Review: In Defense of Globalization
| Author | Melani Cammett |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000230 |
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
I
Reviews
|
Given
that it is easy to read, makes complex economic and philosophi-
cal
ideas easy to understand, and does such a nice job of integrating the
political
and economic issues surrounding international trade and the
WTO,
Jones's book is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on
the politics of
globalization.
It should prove particularly useful for political
science
courses that tackle the subject, because of the way it handles the
economics
but keeps the reader focused on political matters.
Mark
R.
Brawley/McGill
University
IN
DEFENSE
OF
GLOBALIZATION
Jagdish
Bhagwati
New
York:
Oxford University Press, 2004. xii,
3o8pp,
$36.95 cloth
(ISBN
o-
19-517025-3)
In
the flurry of popular and scholarly books addressing the nature and
impact of contemporary economic globalization, Jagdish Bhagwati's In
Defense
of
Globalization
is an important contribution. As the title reveals,
the book articulates strong
support
for globalization, particularly in the
guise of free trade and direct foreign investment. Bhagwati's goal is to sys-
tematically
debunk the principal arguments of anti-globalization activists,
whom he divides into two camps: anti-establishment forces with total oppo-
sition
to market-based systems, and critics who focus on more specific
aspects of globalization yet, he contends, base their arguments on incom-
plete or poor information. Dismissing the former group, Bhagwati takes on
the arguments
of
the latter to expose flaws in their reasoning and reveal the
"human
face"
of globalization.
The
book is organized around a broad range of themes that, together,
encompass the major contemporary critiques of globalization. In
response to
critics'
arguments that globalization increases poverty and
income
disparities, undercuts worker rights and labour standards, imper-
ils
democracy, harms the economic and social positions of women, erodes
local
cultures, and harms the environment, Bhagwati aims to show that
the opposite is often true.
One
of
the great strengths
of
the book is to disaggregate the constituent
parts of
globalization,
which is often treated as an undifferentiated whole in
popular discourse. Bhagwati carefully distinguishes between different
] 592 I International
Journal
|
Spring
2005
|
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