Evaluate the responses of governments, institutions and communities to globalisation, including protectionism, regulation and resistance

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to evaluate how governments, international institutions and communities respond to globalisation, from embracing it through regulation to protectionism and resistance, and to judge how effective these responses are. The central insight is that globalisation cannot easily be reversed, so the realistic question is how to manage it: capturing its gains while protecting those who lose and setting fairer rules.

The answer

National strategies: embrace or protect

• Embracing globalisation: opening to trade, attracting investment, and building skills and infrastructure to capture global flows, the strategy of the successful Asian economies. It maximises the gains but exposes the economy to global shocks and competition.
• Protectionism: tariffs, quotas and subsidies to shield domestic industries and jobs. It can protect in the short term but raises consumer prices, invites retaliation, and tends to be self-defeating in the long run.
• Domestic cushioning: retraining, regional aid and social protection to support workers displaced by the global shift, tackling the concentrated losses without closing the economy.

International institutions and trade blocs

• Global institutions: the World Trade Organization sets and enforces trade rules; the IMF and World Bank shape finance and development.
• Regional blocs: the European Union, ASEAN and others manage integration, reduce internal barriers and give members collective bargaining power.

Ethical and fair-trade responses

• Fair trade standards and labelling aim to secure better prices and conditions for producers in poorer countries.
• Ethical sourcing and corporate-responsibility standards seek to improve labour and environmental practice in supply chains.

Resistance to globalisation

• Anti-globalisation and environmental movements protest the power of corporations and institutions and the costs of free trade.
• Protectionist and nationalist politics seek to restrict trade and migration.
• Cultural resistance asserts local identity against homogenisation (glocalisation, local-language and local-product movements).
• Local economic alternatives: buy-local campaigns, cooperatives and fair trade.

Judging effectiveness

Resistance and protectionism have raised awareness and shaped policy and corporate practice but rarely reverse globalisation, given the interdependence already built; they reshape it. The most effective approach is managed openness: capturing the gains while cushioning the losers through retraining and social protection, supported by international cooperation and fairer trade rules.

Examples in context

Example 1. Singapore's managed openness. Singapore embraces globalisation through free trade, openness to investment and a web of free-trade agreements, while heavily investing in education, retraining (such as SkillsFuture) and social policy to help workers adapt. It exemplifies managed openness, capturing the gains of globalisation while cushioning its workforce, rather than resisting global integration.

Example 2. Fair trade and ethical sourcing. Fair-trade labelling for products such as coffee and cocoa aims to secure better prices and conditions for producers in poorer countries, and major firms have adopted ethical-sourcing standards under consumer and campaign pressure. These show how community and market-based responses can improve the terms of globalisation for producers, while their limited overall reach shows resistance reshapes rather than reverses it.

Try this

Q1. Explain one disadvantage of using protectionism to manage globalisation. [2 marks]

• Cue. It raises prices for consumers and invites retaliation from trading partners, which can reduce exports and overall trade, so it tends to be self-defeating in the long run despite protecting some domestic jobs.

Q2. Explain how domestic cushioning helps manage the impacts of globalisation. [2 marks]

• Cue. Retraining, regional aid and social protection support workers and regions displaced by the global shift, addressing the concentrated losses of globalisation without closing the economy to its gains.

Q3. Explain why resistance tends to reshape rather than reverse globalisation. [3 marks]

• Cue. The world economy is already deeply interdependent and globalisation has its own economic logic, so movements and policies can shift its terms, improve standards and protect some groups, but cannot undo the connectivity and integration already built.