The Globe Grows Smaller The world we live in today is continually growing smaller and people are more connected with each other more than ever before. This is contributed to globalization; which for our purposes is defined as the increasing speed and ease that capital, services, goods, technologies, people, information, cultures, and ideas cross borders at. This paper will be analysing the effects of globalization on many aspects of France. Historically, France has opposed globalization and this disdain started gaining ground during the early 1990s as Europe was becoming integrated. The French feared globalization because they wanted to preserve their own rich culture, and because they saw globalization as another form of americanization and wanted no part of that. An example of this would be in 1999 when “a forty-six-year-old sheep farmer named José Bové was arrested for dismantling the construction site of a new McDonald’s restaurant in the southern French town of Millau. He acted, he argued, in protest against U.S. retaliatory trade sanctions against European products (notably, French cheese) and the uncontrolled spread of free market globalization. By attacking McDonald’s, and getting himself photographed in handcuffs in the process, the publicity conscious Bové was striking out at the symbol of U.S.-inspired globalization, a perceived threat to French identity and culinary traditions” (Gordon, 1). José Bové tried to stand up against a global corporation who was eating away at french culture, his ideals struck a chord and he became famous quickly, symbolizing the part of france that resisted globalization. Surveys done of public opinion showed that Bové’s message was popular and “in a range of polls 72 percent said they felt suspicious of globalization, 65 percent perceived it as a direct cause of a worsening of growing social inequality, 56 percent said it threatened French identity, and 55 percent saw it as a threat to French jobs and companies” (Gordon, 2). As of more recent years the general population of France now sees that globalization is not the same as americanization but they are still wary. Even though they may be cautious, France has undergone massive changes in the economy, society, and policy. These changes were not presented in a traditional open political debate but were done behind closed doors as to avoid resistance from the common man. The first component of France that will be dissected is trade and integration. Since the early 1980s France has moved towards market liberation. This was a result of European integration and globalization and deliberate efforts by policymakers. An example of this is the French government used to own large sectors of the economy to keep it in french hands but now has since allowed foreign companies to purchase large amounts or even a majority shares of formerly state owned companies (Gordon, 3). If we look back 15 to 20 years you can see that only 10 percent of French firms were owned by foreign companies, but now over 40 percent of the shares in the French stock market are owned by foreigners. France has had positive economic growth since 1993 and has been one of the best performing European economies for the past decade or so. And when we focus on exports plus imports as a percentage of their growth domestic product, we can see a huge jump from 1962 where it was only 24.9 percent to 1997 when it was 49.4 percent (Gordon, 4). Today many of France’s companies are industry leaders, for example the state-owned French electric company, EDF Energy, provides 25 percent of Europe’s electricity. French companies also employ 4.5 million people outside of France and account for 20 percent of all investments in Europe (Saunders).This shows how globalisation has made it much easier for France to trade with other countries and helped them turn into the European powerhouse they are, and making domestic companies a substantial amount of money in the process. Taking all of these statistics into consideration it is obvious that globalisation has had a positive effect of their growth as a nation and their economy. Now to examine how globalization has changed the climate for corporations in regards to offshoring and outsourcing. Offshoring and outsourcing reduce the political power held by the French government and move that power to multinational corporations. One of the results of globalization is that transportation and communication costs are decreasing constantly. Falling costs allow for corporations to move components of their production or services to other countries. With regional entities like the EU, NAFTA, and MERCOSUR expanding market boundaries these companies can then relocate business to countries that are more investment friendly. For example countries that have the lowest tax burden on corporate profit, loser environmental regulation, prioritizing expenditure over social programs, and improving transportation, communication and other services that improve productivity will be the most attractive for companies to move to (Goldthorpe, 2002). One instance of this is Ireland, many multinational corporations go through Ireland to lower their tax liability because Ireland has territorial taxation, which means that they do not levy taxes on income booked in subsidiaries of Irish companies that are outside the state. So if the company has a technical location in Ireland and then shifts money from a subsidiary to it, that money is not taxed as hard as it would be in the origin country. This affects France in a few ways, first domestic companies will thrive from increased profits because of the lower taxation but this also hurts the government and people. Substantial amounts of tax revenue the state would be making is lost and that money could have been put to good use in social programs. These social programs could have helped the everyday person and the lost of tax revenue also puts a bigger tax strain on the general population. Now since these big corporations would benefit whatever country they choose to do business in, this gives them a potential bargaining chip with influencing policy in different countries. It could turn into which country has the most optimum business climate and allow the corporations to help business run as efficiently as possible. This could be through infrastructure location, fiscal burden, labor policies, or environmental regulations (Princeton, 131). In addition to globalization, or more specifically capital mobility, reducing the state’s political power and increasing the voice of multinational corporations and international investors, it also hurts the labor force. With multinational corporation’s ability to relocate so easily it increases job uncertainty in the domestic country and creates strain between trade and domestic social arrangements (Rodrik, 1990). Unskilled labor and unions get the short end of the stick because if they attempt to negotiate better wages or benefits, corporations might pack up and move production to another country where wages are lower and the workers are compliant. Once again corporations are the ones benefiting from globalization while the average person sees little benefit when talking about outsourcing and offshoring, this helps us understand why the French population oppose globalization so strongly. Once again, globalization's effects on France in terms of the environment is similar to other developed nations. Globalization increases international trade and lowers transportation costs which means that there will be a high volume of trucks, planes, boats, barges, and trains moving goods from every corner of the globe, constantly. What all of these modes of transportation have in common is that they all emit greenhouse gasses which are detrimental to our environment. Besides the point of increased pollution through transportation, globalization also harms the environment through offshoring and outsourcing. Since these companies can move production from country to country easily and have some political power; they are able to relocate to countries that have environmental regulations that favor their business practices or influence environmental policy in their own country by threatening to move their operation. And since companies can move easily, they can flock to countries with lax regulations and further abuse this option and increasing the rate at which we are destroying the environment. There is hope though, globalization fosters technological advancements and improved practices which could be the saving grace of our natural world.
