Kaplinsky, R. (2001) ‘Is Globalization all it is cracked up to be?’, Review of International Political Economy Vol. 8(1), 45-65.

Kaplinsky, R. (2001) ‘Is Globalization all it is cracked up to be?’, Review of International Political Economy Vol. 8(1), 45-65.

• Defines globalization as "A multifaceted process and can be characterized as a systematic decline in the barriers to the cross-national flow of products, factors (capital and people), values and ideas" (pg. 46).
• Globalization has resulted in increased absolute income in some cases -- mostly offset by total population growth in the poorest strata -- but it also results in larger inequalities within developing nations.
• This was not an intended consequence of globalization or liberalization.
• The main issue driving inequality is that labour is in a global surplus, as many nations have labour without domestic markets and few unexplored markets. B/c of this, the vast majority of people will see their real income stagnate or decline, resulting in inequality and immiseration.
• Coins the term 'immiserized growth', referring to economic growth without real growth in wages.
• Many scholars predicted this reserve army of surplus labour, including Malthus, Marx, and Rains. They identified population growth, capital intensification, and complete out-competition in some regions of the world, respectively.
• The populations of China and India are so large that they disrupted any possibility of labour shortage. In effect, production requires many fewer workers than need work b/c the markets that are supplying labour are undeveloped as consumers. 
• This argument can also be applied to Sub-Saharan Africa in a few years after production moves from E. Asia and SE. Asia.
• This means that China and India combined have over 2/3 of the total global labour force as of 2001.
• In a world with full or practically full employment, globalization is great and results in a plethora of win-win interactions between people and nations.
• Without full employment and/or with significant surplus labour, globalization will likely resulting in rising unemployment in all nations and consequential decrease in the standard of living and increased inequality.
• This situation is only beneficial to a small few, which the author believes will drive a conspiracy to prevent people from knowing "the truth" about globalization and the "coming new world order".
• This situation can be prevented by the growth of insular and protectionist political movements, especially on the far left and far right of the political spectrum.