Cultural Impacts of Globalization
The Spread of the American Political and Economic Model
In addition to cataloging the influences of globalization on culture, students of this phenomenon should ask to what extent the effects on culture are negative or positive, and why they are happening. The mechanisms of cultural globalization are numerous and come from different sources. Thinking about globalization in the broadest possible terms, there are three principal ways that globalization can be seen to have an impact on global culture. These occur through: 1. the development of a new culture of the globally connected professionals and especially business elites; 2. the proliferation of pop culture—which many critics complain is primarily American; and 3. the diffusion of beliefs and values about broader issues such as human rights and other social mores. Debates over these cultural issues are not simply esoteric ones either. Cultural issues have in fact been prominent in the outcome of several trade negotiations and in other kinds of international disputes. Each of these three ways that culture is affected by globalization has implications for decisions made by government policymakers and political systems. Cultural Impact #1: New Global Professions Many observers of globalization have come to recognize a new class of people who are generally well-educated, trained professionals in the business field, who have developed a kind of global common culture. Harvard University Professor Samuel Huntington has characterized this group of global professionals as the "Davos culture," named after the Swiss luxury resort locale of an annual, informal meeting of very select and elite businessmen, financiers, and heads of states. Although the participants at these meetings do not represent governments, make policy decisions, or negotiate any agreements in any official capacity, they do share ideas and put forth proposals pertaining to global economic concerns. Huntington sees these individuals as drivers of global economic processes and as a force for pursuing the business agenda of further globalization. The members of this group, hailing from various places around the world, are largely proficient in English. Also, from their offices in their native countries, they are immersed in a shared world of computers, cell phones, and flight schedules. Huntington is disdainful of this group for presuming that their predominantly Western ways of doing business and living will supersede traditional cultural values. He identifies this group of elites as being largely responsible for driving the global agenda on foreign affairs and trade talks. Robert Reich, who served as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton and whose political views are very different from Huntington's, has also noted the existence of this group. However, Reich draws a broader definition of its membership, including a large number of professionals within the United States. Although much of Huntington's thesis focuses on the differences between various civilizations, Reich points out that this cultural globalization is also creating a division withinAmerican society (Reich, 1991). For Reich, this new class of globalized professionals accounts for approximately 15 to 25 percent of the U.S. population. He observes that the members of this group:
think in cosmopolitan rather than national terms;
have high skill and education levels and, as such, benefit the most economically from globalization;
speak foreign languages;
travel internationally;