TS6, TES2 – October 11 th , 2013 Geography Test – The USA and Globalization

USA’s hegemonic positionDoc. 1 – A cartoon by the American cartoonist Matt Wuerker, 2002

Doc. 2 - “No, the Conquistadors are not back: it’s just Wal-Mart” by James C. McKinley Jr, New York Times , Sept. 28 th , 2004

Mexican state officials have issued permission for Wal-Mart, the biggest private employer in Mexico, to establish one of its supermarkets next to ancient Aztec ruins. Midway between the ruins of giant pyramids built by the Maya and the stone steeple of the town's main Catholic church, which Spanish monks founded in 1548, another colossus from a different empire is now being built in the shadow of the pyramids: in December, an ugly concrete building rising from the earth is to house a huge supermarket called ‘Bodega Aurrera’, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart. Opponents call this the “new conquest”. How Wal-Mart got permission to build a superstore on a land supposedly protected under Mexican law as an archaeological site has puzzled the merchants here, who freely accuse the town, the state and the federal Institute of Anthropology and History of corruption. “What’s next?” said David García, 27, whose family owns a dry-goods store in the market, “It’s like having Mickey Mouse on the top of the Pyramid of the Moon”. (…)

Doc. 3 – A cartoon by Rogers published in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , 2007

Correction du contrôle – USA’s hegemonic position

Introduction

Presentation of the topic/subject Many elements can illustrate America’s leading role in the phenomenon of Globalization: half of the 1,000 biggest World TNCs are American, or the USA is the leader in the fields of innovation and ICTs, or the fact that the leadership of the USA is so massive that Hubert Védrine, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, coined the word “hyperpower” to designate the American hegemony when the Iron Curtain collapsed, or Joseph Nye coined the expression “soft power” in 1991 to designate the fascination that the country exerts over the rest of the World, etc. America’s role in Globalization, that can be described as a movement towards greater interdependence between the different parts of the World whatever their geographic location, is outstanding.

Presentation of the documents Doc. 1 is a 2002 cartoon made by the American cartoonist Mark Wuerker, entitled “Problems of Globalization”, showing an American family just back from a touring trip around Europe, boasting their purchases. Doc. 2 is an excerpt taken from an article “No, the Conquistadors are not back: it’s just Wal-Mart” written by James C. McKinley Jr, published in The New York Times on Sept. 28th, 2004. It deals with the opening of a Wal-Mart subsidiary supermarket in Mexico. Doc. 3 is a 2007 cartoon drawn by the American draughtsman Rogers published in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette illustrating the spread of American food chains.

Key question The three documents are dealing with the American soft power. But they question this notion: how can we consider that the notion of soft power is not always adapted to describe the USA’s hegemony?

Outline

I – USA’s hegemonic positionA – Its hegemony is economic

The documents are showing the spread of American TNCs in the World. Doc. 1 pictures an average American family who is coming back from a European tour. They are dressed like tourists: camera, T-shirts, short trousers, open shoes, suitcases, sunglasses, caps. The document is very funny because they are relating their trip and showing what they bought in three European capitals, i.e. London, Paris and Roma, and everything is American! Nike, Disney, McDonald’s and Gap: these are powerful retail TNCs which have shops/branches/affiliates in all big cities of the world, especially those located in developed countries like the European continent. Indeed, these companies seek access to markets where people can afford to buy. Doc. 2 shows the same with Wal-Mart which is the biggest private employer in the World, as it hires 2 million people World-wide. This American mass marketing1 company opened a supermarket in Mexico in 2004, provided with the Spanish name “Bodega Aurrera” which shows how Wal-Mart wants to adapt to the country where it settles. Doc. 3 illustrates the opening of food chain affiliates in an emerging country such as China. The document is of course ironical because the two characters are in front of a true “forest” of placards and signs of American fast-foods, including McDonald’s, the most famous of all and the embodiment of the American economic wealth.

B – Its hegemony is also cultural: how TNCs feed the American soft power… American TNCs keep their headquarters in the USA but open affiliates/branches/shops in countries where they are sure to find a market, like other developed countries or emerging countries (like China and Mexico here). But the World-wide spread of these subsidiaries conveys a popular image of the USA: an image of a country of abundance, where everything is possible like the American Dream shows (when you start from scratch and climb the social ladder whoever you are and wherever you were born), a country based on a consumer society permitted by the nation embodying Capitalism. This is the American soft power: the power of the first World’s nation conveyed without having recourse to coercitive means, thanks to its popularity, its prestige, its history, its fame, its reputation as the nation where everything is possible. We are not only dealing with profits and markets: we are dealing with how popular the USA is. And this is what motivates American TNCs to establish branches in foreign countries: they know that there will be a market there, ready to buy their staff. McDonald’s for instance, quoted in both cartoons, owns 33,000 restaurants located in 118 countries!

