RP2006/29
Deepak Nayyar: Development
through Globalization? (PDF 127KB)
This paper seeks to analyze the prospects for development in a changed international
context, where globalization has diminished the policy space so essential for countries
that are latecomers to development. The main theme is that, to use the available policy
space for development, it is necessary to redesign strategies by introducing correctives
and to rethink development by incorporating different perspectives, if development is to
bring about an improvement in the well-being of people. In redesigning strategies, some
obvious correctives emerge from an understanding of theory and a study of experience
that recognizes not only the diversity but also the complexity of development. In
rethinking development, it is imperative to recognize the importance of initial
conditions, the significance of institutions, the relevance of politics in economics and
the critical role of good governance. Even if difficult, there is also a clear need to create
more policy space for national development, by reshaping the rules of the game in the
world economy and contemplating some governance of globalization.
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Markets, politics and globalization: can the global economy be
civilized? (10h Prebisch Lecture, December 2000), by Gerald Karl Helleiner, Centre for
International Studies University of Toronto, Canada.
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The rights of the rich versus the rights of the poor
By J. Gledhill - 2005 The problem with neo-liberal notions of “participation” and “empowerment” is
that they empower unequal actors equally, leaving the basic structures of social power
beyond question since no one remains excluded (even if those “included” as
interlocutors of government sometimes represent little more than themselves where
they have become disarticulated from their bases or possess bases that are more
virtual than real). Tinkering with the rules governing property development may
produce some beneficial social consequences, but these will remain limited while
there is no space from which to challenge the rights of the better off to shop in
boutiques and segregate themselves spatially from working people whose main
prospects for livelihood will be geared to the continuing growth of an economy built
around the present distribution of income and assets. A state oil company turned into a
public interest corporation with shareholders like Brazil’s Petrobras may conceivably
generate more resources for social programs as a player in the global energy services
market than it would do as a traditional state monopoly, but “the people” now have...
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Latin
American Politics and Society - Summer
2001
State developmentalism without a developmental state: The public
foundations of the "free market miracle" in Chile
By Kurtz, Marcus
If export orientation is a goal in a sustainable development strategy,
this study argues that public interventions at the sectoral level in a
variety of markets can produce economic reorientation that pursues
international comparative advantage faster and at lower cost than free
market forces can. Pervasive failures in information, credit, input,
distribution, and insurance markets can render strictly market-based
adjustment both slow and costly. Although Chile's export boom and high
growth rates have been associated with its free market economic policies,
this article, based on a comparison of the fruit, fish, and forestry
sectors, contends that new forms of public intervention were crucial
catalysts in shaping a sustained export response.
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The essence of neoliberalism
By P. Bourdieu - 1998
As the dominant discourse would have it, the
economic world is a pure and perfect order, implacably unrolling the logic of
its predictable consequences, and prompt to repress all violations by the
sanctions that it inflicts, either automatically or —more unusually — through
the intermediary of its armed extensions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the
policies they impose: reducing labour costs, reducing public expenditures and
making work more flexible. Is the dominant discourse right? What if, in reality,
this economic order were no more than the implementation of a utopia - the
utopia of neoliberalism - thus converted into a political problem? One
that, with the aid of the economic theory that it proclaims, succeeds in
conceiving of itself as the scientific description of reality?
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Economy and the re-invention of the Mexican state
By J. G. Vargas-Hernández - 1999
In recent years, the important role of the State in formulating and implementing economic
policies towards achieving societal growth and development has, broadly speaking,
undergone many changes and transformations. In Mexico, the protectionist, statist and
populist regime has been replaced by the so-called neoliberal state model which can be said to
have achieved some impressive results in terms of economic growth and development.
Unfortunately, increasing poverty is one of the most distressing results of neoliberal policies.
Further disappointing results include rising unemployment, slumping incomes, and a
widening gap between rich and poor, leading to fissures in society and a fueling of guerrilla
warfare and crime waves. This article focuses on the fundamental concepts of representation,
economic functions and the organization of state models in Mexico.
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The state, privatization and educational policy:
a critique of neoliberalism in Latin America and some ethical and political implications
By C. A. Torres - 2000
Nota Bene:
This paper focuses on the notion of external assistance in neoliberal times.
A central component of external assistance in educational policy is to
propose an ethos of privatization in the context of the neoliberal state
with a prominent role played by neoliberal international organizations. To
illustrate the theoretical distinctions resulting from drastic changes from a
liberal state to a neoliberal state, and the key dilemmas and tensions of
external aid in this process, this paper discusses the role of the World Bank
as an important neoliberal institution in the globalization of capitalism.
