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Economic
Paradigms and Democracy in the Age of Financial Globalization
Whether or
not there exists a
standard definition of the term Globalization, there is a broad agreement
with the fact that the process of Globalization has had and continues to have
profound impact on various aspects of human life. Globalization is not a new
phenomenon for it has been a long-term gradual process of change, which affects
every aspect of human life and being affected by the human enterprise, since
the days of Columbus, and yet at the same time it is irregularly punctuated by
episodes of dramatic change. Ever since the Columbian voyage initiated the
process of intermingling of the continents of Europe and the Americas,
Globalization has been influencing and reshaping every part of the world in all
aspects of human life – social, cultural, economic, political, biological and
ecological aspects.
In
the recent past, there were two intense periods where the process of
globalization induced dramatic changes across the world. The first wave
happened in the late nineteenth century up to the First World War, which was
characterized by extensive trade networks across various continents under European
Colonialism. The second wave happened in the twentieth century, starting
from the 1980s to the present day, characterized as free market Capitalism led
by the phenomenal development of the financial markets, and called as the financialization
phase of Globalization or simply Financial Globalization.