But if the USA’s hegemony is easy to be proven, the means the country resorts to may be questioned. Is the notion of “soft power” as relevant as Joseph Nye wanted it to be, when he coined the expression in 1991?

II – Could Joseph Nye be wrong? What if the notion of “soft power” was just an illusion… A – Could the USA’s hegemony trigger a homogenization / an Americanization of the World?

The cartoonist of doc. 1 is scoffing at this American family who made a tour in Europe. Tourism remains a North-North mobility: the majority of tourists come from rich countries and the most popular destinations are also from the North (France, Italy, Spain, the USA…). The cartoonist, here, draws an indictment of the lack of curiosity of this family: they could have eaten pizza instead of hamburgers while in Roma, and they could have bought a T-shirt with the Union Jack instead of this Disney T-shirt in London, and what about going to Niketown in Paris when the French capital is renowned for its luxurious and refined fashion! It is reassuring for them to find shops that they know in foreign countries. But these tourists enforce the Americanization of the World. The doc. is ironical because of the discrepancy between the places they visited and the things they made in these locations.

1 Mass marketing : grande distribution

This leads to a standardization/homogenization of the World, where local culture disappear to the profit of a World-wide one, mostly influenced by the USA. The author mocks this phenomenon with the way he presents to cartoon, like a “scientific” document, like “(figure 1.a)” shows, with the evocative title: “Problems of Globalization illustrated”.

B – Unfair and aggressive methods, far from the idea of a soft powerThe journalist of doc. 2 presents the settlement of the new Wal-Mart superstore as a shame. Indeed, the new building, an “ugly concrete building” (like every supermarket whose aim is not to be beautiful but practical, with no architectural research) is located next to ancient Aztec and Maya ruins and next to an important 16 th century Catholic Church. This “Clash of Civilizations”, to quote from S. Huntington’s theory, shows how powerful Wal-Mart is: the Mexican State, but also the town and the Federal Institute of Anthropology and History, gave permission to Wal-Mart to establish its subsidiary here. Local merchants don’t mince their words2: the company paid the local and federal Mexican actors, who are accused of corruption and of being the puppets of the TNC.Therefore, the latter threatens the city’s cultural heritage. The tone of the article shows how hostile and indignant the inhabitants are at the establishment of the superstore, it shows their lack of understanding: “another colossus from a different empire”, “rising from the earth”, “new conquest”, “puzzled the merchants” “accuse”, or the very ironical sentence uttered by David García, “It’s like having Mickey Mouse on the top of the Pyramid of the Moon”. This opening if is seen as a loss of personality. The soft power, Joseph Nye said, is when the USA resorts to non-coercitive means to assert its hegemony. Are we sure that the means are “non-coercitive” here? The locals talk about corruption, the journalist talks about Cultural imperialism with the parallel he draws between this episode and the “Conquistadores”. Indeed, the title is very ironical: the “Conquistadores” is a Spanish world referring to the Europeans who invaded the New World from the 15th century onwards, erasing centuries of former civilizations like the Mayas and the Aztecs. The article shows no ambiguity: it is comparing Wal-Mart to “a colossus from a different empire” and the superstore’s opening to a “new conquest”. The latter words is pretty violent, we are far from the notion of soft-power. Besides, even if it is more a consequence than a deliberate method, the three documents denounce the leakage effect: the profits made by the branches of the TNCs located abroad do not benefit the local inhabitants, but the executives of the company who make huge profits. For instance, instead of going to a local Italian “Trattoria” in Roma, the family of doc. 1 enriched the already huge benefits of McDonald’s.

C – Is the USA a model to follow? The notion of “soft power” rests on the idea that the USA is a fascinating nation with its exemplarity, its prestige. The “American way of life” is a popular vision of the country which feeds myths such as the American Dream. But doc. 3 questions the relevance of referring to the USA as a “model”. Indeed, fast-foods are considered responsible for obesity, a scourge of nowadays America, selling what is considered “junk food”, symbolized by the abuses of a very intensive agriculture and cattle breeding. The feedlots, the high recourse to fertilizers and irrigation or hormone-fed beef are the embodiment of such methods. Again, we notice the irony of the document: the Chinese lady scoffs at the USA. What kind of image is conveyed here? Exemplarity? All the more since, apparently, the USA is accusing China of the bad quality of its food (China is often the scapegoat in the USA)!! The situation is grotesque…

ConclusionThe documents do not question the USA’s hegemonic position: they rather illustrate it. But they question the idea of soft power, this supposedly non-coercitive way, for the USA, to assert its dominance over the rest of the World. The documents deal with aggressiveness, with cultural and economic “violence” which are far from the idea of a soft power. Still, let’s not forget that the documents are biased, or at least they show a limited aspect of reality: not every American tourist behaves like the family in doc. 1, and not all Chinese cities look like doc. 3!

2 Ils ne mâchent pas leurs mots.