Characteristics of the New Global Order

Globalization is changing the world. Expanding populations required greater agricultural and industrial productivity. Families are changing as are sources of social status. Material goods have become widely available but are not necessarily equitably distributed.

The Demography of Globalization

Declining mortality rates have boosted the world’s population dramatically but at faster rates in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Wealthier nations and the poorest nations show slower growth rates or declining rates. China’s burgeoning growth rates led the government to adopt a "one-child policy." In wealthier nations, declining birthrates came as a matter of choice and lifestyle.

   Families:

The definition of family has become fluid, with divorces and out-of-wedlock births increasing.

   Aging:

People live longer, creating older populations. Lower fertility rates have allowed the percentages of older citizens to gain on the percentages of younger people. This increasingly burdens a society seeking to support an expanding aged population. In societies that have no welfare programs, this creates dire circumstances.

   Health:

In rich, modernized cities, epidemics have been held in check. Developing nations hosting urban squalor, however, still have trouble containing disease. The spread of AIDS has changed personal behavior and has led to a variety of expensive treatments unavailable in poorer nations where education has not been readily available.

   Education:

In some areas like India, more men are more educated, while women still lag behind, often laboring under severe poverty. In the United States, women secure more than half of all college degrees. In China, education has gained great strides but still has far to go in rural areas, particularly for women.

   Work:

Women have entered the workplace in greater numbers but have yet to reach parity with men in their competition for top positions. Child care continues to divide the time of women. Working women in Canada and Australia needing child-care services often employ others who frequently end up being women from Jamaica or the Philippines with children of their own.

   Feminism:

Feminist calls for changes in the status and condition of women went global in the 1970s. Seeking equal pay and opportunity, global feminism fights discrimination that keeps women in positions of subordination. In 1995, Beijing hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women to produce "a platform for action" on policies affecting women.

Production and Consumption in the Global Economy

Production and consumption have also changed considerably. How to feed a global population has been the predominant challenge.

   Agricultural Production:

Chemistry and biology have accelerated agricultural production, but more so in America and Asia than elsewhere, where opening new land by destroying rain forests is cheaper. In Africa, agriculture simply has not kept up due to political constraints, lack of incentives, and poor markets for goods. Starvation, therefore, became common during the 1980s.

   Natural Resources:

Americans produce much, but they consume great quantities of water, energy, and fossil fuels. In 1991, these consumption needs led to the Gulf War.

   Environment:

Pollution has become a problem of global proportions. Many polluters have merely moved to poorer nations, thus shifting the onus. Pollution in poorer nations is often the price paid for economic development and payment of international loans. As pollution problems rise, national leaders find it increasingly difficult to reach agreements. In 1986, Chernobyl’s meltdown signaled a new level of international urgency.

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