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Power Inequalities
R The division of the world into bounded societies under the authority of national governments, which emerged over the last two centuries, has been challenged in the last few decades by the growing interconnectedness of people and their activities. This process of global integration has diverse implications, from the apparent diminution of the power of national governments, through the rise of new global financial and environmental challenges, to questions about the adequacy of global representation, and the rising importance of global economic discourse and ideology. Nonetheless, national governments remain the dominant actors, and those that have industrialized are the most influential, with global power roughly corresponding to overall economic output. Fueled by the industrial revolution, the share of the world GDP contributed by the West has grown over the last two centuries, but since the beginning of the 21st century the hierarchy of power has begun to change with the rapid industrialization of the two massive economies of China and India. Countries that have been unable to industrialize have much less influence. Those with only a small number of exportable goods face an uphill struggle for foreign exchange and industrialization. The government of the largest economy, the USA, frequently acts as if it were the government of the world. On other occasions, self-appointed groups of industrialized countries, the G5, G8, and G20, make global decisions on certain topics, while avoiding discussion of others. Thus, these governments exercise ideological power by influencing the framework of desires and goals. They control the public agenda, and dominate international agreements on issues such as trade tariffs, intellectual property laws, agricultural subsidies, international aid, and military assistance. Military spending dwarfs spending on health and education in many countries. In OECD countries, it also overshadowed development assistance by a factor of around 10:1 in 2005. Greater possibilities for increased freedom and capabilities can emerge at local, national, and global levels if expenditure is directed to the improvement of equality of daily living conditions and security. The most intimate forms of power, in the home, over language and at work, are also influenced by government action and global ideas. These forms of power are difficult to map, although this section does explore how the power of citizens influences government, through the rise of democratic forms of government, and how the modern state exercises social control via imprisonment and execution.
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R International trade is a powerful factor in determining the extent to which poor countries are able to share equally in global prosperity. The benefits of trade are, however, unevenly distributed, partly because industrialized countries maintain trade barriers in the form of high tariffs against goods from poor countries while maintaining mutually favorable terms with other rich countries. The percentage of total exports represented by manufactured goods is one indicator of prosperity. By this measure, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are falling behind. Although most industrial countries, including the USA, followed policies to protect their infant industries as they were industrializing, that route is now discouraged by international financial organizations, including the IMF and WTO, which promote free trade.
International Trade
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This dissemination of global ideas in favor of free trade and against the protection of “infant industries” may have reduced the capacity of poorer economies to diversify and to promote industrial production. Some developing countries depend on a limited number of agricultural commodity exports, making them vulnerable to volatile and falling prices. Free trade ideas have done little, however, to restrain rich countries from subsidizing their own agricultural production, the surplus from which is “dumped” overseas, undercutting local producers. Power is also exercised by rich countries through the imposition of rules on intellectual property rights, making the transfer of technology expensive for poor countries, and raising the price of medicines, which adversely affects the health of the poor.
Globally determined commodity prices, and the high tariffs imposed by rich countries on imports from poorer nations, favor the rich and create barriers to trade equality.
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R The ratio of government expenditure on the military to that on education and health is a rough but revealing indicator of social priorities. Local conflicts and global tensions have some influence on raising expenditure on the military and reducing the ratio between social and military spending, but so does an absence of governmental or societal concern for health and education. A small number of mostly small states have managed without overt military forces. In many cases, these countries also have high levels of social spending, often with markedly positive impacts on reducing inequalities and improving well-being. Some states, such as Costa Rica, manage to combine high well-being with relatively low government spending and low economic growth.
Budget Priorities
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From the late 1970s, the rise of neo-liberalism, which seeks to minimize the role of the state and maximize the private business sector, encouraged governments across the globe to privatize state industries and reduce state spending. Healthcare, education and social security were disproportionately cut, while many states protected military spending. These ideas led to widespread austerity. An increase in inequalities followed, with women in many poor households taking on extra work to substitute for lost livelihoods, and to pay for education, health and social support. Social spending is higher in industrial countries than in the developing world, but better basic safety nets could prevent illness and other personal disasters causing a rapid descent into poverty for those living on a financial knife edge.
The proportion of GDP that governments spend on the military, healthcare, education, and social security provides one measure of their social priorities.
40–41 Gender R
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R Diverse forms of government action, from wage laws to taxation, and the provision of education and healthcare to the redistribution of land, seek to address inequality. Such actions from those in power are usually in response to pressures, representations and movements from, among others, workers, minorities, peasants and women. They include a range of measures, both coercive and persuasive. Laws that set a minimum wage are one way of increasing the income of the poorest workers. They are likely to be more effective where people are formally employed in the industrialized
