'Globalization exacerbates human insecurity in both rich and poor Essay - 1

'Globalization exacerbates human insecurity in both rich and poor countries'.Discuss the implications of this statement for social policy and welfare regimes - Essay Example Human insecurity relates to various problems which people face in both rich and poor countries. These problems arise from the inability of people to exercise their choices safely and freely, thus leading to diminished confidence in the ability of the society to provide them with any hope for the future. They include hunger, crime, little or no access to health care, poor living conditions, famines, ethnic conflicts, social disintegration, terrorism, pollution, human trafficking and drug trafficking. These insecurities fall into several categories: economic insecurity, food insecurity, health insecurity, personal insecurity, environmental insecurity, community and cultural insecurity, and political insecurity. Globalisation is nothing new. It has been around from the 1800s. According to WTO (2008) it started in the middle of the 19th century and ended before the First World War. Since then, there has been two episodes which have been characterised by varying levels of international integration in trade, capital flows and movement of labour. According to Yeates (2002) globalization became an established term in social science and most recently in social policy. Liberal theory presents globalization as a welcome easing of political constraints upon economic production and exchange and as a force leading to greater political and economic integration worldwide. In fact some people see globalization as flows of capital, people and information and this makes them excited about the opportunities that come with it. Meanwhile, Hay and Watson (1999) and Teeple (1995) cast doubts on its true purpose and see it as the unfolding of oppression of different peoples by a dictatorial form of global economic regime. Those views form part of the critical theory which emphasises the belief that economic globalisation as a polarising force with many