The production and distribution of goods and services has always been a global phenomenon. It would in fact be quite hard to argue to the contrary. From long range networks of exchange spanning continents to human migration and travel including traversing oceans from thousands of years, “globalization” seems almost like the norm rather than the exception. It seems almost more strange that we consider it a purely modern phenomenon rather than to treat it as the default state. But modern, neoliberal capitalism has made “globalization” a central tenet of its political program. On paper what this modern globalization means is the elimination of barriers to international trade and creation of a “global” market of free trade. In reality, “globalization” in this modern sense is less about removing barriers between nations in an abstract sense and more about removing barriers for the movement of capital and commodities between nations while putting more heavy restrictions on the movement of people within them. In this sense “globalization” is almost a misnomer, as there is no discordance between globalization and heavy restrictions on immigration and travel. The goal of “globalization”, paired with neoliberal deregulation and austerity policies, is to create a system by which the people of the so-called “third world” are so impoverished and desperate that they will accept any work they can get; extracting resources and producing commodities to be shipped as the spoils of conquest to the imperial core. All the while restrictions on the freedom of movement for these people leaves them physically trapped in the system.
According to Quinn Slobodian, neoliberalism and globalization can be seen less of as a project of eliminating barriers to global free markets and more as a project of solidifying the positions of certain nations and capital groups above others in reaction to anti-imperialist, nationalist movements in the “third world”. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, various social movements in the global south made attempts at economic independence, nationalization of key industries, expanding democratic institutions, and providing for the needs of their people. In response to this, American and European corporations and governments utilized institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and frequently direct military action as well, to impose austerity, negotiate for free trade, and privatize industry. Slobodian emphasizes that this is not a project of market “liberalization” but instead a re-negotiation of the power relations between capitalist empires in a “post”-colonial world, using these global institutions as the means to consolidate power in their favor.
The aftermath of globalization in the global south has been nothing short of disastrous. Imposed through violence, and resulting in poverty, corruption, and ecological destruction, this modern globalization has created numerous crises around the world, with very few successes to its name. In Chile, mining, forestry, and agriculture have been successful industries, but most of the wealth generated from this extraction has gone directly to corporations in the global north, with most of them dodging what little taxes there were to be paid on their profits. The news isn’t all bad though, resistance to these policies have existed from the very beginning, and in recent years has culminated in significant electoral victories. While I personally wouldn’t recommend relying on an election to change the world, the ability for politicians to get elected on a platform of opposing neoliberalism and globalization is a positive indicator of the power of people over corporations.
Henderson, Elizabeth T., Abhilasha Srivastava, Arthur MacEwan, and Jawied Nawabi. Real World Globalization, 21st Ed, 2022.
Slobodian, Quinn. “Making Sense of Neoliberalism.” Harvard University Press
Blog, March 15, 2018. Accessed June 6, 2025.
https://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2018/03/making-sense-of-neoliberalism-quinn-slobodian.html.
Slobodian, Quinn, and Dieter Plehwe. “Neoliberalism Beyond the Heartlands.”
ProMarket, October 20, 2022. Accessed June 6, 2025.
https://www.promarket.org/2022/10/21/neoliberalism-beyond-the-heartlands/.