#5. The Democratic Malaise: Globalization And The Threat To The West, Charles A. Kupchan (2012)

1. #5. The Democratic Malaise: Globalization And The Threat To The West, Charles A. Kupchan (2012)

2. Globalization and US & EU public’s discontent Partisan & ideological confrontation Systemic nature of the nation’s dysfunction: congress standoff Income inequality & jobless recovery EU and aging pop. & conflict with new immigrants (Islamic issues) EU in disarray

3. What effect has globalization had on the Developing countries? • Rising democracies (Brazil, India and Turkey, etc. ) have used globalization • For improving their economic advancement. China uses its state capitalism to limit its liabilities. Liberal democracies have less control over policies as they are more open to electoral changes. • To expand their aggregate wealth, increase their investment trade and communication networks that triggered uprisings and popular resistance in undemocratic countries

4. What factors account for western inability to contend with Globalization ? • Governability of the West is in crisis- West’s open markets and level of market’s maturity has led to a shift in wealth distribution – rise of digital economy, deindustrialization, outsourcing, global trade, fiscal deregulation, trade imbalances, and successive market bubbles leading to fin.crises, have destabilized the political economies of the advanced industrial countries. • Long-term trends of wage stagnation, declining middle class and rising inequality in the West result from global integration of billions of cheap labour and global expansion of application of information technologies to manufacturing. Supply of production exceeded global demand that has led to increased crime, terrorism, unwanted immigration and threat to environment.

5. What factors account for western inability … (contd) • Reasons: • Traditional policies – stimulus spending (as national debt increases), & Europe’s reliance on monetary policies to tweak their econ fluctuations, are no longer suitable tools – thus they have less control over correcting the economic fluctuations. • To rebalance global economic issues, the Western economies require international cooperation that should include non-western countries’ demands, e.g., global warming. • Western democracies more adapted to distributing benefits to their electorate than at allocating austerity.

6. What must industrialized countries do to meet the challenges of the global market? Globalization has unleashed problems that should be solved if the West were to recover from the governance crisis. State leadership and planning strategies could counter balance state capitalism: investments in jobs, infrastructure, education, etc. Involve wider population and promote policies that advantage mass publics rather than party or pressure groups Revive democratic institutions to operate with transparency and impress the values of citizenship upon the public Educate the public’s preference for protectionism and isolationism