Democracy and Human Rights
Democracy and Human Rights
With society being increasingly influenced by factors rooted all over the world, individuals within states are facing challenges in democracy. Globalization is changing democracy, a structure supported by capitalism, while capitalism is feeding the speed and expansion of globalization. I will focus on the cultural dimension of globalization as discussed by Cunningham in the article “Democracy and Globalization”. Economically strong cultures like the United States are dominating the spread of media and consumer products, resulting in diverse countries growing together based on this American sameness. Media and products reflect the overarching cultures, and attitudes of a given country; the American culture is being spread at the pace of globalization.
While I agree emerging global culture is apparent, I do not believe as strongly as cosmopolitans who see society as bound by shared values, human rights, democratic participation, laws etc. The world is far from being bound by shared values; a shared culture is emerging and exists, but core values are still widespread, conflicting and diverse. For example, issues of women rights, sexuality, religion, and family vary to extremes. It is evident that that the idea of and “global civil society” presents many challenges to the views of cosmopolitans.
Generally speaking, American attitudes are heavily focused on materialism; success is difficult to measure, but material objects help provide a metric for many. Knowledge, power, talent and influence are equated to material items. I believe this concept reflect well with Macpherson’s “possessive individualism” theory, which argues that skills are viewed as a market commodity and encourages constant increases in consumption. I think this culture of consumption is based heavily on this need to equate skills and achievements to something. The link between this idea, and capitalism with globalization – as mentioned before – are driving this culture of consumption to a global level. This culture is unsustainable, especially in countries far from the economic level of the United States. The culture of consumption will only spread problem of inequality.
I believe that the American culture, spread by entertainment, has become (maybe unwillingly) a fascination of societies in different countries. Spending most of my life in Canada, I would reject the idea of the United States having this sort of influence. However, in my travels through the less developed parts of South East Asia, I encounter time and time again, reflections of a materialistic culture and the entertainment which brings it about. Friend’s episodes playing 15 hours of the day in streets of Laos, American rap music playing as I take off on a flight, Christina Aguilera blaring in my cab rides through rural areas, American “Cosmopolitan” magazine laying in restaurants in villages, and copies of US box office hits sold everywhere. The effect are there too – the way people dress, speak, and where they spend their money.
I agree with Macpherson’s premise that the concept of possessive individualism prevents individuals from developing “uniquely human capacities”. I believe these are the exact qualities (rationality, moral judgment, friendship..) needed to globalize effectively, but are the ones being smothered instead. The materialistic attitude restrains any development of human qualities and growth. Globalization seems to be restricting the expansion of tradition customs and views and replacing them with sameness in culture. The forceful cycle of capitalism, globalization and changing democracy is evident and strong.
