What is economic globalisation, and why is it controversial?

Economic globalisation refers to the increasing interconnectedness between economies into a global economy which largely follows shared rules, aims and principles. This has been illustrated through the emergence of both regional and international institutions which contribute to shaping and regulating the global economy. Such institutions include the World Trade Organisation, which overseas international trade flows, the IMF, which supports economic development, and stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which facilitate the internationalisation of markets. These institutions have supported a post-war shift towards closer global economic relations where markets are interdependent, persons move freely across the world in search of economic opportunity, and trade and supply chains are internationalised. Such developments in economic globalisation have proven controversial owed to the perceived shift in power away from nation-states towards international institutions and corporations. From the nationalist perspective, this is argued to have undermined state sovereignty and imposed top-down decision making on national governments from unelected rule-setting bodies such as the EU. Furthermore, socialist interpretations of economic globalisation argue that the rising dominance of Multi-National Corporations have caused a degradation in workers rights and entrenched inequality between the Global North and Global South due to imbalanced trade flows. The Global Financial Crisis 2007-08 has reinforced criticism from both sides of the political spectrum towards the impact of economic globalisation. The Crisis demonstrated to critics that interdependent markets can suffer from contagion when shocks ripple across the global economy, as illustrated by the sub-prime mortgage market. Economic globalisation has also proven so controversial due to the conflict in opinion between critics and supporters of the process. Whilst nationalist and socialist opinions voice arguments against, liberal democratic and free-market thinkers highlight the benefits of increased wealth, prosperity and innovation that have resulted from a globalised economy. Fundamentally, the controversy caused by economic globalisation is not only driven by ideological factors, but also the different metrics used to measure the impact of this process.