. Despite its sensationalistic title, the actual hypothesis and conclusions of the book are more nuanced and even anti-climactic.

Saul begins by explaining that what he means by Globalism is limited to an economic ideology and article of faith, often consisting of received ideas with little scientific basis, shoved down our throats by think tanks with corporate agendas and subservient media. The high priests of this ideology are to be found at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the ultimate love-in between governments and multinational corporations. Saul comments acidly that "Just as classic plays with kings, virgins, love and betrayal must have their fool, so Globalization had Davos."

In terms of actual economic events, Saul dates the inception of Globalism to August 15, 1971, when Washington decided to destroy the Bretton Woods monetary system, allowing the American dollar to float without fixed exchange rates. He charts Globalism's mixed record since that date.

As for its alleged successes, Saul convincingly makes the point that India and China, the most frequent poster children for Globalism, in fact owe their economic success to NOT following the prescriptions of Davos, but rather by consistently pursuing their own highly nationalistic points of view. This is why in 1997 China and India were not part of the Asian meltdown suffered by those countries which had more devotedly followed the Word.

The strength of Saul's book is that by giving a historical review of the ideology of Globalism, he demonstrates just how contingent, fallible and mythological it is.

The limitation of this book is that, somewhat surprisingly, it says very little about globalization. Saul acknowledges that aspects of globalization such as Internet connectivity and technology will continue to advance, and presumably the mixing of cultures as well. He seems to be agnostic as to whether "negative nationalism" will continue to grow, and in what form, or whether what he calls "positive nationalism" may still prevail.

The book's conclusion, that "If people who do not know each other well, perhaps because they come from different cultures, serve the welfare of their fellow citizens, they may well discover how similar their values are" is not only vanilla and anodyne to the point of ennui, it also flies in the face of extensive research such as the World Values Survey (cf. Ronald Inglehart's Modernization and Postmodernization) which shows no such global convergence of values.

In fact it is already clear that in addition to the top-of-mind "Jihad vs. McWorld", there is a growing values divide between the religious and materialistic United States, and the more postmaterialistic European Union (cf. Jeremy Rifkin's The European Dream), to the point that some members of America's creative class are now seeking more progressive pastures outside the US (cf. Richard Florida's The Flight of the Creative Class).

Despite its limitations, Saul's book is a worthwhile read, which confirms him as part of a new wave of Canadian public intellectuals (along with Naomi Klein, Malcolm Gladwell, Carl Honoré, Joel Bakan and Richard Wright, among others). These 21st century writers are thinking "outside the box" in a creative and vital attempt to navigate the largely uncharted conceptual territory in which the world now finds itself.

The book illustrates not so much the failure of globalism but the failure of modern economics which though not even at the level of a science has become almost a relgion. His biggest contribution on globalism is telling the biggest secret in the world today: That democracy, free trade, unregulated markets and the economic ideology of the west are not necessary for economic prosperity. He shows for example that in spite of China doing everything "wrong" according the models of modern economics, they are wildly successful. China prospers with exchange rates pegged to favor exports, a lack of political freedom, pays no attention to intellectual property rights and has heavyweight state planning and regulation.

In the west, he shows how deregulation of certain industries has rather than creating competition lead to the exact opposite. That rather than competition, the result is inevitably oligopoly or monopoly and division of markets. The only fact he misses on the subject is that the large corporations usually in reality have negative economies of scale operationally and that their competitive advange is based on negotiating discounts from suppliers (based on their volume) which are subsidized by their smaller competitors.

Where the book falls down is in offering solutions. Saul is too stuck in the past in that regard. But even with his limitations he is the most insightful and honest writer out there on these subjects.

This book documents "globalism" and its end. Note the ISM. This is not about global trade or global economics but rather about the ISM that commands that these are inevitable and must take priority over national security, quality of life, job security, law and order.

For 30 years academicians have worked to undermine countries, including the USA itself, by demanding that such countries are obsolete. As an American, I note that we are a country of laws and these folks worked to undermine law. They worked to undermine democracy and choice. They worked to convert the world to a single unelected government run by corporate cronies. This is globalism.

Most have never heard of it. Many will not believe it. Yet this is no conspiracy theory or work of fiction. This treason drove our politicians over the past decades thus producing in large part the ineffectual incompetencies of our leadership in that period. It also drove the widespread attacks on the middle class and our quality of life.

The story is magnificent. The book documents a wide range of little known fact and links them into the rise of neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism.

I find the author's writing a bit forced, a bit ponderous, but the material is worth getting past his quirks. Some bit of save-the-world ideology is also included, but must be in these kinds of treatise.

Buy it, read it, and then understand why your congressman and senator have sold you out, turned their back on Democracy, and become slaves to corporate corruption. Understand WHY AMERICA WENT WRONG.

If this were a series of audio tapes with an liberal allowance for extemporising, then I might give JR Saul a 5 star review. I found his style to be quirky, insightful and also, in many places, poorly argued or presented. Since I liked the book very much I struggled to come to terms with my personal feelings and my marginalia that indicated poorly argued prose. Then I struck upon an apt analogy.

