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1 J. Peace Prosperity & Freedom 113 (2012)
McDonaldization: An Analysis of George Ritzer's Theories and Assertions

handle is hein.journals/peaprosfre1 and id is 113 raw text is: JOHN ENGLE McDonaldization: An Analysis of George Ritzer's Theories and Assertions INTRODUCTION Globalization is a massively powerful force in the 21 century Defined as 'the world- wide diffusion of practices, expansion of relations across continents, organization of social life on a global scale, and growth of a shared global consciousness' (Ritzer, 2008: .164), globalization is perhaps the most noticeable feature of this Information Age. 1he growing influence of the ever-expanding technologies and influences stemming from this globalizing phenomenon are irrefutable. In McDonaldization: the Reader and The McDontaldization of Society, George Ritzer addresses the issue of 21t century globalization in terms of McDonaldization, a concept built on Max Weber's ideas of rationalization and bureaucratization of society. Ritzer focuses on McDonaldization, and by association lobalization, as a negative force, or grobalization, one built on dehumanizine and often ultimately irrational principles. However, Ritzer pushes his argument too far, venturing into the realm of inarity Ritzer cites Zygmunt Baurnan's Modernity and the Holocaust, an analysis of the forces of rationality and modernization, and their uses in the perpetration of the Holocaust. Bauman makes the argument that rationality and bureaucratization were essential to the Nazis' plans, and that the Holocaust would not have been possible without them. This argument alone is a contentious one, as to whether the Holocaust can really be considered the logical product, rather than the obscene perversion, of modern principles. Ritzer takes Bauman's assessment as accurate and links it to his own theory of McDonaldization, describing the Holocaust as 'a precursor of McDonaldization' (Ritzer, 2008: 29). This claim 113

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