Is Globalization Driving Policy Convergence?

Clearly, the question seeks to establish a link, if any, between the system of globalization and the generation of a similar form of policy development and execution on a global scale. The importance of getting the appropriate answer to that question is that; firstly, on a theoretical level, it helps settle many mind games that have been existing and running through policymakers and analysts. Secondly, on a practical basis, the answer to such a question will enable the global community to draw a solid line between how much their policies should borrow from other countries policies without causing a substantial degradation in the cultural and the social stature of the individual countries.

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Albeit scholars have differed in opinions of whether there has been any policy convergence or not, most scholars seem to agree on the presence of a small extent of convergence in terms of policy especially after the world war II (Dowrick & DeLong 2003; Drezner 2001; Mosley 2005). In other words, the scholars agree to the fact that there is some policy convergence in various countries as globalization continues.

Insofar, considering the developed argument and the question developed for this document, the hypothesis that can be developed is: there is no policy convergence even as globalization establishes deeper roots in the world society. The major aim of such a hypothesis is to develop an approach that is unique and different from the one that the scholars considered in their respective studies. The notion being that with a negative approach or mentality towards proving the hypothesis (thus answering the question), there will be a stronger positive comeback in establishing a credible conclusion for the particular study. The hypothesis, therefore, is considered plausible since it will approach the study with an opposite mentality as compared to the considered empirical sources. Consequently, it is possible to develop and explore much fine details about the matter at hand with a more open-minded approach to the study.

Globalization has been in play since the introduction of the ICT systems, the development of well-established communication and travel networks, and also since the introduction of complex financial systems and policies such as derivatives. In other words, globalization was and has been triggered by the clustering of economic, technological and political developments and innovations which have been the major pioneers of creating a minimal barrier system of political, economic and cultural interaction and exchange on a worldwide basis (Drezner 2001).

On the other hand, policy convergence has been of major concern in which case there is a belief that the world's policy, country wise, have been changing in a similar manner and that they seem to borrow so much from each other (Dowrick & DeLong 2003; Mosley 2005). Specifically, aspects such as labor standards, environmental regulation, and different capitalism which defines most economic structures are the major aspects that define policies for many countries on a global scale. On a broader basis, the ability to tax capital, the environmental protection, the regulation of labor and the consumer health and safety policies are among the major policies that the countries are practicing and have a great commonality in as globalization continues. In this case, the policies have been seen to be more and more similar among countries which have introduced the idea of policy convergence (Drezner 2001).

According to Drezner (2001), there has been a great deal of concern pertaining the occurrence of convergence since free trade is increasing the susceptibility of labor to foreign exploitation and not to forget, it is making a foreign more susceptible to environmental harm as there are more developments from foreign countries due to globalization. In other words, globalization is leading to a great deterioration of the operations especially of commerce for a given country as globalization takes effect and alters the formulation, structure and the performance of policies within such countries.

In this situation, therefore, the variables can be taken to be globalization and policy convergence. In this case, globalization can be taken as the independent variable while the dependent variable shall be considered to be the policies of the countries. This is because, since the question is whether globalization drives policy convergence, the independent variable and the dependent variable should be as defined above.

Method and Case Selection

In this study, there will be an application of the congruence method of case study analysis. In this case, there will be the use of economic data, specifically the GDP, for China and the US countries as they are believed to be among the most globalized countries. For this purpose, GDP will be taken to represent a measure of the successful labor standards and the economic policies that are taken to be similar. As a whole, the extent to which the countries have similarity in their trend, the more the result will be taken to yield a drive of globalization to policy convergence between countries. In other words, the assumption is that the trend of GDP will be a good measure of the economic policies and the

Evidence and Conclusion

Consider a list of GDP values for the two countries considered in the study and a comparative trend line between the two sets of data over the given period of time in years.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 1: GDP values for US and China between the years 2006 and 2015,

Year / Country 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

China 2729 3523 4558 5059 6039 7492 8461 9490 10351 10846

U.S. 13855 14477 14718 14418 14964 15517 16155 16663 17348 17947

From the graph comparing the GDP values of the two countries, it is evident that there has been a gradual growth in value of the same for the period between 2006 and 2015. The essence of the curve is that the GDP is a good indicator of the growth of the economy especially in the times of globalization. As such, GDP is taken to be a measure of the monetary and fiscal policy of the subject country. The fiscal policy and the monetary policy of the respective countries are growing which can be taken to imply that the growing GDP in the two countries considered. Considering that China and America are great economies that have established great roots in influencing and growing each others economies, it is conclusive that the dawn of globalization has caused a consistent growth in the GDP.

Considering that the US and China have been influencing each others policies (monetary and fiscal) as already mentioned, it is conclusive that the countries would be said to have similar economic policies. Consequently, countries can be said to be relatively converging for the two considered countries over the period of the years incorporated. Further, judging from the specific spearmans correlation coefficients of the two curves, it is evident that the two countries have a strong relationship with growth in the GDP value over the given period. As already mentioned the two countries were taken such that the period of the considered years (independent variable) represented the notion or idea or existence of globalization while that of the GDP values represented the existence of policy convergence which has contributed heavily to ensuring the growth of the GDP.

Essentially, the presence of a strong R2 value that is close to one in each case only denotes the similarity in the fiscal and monetary policies between the United States and China as they are very active in trade activities with each other. To sum it all up, it is evident that the GDP values for each of the two countries have grown in a similar trend which implies a huge similarity between the monetary and the fiscal policies of the considered countries. It would be safe to conclude that the whole globalization event is creating a convergence of the policies that govern trade within the tested countries. As a result, the hypothesis given it the beginning of this paper can be rejected and a conclusion drawn that globalization has established the occurrence of policy convergence. Therefore, the answer to the question developed at the beginning of this document is, globalization is driving the convergence of policies in various countries worldwide.

References

Dowrick, Steve and J Bradford DeLong. 2016. Globalization In Historical Perspective. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Drezner, Daniel. 2001. Globalization And Policy Convergence. 1st ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Mosley, Layna. 2005. "Globalisation And The State: Still Room To Move?". New Political Economy 10(3): 355-362.