Imagine JR Saul as your favourite university professor in undergrad. Also imagine that you have just pounded back a few single malt scotches and allowed him to ramble on completely unchecked whilst you listened.... usually what happens is that your mental mentor waxes philosophical, turns a few expected arguments on their head, launches upon a few absolutely brilliant points, fails to connect with significant gravitas on some crucial points and then goes completely off into the ozone with an argument that wouldn't get past a first year student of Economics.

Saul is all these things.

For his detractors they will always sieze upon the sometimes infantile logic of contradictions, and they are rife. Undeveloped ideas are left inchoate and larger themes are masterfully woven (the rise of Technocracy and Managerialism and the loss of risk and innovation in business) with such infantile statements that "there is no necessary reason why public institutions are less efficiently run then private" -- except of course the overall drive to succeed and profit motive! Which needs to be thrashed out in argument or at least acknowledged as a valid point of contention. Also the theme of the rise of the technocracy and managerial science trumping hardened strategic objectives of the kind of society one wants is one that cuts both ways: it can be seen as both the cause of corporatism in the 40s, 50s and 60s, as much as Saul sees it as an insipid reinforcement/cause of the rise of Globalism.

Saul is at his best when he is on politics and history and it really hits my conservative sympathies when he cites the fall of grand strategic policy making in circles outside of economics. Kissinger and Metternich in their amoral simplicity rise to almost the role of heros in such an analysis. But it is clear that the world, even in the age of Terrorism, has put much more emphasis on economics conferences as a tool of managing international affairs than strategy. The ideas of grand policy making are dead, and the technocrats as the new inheritor of the economic man.

Leaving aside the digressions that go nowhere, Saul does force one to think about new constellations of thought.... even if those constellations are often separated by a black hole of logic.

The beginning of this book was a difficult read. I toyed with the idea of just quitting the book, but finished reading it.
I found that the further I read in this book, the better it got!

Mr. Ralston has quite a bit of worthwhile historical information as well as his personal views on the World Economic Forum better known as "Davos". Of this group he examined the "normalization of unethical behavior."

He touches on the economic policies used by the IMF and World Bank. The author also quotes from a variety of well-known economists, particularly Joseph Stiglitz.

A subject that he frequents in the book is the struggle between nationalism and globalism with a few examples of countries that have rejected globalism and been successful with their type of economics. Malaysia being one.

I thought that the best chapter was "The End Of Belief",Part IV,Chapter 20. This chapter alone makes the book worth reading.

He invokes Theodore Roosevelt and his campaign "against privilege" targeting "men of wealth, who find in the purchased politician the most efficient instrument of corruption." He saw "privilege" as unregulated financial power, speculation, and lobbying. Not much has changed for the better on that front!!

Mr. Saul has written a comprehensive critique of globalism and it's failures.
Apart from the first few chapters, this is a very good book on the subject.

The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World is a must-read!

In this well researched and written book, John Ralston Saul summarizes the promise of globalization as follows:

- The power of the nation-state is waning;

- In the future, power will lie with global markets. Thus, economics, not politics and armies, will shape human events;

- These global markets, freed of narrow national interests and inhibiting regulations, will gradually establish international economic balances. Such markets will unleash waves of trade and a broad economic tide of growth for both rich and poor;

- And so we will at last have outgrown the eternal problem of boom-and-bust cycles....

In reality, nation-states and nationalism (good and bad) around the world are as strong as they were in the past - from the United States, to India, China, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, to name only a few places and regions.

Narrow national interests still play the major role in political decision-making across the globe.

The lack of regulation, especially in the financial industry, has recently brought about global financial crisis and recession.

Waves of trade and a broad economic tide of growth have made some corporations and individuals in the Western word extremely rich. All the while, the majority of the poor in the developing world are getting poorer while being exploited by multinational corporations.

Globalization, as we know it, is not working for the majority of the people around the world. That's why the reform of the entire system is urgently needed. John Ralston Saul starts the discussion and offers valuable suggestions in this very important book.

Not a fairy story, or a tale for the faint-hearted!

I bought this book second-hand,and highly recommend that others make use of this great service. The book is like new; it met my expectations after I read the description of the book as a used-book.

Globalization seems to be strong everywhere and in every country that I can think of. If you're not sure ask all the employees that are loosing their jobs as well as the businesses in China, India and Eastern Europe that are receiving these jobs. I think the book makes some interesting points but the points are more a matter of definition than reality. Other competing book on this topic are The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman and Stop Working by Rohan Hall.

I feel guilty writing a review for a book that I didn't complete. That said, this book was poorly written and hard to read. Not hard based on his examples or word use, but dry and lacking true insightful arguments. I think it was unoriginal and I was glad to get it back to the library.

I was hoping to use the book in one of my courses, but thankfully will look to something else.