Baccalauréat Section Européenne, session juin 2001
Discipline Non linguistique: Sciences Economiques et Sociales
Preparation : 20 minutes
Oral exam : 20 minutes, 10 minutes to answer the question, and 10 minutes for discussion.Using the document and your knowledge, make a structured answer of the following question.
Subject n°4 :
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What are the pros and the cons of
globalisation?
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IT WAS more than a symbolic defeat: on May 16th, Robert Mondavi, a big Californian wine maker, announced that it had abandoned plans to build a winery in Aniane, a small village in France's Languedoc region. The recently elected mayor of Aniane had denounced Mondavi's plan, which had been approved under the previous mayor, as a capitalist plot designed to benefit shareholders rather than locals and the environment. In March, demonstrators had smashed toll-booths and fought with police in protest. Mondavi pulled out, citing personal and political interests that it did not understand.
The episode was reminiscent of the anti-globalisation campaign led last year by José Bové, a one-time nuclear protester turned small farmer who became famous for his protests against McDonalds. It also echoed the recent fuss over Marks and Spencer, a British retailer that has been attacked for shutting its French stores, with the loss of 1,700 jobs. But such well-publicised behaviour disguises the truth, which is that French companies are quietly furthering their own globalisation, even as they noisily defend their home turf.
Mondavi's defeat coincided with a rush of controversy generated by French companies seeking to increase their presence abroad. On May 18th, it emerged that Alcatel, a big French telecoms-equipment group, had reopened multi-billion dollar merger talks with Lucent, a struggling American rival. Three days later, Vivendi Universal, a media group based in France, announced that it had offered to buy MP3.com, an American online music-sharing company; and on the following day, Vivendi did not deny that it was in the early stages of negotiating to buy Houghton Mifflin, an American publisher that could be worth around $1.7 billion. Such a flurry of Franco-American deals is unprecedented in recent years.
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Yet a picture of French companies bestriding the globe while refusing to allow competitors into France is altogether misleading. Levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) into France have never been higher.
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EDF's belligerence and Mondavi's retreat, it seems, are exceptions to the broader trend of France's active participation in the globalisation game. But the episodes carry a warning nonetheless. France has its sacred cows-nuclear power and gastronomy among them. It also has a populace that has, for over two centuries, never been slow to take to the streets. Foreigners wanting to enter the French market should pick their targets with a careful eye towards national sensitivities.May 24th 2001 from The Economist