Globalization and the American Economic Institution

As Henslin (2005) posited, a social institution is part of the culture. Social relations, including social roles, form the major elements of any social institution. They are created by human beings; operate for, and through, them. These structures are realtively permanent (Fichter, 1961), and they are organized and unified, having each one of them their own set of values, roles, and norms.

Therefore, Henslin defined social institutions as the organized instruments that each society develops in order to meet its basic needs. Every society, from tribal to postindustrialized, whether it is traditional oriented or based on rationality, has social structures which are essential to them because without them social life would be unimaginable (Fichter).

Since the Middle Ages, the pattern of behavior that we observe in our postindustrial society was already present at some degree.

There are different institutionsby which our pluralistic society meets its basic needs and that, considered together, form our institutional system. Among them, we have, for instance, the family, religion, politics, law, economics, education, science, medicine, the military, and the mass media. The last one, mass media, plays an important role in our society, and it is considered as an emergent institution (Henslin). In addition, it is recognized the relevant role that this structure played during the Medieval period through the difussion of the literary output from antiquity to contemporary events.

These institutions are interdependent of one another, and even some of themcan be considered as part of a subgroup of a larger one (e.g., law as part of the political institution) (Fichter).

The economic structure in America has been used as an archetype for the sociological analysis of social institutions in postindustrial societies, and today it continues to be studied as such, given the influence that it has in the global economy.

Acording to Fichter, this structure configures the behaviors by which there is an exchange of commodities and services. It has different groups or organizations that are contained within it, such as banking, accounting, and the like; and it is considered the dominant institution within the complex American institutional system.

In our culture, the educational, religious, political, and familial institutions, are impacted by the transformations that occur in the economy.

Steger, M. B. (2002) made an important differentiation between the terms globalism and globalization. The former is defined as an ideological framework that imparts a set of norms, values, and connotations to globalization; while the latter refers to the ever-changing social development as it is identified and illustrated by different analysts, and, periodically, described in contradictory ways. Yet, globalization and globalism are used as interchangeable terms that convey the notion of an increase in the international trade and consumption of goods, including technology and information.

Thus, we might say that during the Middle Ages, before and then later, the world has experienced the increase of international interdependency, whilea globalistic framework was underway in order to assimilate the changes brought by the globalization of the culture.

Isaak, R. A. (2005) referred to globalization as the accelerated social and economic transformation that occurred in the sectors of finance, technology, and communication, and which culminated "in a radical drop in the cost of information".

According to Isaak, this change came after a series of steps were taken by the wealthy nations in order to free up global markets for those sectors in which they have a comparative advantage while protecting their own vulnerable sectors from the competition of low-wage countries.

The welthy nations imposed a series of rules that have to be applied as soon as possible in order to reap the benefits accordingly. Those measures are (Isaak):

• Economic liberation: right to private property
• Macroeconomic stabilization: control of inflation, cut deficits, convertible currency
• Privatization: socialize costs and privatize gains

However, in some academic circles is disputed the conceptualization of globalization as an analytical model regarding the limits in the nature of the process, and even its originality (Steger).

Polillo & Guillen (2006) made a comprehensive study on the influence that globalization exerts in our economy, and, as a result, on how it affects the social institutions. Their theoretical approach was outlined based upon the systematic sociological premises of world-system, world-society, and neoinstitutional worldviews; and theirstudy used the empirical specificity of the independency of the central bank as the fundamental state structure dealing with monetary policy.

It was determined that globalization is shaping financial procedures "along more technocratic lines that tend to benefit certain groups of policy makers and external contituencies"; and this situation has made the executive branch of our government to lose control over monetary policy (Polillo & Guillen).

Some have viewed this argument as a validation that globalization is threatening the sovereignty of our nation. Additionally, a case can be made regarding this situation and the one experienced 1, 000 years ago in the "Roman Empire".

On the other hand, globalization, as an impressive trading increase phenomena, appears not to have too much effect on major macroeconomics variables, which is in harmony with those arguments that recognize international trade as just a microeconomic event that has consequences only at the sectoral level, instead of producing an "all-encompassing macroeconomic effects" (Nourzad, F., 2005). This microeconomic singularity does not preclude the fact that it has brought negative results for us (e.g., unemployment), and, thus, damaging other social structures of our culture (e.g., family, welfare system).

Furthermore, globalization has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, making it "thoroughly systematic" (Isaak). Wealthy nations have the possibility to adapt faster than those countries with limited resources, while at a microsociological level the same holds true for the individual: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (Isaak).

As a result, Isaak posited that many crises are lurking in the near future, such as, unemployment, epidemics, enviromental degradation, and "the loss of legitimacy of American hegemony".

The process of globalization has dramatically influenced the makeover that we are experiencing today in our economic institution.

This development has made our dominant social structure more interdependent of foreign economic institutions, and, by inference, it has influenced the behavior of other American institutions, affecting more people in many ways than ever before.

Some segments of the American culture have moved at a rate faster than others have. This cultural lag has brought, among others, lack of medical care for many people, inconsistencies in the access to proper education, and changes in values and norms.

One area where the cultural lag is better observed is in communications. The constant and intensive flow of information have changed the way that many people interact in today's world, and not everybody have equal access to those technological innovations.

Notwithstanding the amount of research that has been done in this area, further studies should focus in the correlation that globalization is having in specific social organizations of our country. Additionally, systematic studies in historical sociology could assist us to evaluate properly a revolutionary development that encompasses the whole world.

References

Fichter, J. H. (1961). Institutions. "Sociology". (6th ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Henslin, J. M. (2005). "Sociology: A down-to-earth approach". (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Isaak, R. A. (2005). "The globalization gap: How the rich get richer and the poor get left further behind". (1st ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.

Nourzad, F. (2005). Macroeconomic and sectoral effects of international trade: A vector error-correction study. "Atlantic Economic Journal", 33 (1). Retrieved June 14, 2006, from Infotrac database.

Polillo, S.; Guillen, M. F. (2005). Globalization pressures and the state: The worldwide spread of central bank independence (1). "The American Journal of Sociology", 110 (6). Retrieved June 14, 2006, from Infotrac database.

Steger, M. B. (2002). "Globalism: The new market ideology". (1st ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.