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The question posed seems to be unrelated and disconnected: does globalization, a greater degree of freedom in terms of international trade, have an impact on the level of civil and political freedom in a country? Does advocating free trade have any impact on the level of freedom in a country for its citizens? In the work of Li and Reuveny (2003), these questions are connected in the sense that the political freedom in a country is linked to the inflow of trade into one country. In the findings of the authors, it was discovered that free trade has a direct impact on the degree of democracy being exercised in a jurisdiction.
Though initial foreign capital inflows will strengthen the levels of democracy in a country, it will wane. The authors find that with higher levels of free trade and investment inflows coming into a country, this will spur economic development; however, this will weaken the hold of tyrants on their countries as globalizations opens opportunities for their country to develop sans the need to pay the dues being exacted by the government. Hence, it can be said that autocrats will resist the introduction of mechanisms that will threaten their hold on power, free trade or otherwise. On the other hand, the authors also point to another possibility-that the state can develop policies that will develop the economy and open the barriers to the economy, which are the main points of globalization, but only to benefit the investors and the government, thus hampering democratic growth. In ending, the authors posit that there will be decisions to be made regarding globalization and democracy, society and government must come together to coordinate the development, implementation, and oversight of the policies to ensure that the people will derive maximum benefit from it.
Works Cited
Li, Quan, Reuveney, Rafael, “Economic globalization and democracy: an empirical analysis” British Journal of Political Science 33 (2003), pp. 29-54
