Questions from the Introduction and first two chapters of Scott Sernau. 2009. Global Problems. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Introdution: The Global Century
Terms
Lusitania 1
Economic globalization 1
Political globalization 1
Cultural globalization 1
Santana 2
Culture shock 8
Questions
1. Where and when was the Bantu expansion? 3
2. What is Mandarin? 4
3. What is the "common ethnicity" of China? 4 [A; Han Chinese]
4. What empires did the Great Silk Road connect (according to the text)? 4
5. "The world of 1450 was one of scattered empires connected by a vast web of ______." 5
6. According to the text, the 1400s were the ______century, the 1500s were the ______century, the 1600s were the ______century, the 1700s were the ______century, the 1800s were the _____ century, and the 1900s were the ______century. 5-7
7. What three forces does the text identify as central to debates about the modern world? 7-8
8. Define capitalism, imperialism, and industrialization. 7-8
9. When and where did the Industrial Revolution begin? 8
10. What is the largest established in South America? In Asia? In Africa? 9
Chapter 1 Class: A World of Rich and Poor
Terms (lu means "look up," probably somewhere else, like Wikipedia)
Human development index (HDI) 15
Gini coefficient 16
Laissez-faire 18
Class consciousness (Marxist perspective) 20
World Trade Organization 20 lu
Peróns in Argentina 23 lu
Antitrust legislation lu
Free world 28
IMF 28 lu
World Bank 28 lu
neocolonialism 29 lu
culture of poverty 33
fatalism 33
blaming the victim 33 lu
Monopoly (the Parker Brothers game) 34
Tragedy of the commons 34 lu
philanthropy 36 lu
Qs
1. Be able to find the Bahamas on a map. What ocean is it in or next to? (up to you)
2. T F According to Sernau, in most countries there are very few people between the rich and impoverished. 14
3. The richest 5 percent of the world's people receive more than ______times the income of the poorest 5 percent. 16-7
4. [extra credit] Which of the billionaires listed in Table 1.2 walked within 6 feet of Prof. Backman? [A; Li Ka-shing from Hong Kong] 17
5. What famous book about economics was written in 1776? 18
6. In his day, Adam Smith would have been considered a(n): a) conservative, b) neoconservative, c) liberal, d) neoliberal, e) libertarian 18
[Note: Smith is not usually considered a utilitarian in spite of what the textbook says.]
7. T F Marx believed that capitalism was the most productive economic system yet conceived (at least when he first started thinking about such things). 19
8. List the four contradictions of capitalism identified by Marx. 19-20
9. What would be the basis of pure communism, according to Marx? 20
10. Economically speaking, what is privatization? 21
11. What, according to the text, was the basic idea(s) of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's "neosocial" policies in Brazil. 21
12. The joke in Russia after the fall of communism was, "Everything the communists told us about communism was ______. Unfortunately, everything they told us about capitalism is ______." 31
13. Which countries had communist revolutions that Marx would not have expected? Why would he not have expected them? 22
14. How do state socialist systems differ from Marx's communist ideal? 22
15. What was the "Washington consensus" of the 1980s and 1990s? 23 How did it work out in Latin America? 23
16. T F No economic system is purely capitalist, with no government involvement. 23
17. What was the first and most enduring of governmental efforts to step into the breach created by unequal access to resources and resulting unequal opportunities? 24
NOTE that the scale from Figure 1.2 on p. 25 (Percent of Children Living Below National Poverty Lines) should be 0 5 10 15 20 25 30, not 0 50 100 150 200 250 300.
NOTE also that the legend on Figure 1.2 on p. 25 is wrong. The light colored bars (the top bar for each country) give the child poverty rate AFTER taxes AND TRANSFERS, while the dark bars give the child poverty rate BEFORE taxes AND TRANSFERS. The poverty lines are 50 percent of the post tax and transfer median income in the country.
18. How does the text describe the "welfare state systems" of the Nordic countries (Scandinavia)? 26
19. What is the underlying premise of modernization theory? 26
20. T F Modernization theory is close to the ideas of Adam Smith, while dependency theory relies more on the ideas of Karl Marx.
21. The idea that developing nations need modern institutions is part of which theory of economic development described in the text? Which institutions is the theory talking about? 27
22. Which has been the preferred theory of the United States in the years since WWII concerning economic development, modernization theory or dependency theory? 27
23. According to dependency theory, dependency brought exploitation. What does this mean? 29
24. According to dependency theory, dependency brought domination. What does this mean? 29
25. According to dependency theory, dependency brought distortion. What does this mean? 29
26. Which theory argues that the poor countries were not always poor, modernization theory or dependency theory? 29
27. One view of why Africa is poor is the recent orgy of industrial imperialism that divided the continent and only began to relinquish its hold in the last few decades. Is this the modernization view or the dependency view? 31
28. When does the text argue that inequality and desperate poverty began to appear in the world? 31
29. T F The text argues that some societies have seen modernization, some have seen dependency, but they simply cannot occur side by side. 32
30. According to the text, markets work best under conditions of relative ______, but over time they tend to produce conditions of extreme ______. 33 [Explain this, at least in part, using the creaming principle and the exploitation principle from lecture.]
