Globalisation is not only the most talked-about social and economic phenomenon of the last decade: it is also the most controversial.
There are several reasons for this – it does not divide its supporters or detractors along the typical political lines of left against right, progressive against conservative.  It is instead a deeply debated topic.

Let’s take a look at some of the arguments and counter-arguments on each side.
A common image of an anti-globalisation protester is that seen each year at the G8 or World Economic Forum meetings. The image of a young person wearing a mask and possibly affiliated to an anarchist group is a familiar one. Yet this is an extreme image, and there are many critics of globalisation who – while generally being aligned with the masked anarchist – are more eloquent in their complaints. Such people include the writers and activists Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy. They suggest that globalisation is the same as traditional capitalism, only now on a worldwide scale – the consequence being that more power and money is concentrated into the hands of fewer people. They would argue that across the world the rights of workers are being ignored or restricted, with levels of pay being forced ever lower.

However, there are some commentators on the left who see globalisation as a positive thing. Globalisation can distribute wealth more widely, they claim, spreading out of the Western world and bringing employment and opportunities into such countries as India and China. It makes traditional centres of financial power – New York, London, Frankfurt – less important players on the global economic scene, thus changing the worldwide balance of power.

While there are many right-wing or conservative advocates of globalisation, they may not agree with their counterparts on the left. A right-wing supporter of globalisation would instead look at traditional capitalist values. They would see globalisation as an inevitable consequence of improved telecommunications and easier global travel. Capital, they may say, has the right to go wherever it can best be accumulated. The free market rules everything – if more profit can be made by locating a factory in China rather than Europe, so be it.

That said, however, there are other conservatives who warn against unhindered globalisation. Such people may be in favour of the free movement of money, but are against the free movement of people – the so-called 'economic migrants' who travel the world in search of better living conditions. They would also say that globalisation has resulted in a loss of jobs for Western people.

The arguments for or against globalisation are more complex than the over-simple question: 'Good or bad?'