Globalization and the Caribbean
“The onset of globalization (however defined) has provided the Caribbean with an excellent opportunity to reform and refocus their societies and economies towards real competitive engagement with the global political economy.” Critique this statement within the confines of either a dependency theory or Marxist theory.
This essay seeks to critically assess the above statement within the confines of a dependency theory. The essay will show that dependency theory does not make room for the reformation or refocusing of Caribbean economies or societies through globalization and that globalization is more an intensification of the pre-existing and fore gone socio-politico-economic paradigms of the region from the earliest days of European settlement. Globalization has varying definitions and theories surrounding it. Director of the London School of Economics, Anthony Giddens, sees globalization as an intensification of worldwide social relations linking localities, such that local happenings are shaped by events many miles away and vice versa1. The Caribbean has always been a region where external happenings have played vital and important roles in determining local happenings. During colonialism the colonies were subject to the rules laws and regulations as passed by the colonial power within whose empire they belonged. Though the colonies did have significant and direct impacts on their respective empires and did in fact help make the metropolitan countries into the developed countries they are today, they did not benefit socially or economically from the wealth they created. The region was exploited for its raw materials to supply to the metropolitan states and was never designed to be in a position to compete with in the international markets. In other words, as part of the empire the region was not a collection sovereign states trying to survive in the international arena but was part of a whole, and their role, as part of that whole, was to supply raw
This essay seeks to critically assess the above statement within the confines of a dependency theory. The essay will show that dependency theory does not make room for the reformation or refocusing of Caribbean economies or societies through globalization and that globalization is more an intensification of the pre-existing and fore gone socio-politico-economic paradigms of the region from the earliest days of European settlement. Globalization has varying definitions and theories surrounding it. Director of the London School of Economics, Anthony Giddens, sees globalization as an intensification of worldwide social relations linking localities, such that local happenings are shaped by events many miles away and vice versa1. The Caribbean has always been a region where external happenings have played vital and important roles in determining local happenings. During colonialism the colonies were subject to the rules laws and regulations as passed by the colonial power within whose empire they belonged. Though the colonies did have significant and direct impacts on their respective empires and did in fact help make the metropolitan countries into the developed countries they are today, they did not benefit socially or economically from the wealth they created. The region was exploited for its raw materials to supply to the metropolitan states and was never designed to be in a position to compete with in the international markets. In other words, as part of the empire the region was not a collection sovereign states trying to survive in the international arena but was part of a whole, and their role, as part of that whole, was to supply raw
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