Since the imposition of free market policies in the 1980s, globalization has come to represent an ideological battle between those who favor economic growth and deregulation through the growing power of multinational corporations, versus those who prefer a more sustainable and democratic approach to international development, socio-economic justice, and the securing of basic human rights and needs.
Since the 1980s, the pursuit of wealth creation has come to dominate contemporary society and governance. It is time to abandon economic reductionism and reorder our lives and politics to build a better world, writes Tony Judt.
Using the term 'market fundamentalism' compounds the myth that the conservatives’ structuring of the economy is its natural state. Rather than promoting redistributive policies to redress inequities, progressives should instead focus on altering the economic rules themselves, argues Dean Baker.
Globalization threatens to spread a culture of consumerism that is both socially and environmentally destructive. With those in the industrialized world using ten times their share of the earth's resources, it is absurd to promise that everyone can do the same, argues Helena Norberg-Hodge.
For decades, the richest nations have promoted free market policies as the key to development. Looking at the evolution of their own economies, it appears that developed countries may have taken the opposite route, says Ha-Joon Chang in an interview with David Wearing.
Current speculation about a global shift in power away from the US is misleading. As economic globalisation continues, multinational corporations and financial institutions remain the “principal architects” of government policy around the world, says Noam Chomsky.
In the wake of the financial meltdown, more people are beginning to question the limitations of economic globalisation. Unless we begin to build an alternative development model, the crisis of capitalism is bound to continue, says Samir Amin in an interview with Giuliano Battiston.
It is we, through our elected representatives,
who have created a system in which corporations and banks privatise profits
and make the public absorb the losses. We also have the power to bring their
activities back under democratic control, argue Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson.
