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Liberal Rhetorical Analysis

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Liberal rhetoric would lead us to believe that we live in an increasingly connected, and therefore improved, world. Images of Sherpas with cell phones and Amazonians with refrigerators are pointed to as evidence that by increasing global trade we are improving the lives of every human on earth. Given time, the expansion of free trade across the globe will lead to an interconnected world economy built upon a foundation of international cooperation and ever-rising standards of living. This utopian dream is the product of a brilliant public relations campaign, a carefully constructed façade that disguises the true nature of modern day globalization. In actuality, the spread of free markets is the utilization of capitalism as an economic tool …show more content…

While this may be detrimental to a smaller country, it is a casual sacrifice for the developed nation encouraging said liberalization. Due to their economic size and power, their cost of closure-the cost incurred on a nation by the termination of a trade partnership, measurable through direct income loss and adjustment costs of reallocating factors of production-is much smaller than that of the developing nation (Krasner, 21). Ideally, the smaller market is opened to a point of maximum advantageous trade, at whatever internal cost, and held there. The chances of the resultant instability overwhelming the capabilities of the nation are low, but if it does occur, the cost of closure for the larger nation is small. Thus, the instability is a worthwhile risk if it increases relative power. As a result, today large powers ubiquitously push economic liberalization upon smaller nations across the world in the name of the globalization …show more content…

The argument can be made that economic freedom is a necessary precondition to political freedom, yet the unilateral focus of these reforms begs the question whether during the writing of the Washington Consensus, economic liberalization was solely a means to international development, or an end in itself. The historical support is for the latter, as John Williamson later reflects that there was, “a widespread attempt to tighten fiscal policy, extensive financial and trade liberalization, virtually universal elimination of restrictions on inward foreign direct investment, a lot of privatization, and quite a bit of deregulation. [But] the things that got most widely neglected were reforming public expenditure priorities, maintaining a competitive exchange rate, and extending property rights to the informal sector”

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