Technology and globalization go hand in hand. New technologies have been creating massive transformations in how companies and countries produce, trade, invest, and innovate. With instantaneous communication technologies constantly improving, new materials changing a variety of business sectors, improved manufacturing techniques, and easier transportation we know live in an age where everyone can be interconnected and blurs the lines of geographical location and brings us closer together as a species. Overall globalization when focusing on technology is good for business and people since it allows anyone with basic internet access to have a world of knowledge at their finger tips and receive goods for cheaper in most situations. But there is are downsides to immersion into technology, one is a reduction in privacy. “In May, France passed a wide-reaching surveillance law intended to improve the ability of the country’s intelligence services to identify potential terrorists. While the law was strongly supported by the government, some condemned it as paving the way for mass surveillance on the order of that undertaken by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States” (Journalistic research). This could be seen as almost a form of americanization since they are giving up rights for a so called safety just as we did after 9/11, but the ones collecting the data might be the ones we need protection from. Any form americanization is met with backlash from the french people. This interconnectedness brought upon by technology can be good because it brings us all together but when a country's focus is to keep its culture intact, it may be the worst thing for it. With new communication technologies and growing ideology of free trade have left France more open to foreign influences than ever before. Cross cultural exchanges like students going abroad or joint television programs in several languages help circulate ideas and blur away what was considered french culture and what is not (Princeton, 134). Therefore technological globalization will benefit the French people in their day to day lives, but it might come at the cost of their culture.
For a country that fights to uphold its culture, it seems as though they are fighting a losing battle. “In France, once a French citizen you leave cultural and ethnic differences at the border and are theoretically seamlessly assimilated into the republic. Everyone is equal before a state that is blind to colour, race and religion. Ethnic minorities do not officially exist as it is illegal to classify and count people by ethnicity. But the glaring gap between the theory and the reality of discrimination is becoming a problem in France” (Globalization and Migration, 33). The idea of this policy is to calm the differences between different groups and come together as the French republic, which is almost the complete opposite of globalization. They are attempting the keep France French and not allow other cultures to affect their own identity. This process has backfired heavily under the Sarkozy administration, tensions are at volatile levels between the indigenous French and the third of fourth generation immigrants that make up a large portion of the population. Sarkozy’s constant talk of immigration and national identity built a divide between the french born children of immigrants and other french born citizens. He also enacted 5 new immigration laws during his term (Globalization and Migration, 32). Although, the ex-president's anti-immigration stance wasn’t mainly about newcomers but more about French society's problems and coming to terms with its own diverse make-up. Even with these policies focused on equality of french citizens in diverse estates like Clichy-sous-Bois there is high levels of unemployment and social inequality. For the 25 and under demographic there is a 40 percent unemployment rate, they did worse in school on average, and faced more racism than any other French citizens. In a recent study, over a third polled said society did not see these French born children of immigrants as being French (Globalization and Migration, 35). Even though it was meant for all French to be seen as equal, this policy has fostered more spite and hate amongst the population and resentment towards minorities. And with events like Charlie Hebdo and the many terror attacks recently, it may seem that France's opposition of globalization of their population to leave ethnicities and cultural differences at the door has not been successful since racism has been increasing in recent generations with immigrant born French as compared to their own immigrant ancestors generation. Hollande’s administration will need to devote real time and political capital to programs of social inclusion and job training to make these immigrant born youths employable which would lead to closing the divide.
Globalization has overall benefited the French nation with an excellent track record of growth and development in their economy, even though they have opposed it so strongly. This is because they do not want to risk their cultural heritage through integration of a variety of different cultures and ideas that would then overcome their own. Sacrifices, like mixing cultural identities, need to be made for the betterment of man but sacrificing our environment in which we live is not acceptable just for economic growth. There is pros and cons to globalization but overall it is a necessity that will bring us into the future of mankind.

Works Cited
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