31. Know the eight Millennium Development Goals. 34-5 IMPORTANT
32. What group/organization came up with the Millennium Development Goals? 34
33. What does the text think of the amount of attention the Millennium Development Goals have received in wealthy countries like the United States? 34
34. What is the "double divide" the text argues the world faces? 36
35. What is the group called ONE? 37
Chapter 2 Work: The Global Assembly Line
Terms
labor market 41
mechanical solidarity (Durkheim) 41
organic solidarity (Durkheim) 41
Protestant work ethic 42
container ship 44 lu
postindustrial 44 lu
offshoring 45
outsourcing 45
maquiladora 48
NAFTA 48
la frontera 48
CEO 50 lu
Big box store 51
[economic] comparative advantage 57 lu
Breton Woods conference 60 lu IMPORTANT
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
privatization
Qs
1. Be able to find Mauritius on a map. What ocean is it in or next to? (up to you)
2. How has Mauritius fared economically in recent years in comparison with nearby African countries? 40
3. Adam Smith believed that the great efficiency of the capitalist societies of his day lay in their ______. 41
4. How does a division of labor make for greater efficiency? 41
5. Compare mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity (according to the ideas of Emile Durkheim). Would people living in Auburn today be more likely to have mechanical solidarity or would the Native Americans who lived here in the 1600s?
6. What did Weber argue true Protestant capitalists would do with the money they made? 42
7. Did Marx agree with Smith about specialization and productivity? What did Smith think, anyway? 43, 41
8. What, according to Marx, made work under capitalism alienating? 43
9. What is deindustrialization? Which kinds of countries have been deindustrializing? 44
10. What fraction of the world's largest economic entities are countries and what fraction are corporations? 45
11. What two prerequisites to successful offshoring does the text specify? 45
12. What does outsourcing have to do with the future for U.S. college students? How does it change the competition they will face? 45
13. In 2000, what country had the largest economy? What company had the highest sales? What country had second highest? 46 [Note that by 2003, that second highest had become company with the highest sales (see p. 51).]
14. What was the Bracero program? In what ways was it successful and in what ways did some people think it was not? What was Operation Wetback and what was its relation to the Bracero program? 48
15. How does the use of maquiladoras differ from the use of braceros? 47-48
16. Name at least two of the pairs of "twin cities" along the US Mexico border. 48
17.T F Judging from the comments reported in the textbook, a positive spirit of shared endeavor is shared by both workers and managers in the maquiladoras. 48-9
18. According to the text, the solution the Mexican government came up with for problems due to undrinkable tap water in the 1950s and 1960s was what?
19. What company did former Mexican president Vicente Fox work for before becoming president? 50
20. About when did "malls" come into existence? 51
21. What is the biggest of the big box stores? 51
22. What was the world's largest company in 2003? 51
23. What is the foundation [for success] of Wal-Mart? 51
24. T F Wal-Mart gets good prices from its suppliers out of the kindness of the suppliers' hearts. 51-2
25. About what fraction of imports to the US from China go to Wal-Mart? 52
26. How many factories does Levi Strauss have in the US today (or at least by 2004)? 52
27. Who was Mother Jones and about when was she active? 53
28. T F Mother Jones was famous for, among other things, leading children's marches fighting to give children the right to work whenever, wherever, for whoever, and for as long as they wanted to. 53-4
29. What advantage did children have as miners? 54
30. T F Today there are more children at work around the world than ever before. 55
31. The large majority of working children work in ______. 54-5
32. The hands making products labeled "handmade" are often the hands of ______. 56
33. What did Ricardo suggest (and do free marketers to a large extent today believe) that countries should do vis-à-vis their comparative advantage(s) and arenas in which they do not have a comparative advantage? 57
34. If all countries followed Ricardo's suggestions regarding comparative advantages, what did he expect to be the result for the global economy? 57
35. What fraction of toys sold in the U.S. are made in China? 57
36. In which state and around which city in the U.S. is "Silicon Valley?" 58
37. Where did textile manufacturing start in the US? Is it mostly there today? 58
38. What organizations were created at, or as a direct result of, the Breton Woods conference? 60ff
39. What is the IMF, and what is its mission? 60
40. What has been the philosophy of the IMF from its earliest days? 60
41. What is the World Bank, and what is its mission? 61
42. When would a country have been more likely to get World Bank money for a big dam project (not to be confused with a damn big project … well, maybe not so different), now or in the early years of the World Bank? 61 Why?
43. What two things does the text say that tariffs do (other than annoy your trade partners)? 61
44. In the years before the imposition of a federal income tax in the U.S., what important source of operating revenue for the government does the text specify? 61