Globalization is a complex long-term process with positive and negative effects that inevitably lead to positive and negative opinions. The economic science offers an abstract understanding of the process, seen as the ultimate internationalization of commerce, capital, finances and labor. The anti-globalist side perceives globalization as the engine of a new imperialism, which replaces the old military expansionism with economic instruments. The conspiratorial vision further sustains that globalization is a subversive process, directed for hundreds of years in order to serve the interest of the global elites. This article aims to explain the conspiratorial perception of globalization considering the exogenous and endogenous factors that maintain the predilection for conspiratorial deductions. By analyzing the literature and the virtual conspiracy rhetoric, we found five conditions that allow the perpetuation of conspiracy theories: (1) the historical precedents (2) the discontinuities of modernity (3) the opposing doctrines and the related social categorizing; (4) the lack of certainty and transparency; (5) the persistence of the myth. We consider that globalization was conducted through many forms of imperialism, revealing the human need for power and domination. Even if there is no clear evidence of a major plot to globalize the economy, we can still show that globalization is a process conducted by intention and individual/group interest - in different time periods, sequentially and systematically - and not by the random choices of unorganized individuals seeking the extension of their profits. This is where the conspiratorial reasoning intervenes ("Cui bono?"), bringing several arguments that support the conspiratorial hypothesis: the intentionality in the economic processes, the need for a causal reasoning and the prevailing private interest in the masse-elites relationship. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
