Question

Difficulty: EasyResistance to Globalization after 1900

In 2000, citizens in Cochabamba, Bolivia, launched massive protests after the government sold the city's public water utility to a multinational consortium, which immediately raised water rates. The protesters successfully pressured the government to reverse the privatization and return water services to public control.

Based on the passage, the protests in Cochabamba are best understood as resistance to which of the following processes?

  1. A
    The homogenization of global culture through Western media
  2. B
    The environmental degradation caused by Green Revolution agricultural practices
  3. The privatization of public resources by multinational corporationsAnswer
  4. D
    The establishment of direct colonial administration by foreign governments

Answer

The protests in Cochabamba represent resistance to the privatization of public resources by multinational corporations.
The protests in Cochabamba were a direct reaction to the privatization of the municipal water supply by a multinational consortium. This represents resistance to neoliberal economic globalization policies, which often advocate for the marketization of basic services.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical stimulus context.
The text describes protests in Bolivia in 2000 against a government sale of the public water system to a foreign multinational consortium that raised prices.
Understanding the core issue in the stimulus is necessary to identify the specific target of globalization being resisted.
2
Connect the events in the stimulus to broader global concepts.
Selling public services to multinational corporations and introducing market pricing is a feature of neoliberal economic globalization, and the protests represent popular resistance to this process.
This links the specific historical event (the Cochabamba Water War) to the AP World History learning objective regarding resistance to globalization.

Key Concept

Neoliberal economic globalization and its local resistance
Estimated Time:45s
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