The Downside of Globalization
Throughout the passage Chua appeals to the reader primarily through her claims and descriptions of the countries that are affected by a market dominant majority or globalization. She uses facts to show the reader the seriousness of this situation. She also appeals to the reader emotionally. She tells the story of her aunt who was a part of the Chinese market dominant minority in the Philippines and was murdered by one of the poor working class Filipinos. By using these two techniques Chua shows how big of a problem globalization and market dominant minorities are and the serious effects they have on the world.
A very strong claim that Chua makes at the beginning of the article is that market dominant minorities are the “Achilles’ heel of free market democracy.” (106). Her reasoning for this claim is that in a free-market democracy the free-market will favor the minority because of their wealth, while the democracy will favor the impoverished majority. This situation causes a great deal of tension because the poor majority sees the great wealth of the minority and becomes resentful because they see people of a different ethnicity come to their country and make a great deal of money. This leads to much of the ethnic violence in the world today. Chua uses the United States as an example. “Americans today are everywhere perceived as the world’s market dominant minority, wielding outrageously disproportionate economic power relative to out number. As a result, we have become the object of the same kind of mass popular resentment that afflicts the Chinese of Southeast Asia, the whites of Zimbabwe, and other groups” (106). With this she is illustrating that despite the relatively small population in the United States we have the most economic power in the world, therefore other countries have become resentful towards the United States.
Another claim that Chua makes is that globalization cannot be effective in the presence of a market dominant minority. She believes that when democracy and free-market are introduced to a country with a market dominant minority their will be a conflict between the masses. “When free-market democracy is pursued in the presence of a market dominant minority, the result, almost invariably, is backlash,”(108). Chua describes three types of backlash. The first one is when the wealthy minority is challenged by a market that may affect the wealth of the minority. The second type is when the market dominant minority attacks democracy fearing it will take away from their money and put more power in the hands of the poor majority. And the third type of backlash is violence from the poor majority inflicted on the wealthy minority. These things occur because the economically powerful minority will not allow something to interfere with their prosperity, therefore denying the poor majority the ability to better themselves economically. Chua gives an example of the third and most brutal type of backlash when she talks about the “ethnic cleansing”(110) of Croats from Yugoslavia.
These examples of backlash show that some parts of the world are presently not capable of adjusting to a free-market democracy.
In the article, “Globalisation and Terror” Helena Norberg- Hodge talks about many things such as ethnic hatred, the United States effort to end terrorism or the religious conflict. However she makes a point about globalization that relates well to Chua’s argument. Hodge describes her visit to Ladakh. She talks of how the people are content with their lives and how there are no poor in the villages. Then she describes how in 1975 the country was opened up to new development. Hodge describes the new situation for the small villages, “A new form of competition began to separate the Ladakhis from one another. As the ‘cheap’ subsidised goods from outside destroyed the local economy, Ladakhis were forced to fight for the scarce jobs of the new money economy.” (Norberg-Hodge). This shows that the Ladakhis were not about to support themselves from their natural resources anymore. They were unable to compete with the new forms of production and imported goods. The people were forced to seek jobs in the developing cities. This is an example of how globalization is bad for certain parts of the world. In this case free-market democracy was the creator of the impoverished majority. This relates to Chua’s claim because it is also showing that some places are not able to jump right into a free-market democracy.
In the article “The Myth of Global Ethnic Conflict” John R. Bowen supports Chua’s ideas by claiming that there are no ethnic conflicts. Bowen argues that, “”Ethnicity” becomes “nationalism” when it includes aspirations to gain a monopoly of land, resources, and power.” (Bowen). This argument is very similar to Chua’s in that they both claim that the so called “ethnic conflict” of the world is caused by the strife of populations to improve economically. Bowen also refers to the situation in former Yugoslavia between the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians. He identifies that all of these ethnicities speak the same language and have a great deal of interethnic marriages between them. The only differences between the groups are their religions, which were not the reason for the conflicts between the three groups. The conflict came because of the desire to have more power and control Yugoslavia.
Chua’s central argument in her article is that a free-market democracy cannot exist in a country where a market dominant minority exists. It is because of this problem that globalization is very ineffective in many parts of the world. Chua supports her argument when she states, “The combined pursuit of free markets and democratization has repeatedly catalyzed ethnic conflict in highly predictable ways, with catastrophic consequences, including genocidal violence, and the subversion of markets and democracy themselves” (113). This shows the results of globalization and why some places in the world are not fit for free-market democracy.
Chua offers solutions to market dominant minorities in the end of her article. She says, “The first and most obvious step is to isolate, where possible, and address where appropriate, the causes of market dominance of certain groups.”(114). She believes the best plan of action is to eliminate the causes of the market dominance. Chua also believes it will take a long time to achieve economic equality in some places, “To ‘level the playing field’ in developing societies will thus be a painfully slow process, taking generations if it is possible at all.”(115). So Chua thinks that it will take a great deal of time even out the economic playing field. Another possible solution is direct government intervention which Chua mentions when she talks about Malaysia’s New Economic Policy. In this policy, “The Malaysian government adopted seeping ethnic quotas on corporate equity ownership, university admissions, government licensing, and commercial employment.”(115). This enables the government to give more money back to the working class by forcing the wealthy to pay a little more for their prosperity.
