{"title":"What’s in it for us? Globalisation, International Institutions and the Less Developed Countries","authors":"J. D. Kort","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_011","url":null,"abstract":"Globalisation is a relatively undefined concept. While most people have an intuitive notion of what it means, no scholarly consensus yet exists as to its form and parameters. Globalisation concerns the freeing up of the flow of trade and capital as well as the standardisation of products and production processes, and it also increasingly involves an ever more important role for international organisations. It is about making the world a smaller place by ensuring quick and inexpensive transport of people and goods and, very importantly, of information. In a broader and more politicised context, globalisation reflects the dominance of liberal economic processes over political sovereignty. It forces people all over the globe into a mode of living that renders them dependent on market transactions. It forces countries and governments to open their borders for the flow of trade and capital and to submit their trade and financial regimes to the international economic order. Within that order, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) operate as a kind of a 'global government'. It is, therefore, not surprising that these institutions come under close scrutiny with particular regard to content of their economic policies and to the manner in which they account for these policies. Globalisation is generally welcomed by economists who expect significant benefits from free trade and the free flow of capital. Anti-globalists are highly critical of the effects that unrestricted market processes have on the poor people of the world and are highly suspicious of the global institutions that purportedly 'govern' the world economy. Notably, both anti-globalists and advocates of globalisation share at least one set of similar aims, namely to provide higher levels of income and to ensure a greater welfare for the poor in the world. Yet both the sceptics and the supporters of globalisation find themselves advocating radically different policies. This is caused in good measure by their highly conflicting evaluations of the costs and benefits of free market policies. Disputes over issues related to the accountability of the WTO and the IMF arise. Antiglobalists, in particular, accuse these institutions of serving only those parties who have an interest in the broadening of the liberal economic order [i.e. rich Western countries and multinational corporations] and of denying the interests of the so-called developing countries or countries in transition. Globalists, in turn, consider these institutions as guardians of the level playing field. This essay focuses on the effects of globalisation on the developing [i.e. poor] countries, particularly with respect to both trade and finance issues where important roles are reserved for the global economic institutions - the WTO and the IMF. The WTO shapes the platform for international trade while the IMF concerns itself with international financial stability. This essay analyses the benefits a","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123789819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Corporate Governance Contribute to Sustainable Development?","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128397947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Sustainable Globalisation and International Law: in Need of a New International Constitutional Balance","authors":"M. Brus","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128715034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Ambiguity of Globalisation","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132318668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Odds of ‘Liberalisation’ as an Informing Principle of Law, Governance and Development","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132259427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social, Sustainable Globalisation Requires a Paradigm Other Than Neo-Liberal Globalism","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125103252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Liberal Globalism: A Defence","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130758824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Water as a Social, Economic and Ecological Good in a Globalising World","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116793042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Challenges of Social Sustainable Globalisation","authors":"E. Nieuwenhuys, D. Kort","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_006","url":null,"abstract":"The world economy is globalising. World trade is growing at a faster pace than world income, indicating that countries are increasingly becoming interdependent on one another. According to mainstream economic thinking, globalisation is a good thing. One of the founding fathers of economic thinking, Adam Smith,1 already emphasized the importance of the labour specialisation and the exchange of surplus output as a source for economic growth. He pointed out that specialising and trading the surplus made sense for a private family and a country alike. The only limitation would be the extent of the market. The arguments for free trade and open economies were further elaborated upon by David Ricardo,2 who formulated the theory of comparative costs, which until today forms the very basis for the economic praise of the global economy. The level of modern analysis is more sophisticated than that presented by either Smith or Ricardo; however, modern analysis is also less explicit with regard to the moral and social consequences of economic policies. The classical writers addressed the political economy, rather than merely economics.3 Neo-classical economists generally regard economics as a value-free science and often consider that the process of liberalisation is a sort of natural phenomenon.4 Under this view, the globalisation process is ‘explained’ from the perspective of technological developments which","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"114 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117205253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Morality and the Legitimacy of Non Governmental Organisations’ Involvement in International Politics and Policy Making","authors":"A. Vedder, E. Nieuwenhuys","doi":"10.1163/9789047409717_015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409717_015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":198770,"journal":{"name":"Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation","volume":"222 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124417500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}