While an in-depth discussion of the World Bank’s policies and practices, or
its political economy, are beyond the intend of this paper, by focusing on
key elements of the World Bank’s lending process but particularly
research policies, this paper addresses key ethical (and political) dilemmas
of educational research and planning.
Not to be cited, quoted or references
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Globalization or Empire: new
tendencies in contemporary capitalism?
By B. Ramirez - 2003
Despite the fact that contemporary social paradigms emphasize the importance
of particularity and specific topics in order to describe reality, it is remarkable how
two knowledgeable researchers have joined their experiences and studies in the effort
to develop new directions for understanding the global order. In times when the
moment and the here and the now are important, they use an historical perspective that
seeks to understand the evolution of the world, in an attempt to analyse in detail the
passage from the modern to the post-modern period, from Imperialism to Empire, as a
strong effort to understand movements in society and changes in space. Under this
context, Hardt and Negri intend to develop new trends for understanding contemporary
capitalism in what is considered an unbounded and open space.
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The neoliberal state (from "The World Bank and
the State")
Bretton Woods Project - 1999
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Neo-liberalism and the Women's Movement in Canada
By L. Trimble - 2005
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Invited and invented spaces of
participation: neoliberal citizenship and Feminists' expanded notion of politics
By F. Miraftab - 2004
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The relationship between neoliberalism
and authoritarian states: the case of Turkey
By M. Yilmaz Sener - 2004
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Neoliberal globalism and the local state:
a regulation approach
By R. Broomhill - 2002
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The old empire coming back: revisiting another experience of liberation under occupation
By H. Motoyama - 2004
Celebrating this year's International Women's Day, US President Bush proudly stated that
the attacks against Afghanistan and Iraq brought liberation to more than 25 millions of
women and girls, suggesting that military force is an effective tool for women's liberation.
While this "new empire" which claims to be the champion of women's liberation is
certainly serious concern for us, feminists in Asia, in this presentation I should like to focus
on the old empire that still dominates our life.
The “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was reportedly based on the Japanese model, the successful
“regime change” of 60 years ago from aggressive authoritarian military regime to liberal
democracy. Surely it was proved to be a success for the United States, as the Japanese
government remains firm as most royal ally in supporting the "war for freedom," even
violating its Constitution that prohibits the government from sending troops overseas. One
should wonder, however, whether democratization had ever taken place after that disastrous
Pacific War, as a number of politicians justify the past aggressions against Asian peoples,
openly attack sex education or gender-free education, and make misogynist statements like
“women who don’t bear children got no right to receive pensions”. In short, we are seeing
the old authoritarian anti-democracy anti-women empire coming back, hand in hand with
the new empire that calls for "just war" to free repressed women. How should we
understand this peculiar "alliance of the will"?
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The process that has come to be known as globalization -i.e.,
the progressively greater influence being exerted by worldwide
economic, social and cultural processes over national or regional
ones- is clearly leaving its mark on the world of today. This is not a
new process. Its historical roots run deep. Yet the dramatic changes in
terms of space and time being brought about by the communications
and information revolution represent a qualitative break with the past. In the light of these changes, the countries of the region have requested
the secretariat to focus the deliberations of the twenty-ninth session of
ECLAC on the issue of globalization and development.
ECLAC: Twenty-ninth Session - Brasilia, Brazil
6-10 MAY 2002
Globalization and development
In the past decade the concept of globalization has been
employed widely in academic and political debate, but the meanings
attributed to the term are far from consistent. In this document it is
used to refer to the growing influence exerted at the local, national and
regional levels by financial, economic, environmental, political, social
and cultural processes that are global in scope. This definition of the
term highlights the multidimensional nature of globalization. Indeed,
although the economic facet of globalization is the most commonly
referred to, it acts concomitantly with non-economic processes, which
have their own momentum and therefore are not determined by
economic factors. In addition, the tension that is generated between the
different dimensions is a pivotal element of the process. In the
economic sphere but also —and especially— in the broadest sense of
the term, the current process of globalization is incomplete and
asymmetric, and is marked by major shortcomings in the area of
governance.
The dynamics of the globalization process are shaped, to a large
extent, by the fact that the actors involved are on an unequal footing.
Developed-country governments, together with transnational
corporations, exert the strongest influence, while developing-country
governments and civil society organizations hold much less sway.
Moreover, these actors, particularly developed-country governments,
reserve and exercise the right to take unilateral and bilateral action and
to participate in regional processes, concurrently with their
participation in debates and negotiations of global scope.
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The neoliberal
point of view
Freer Trade?
Special Edition, December 2005 Web Exclusive
Sixty years of multilateral trade negotiations have resulted in ever-lower barriers and
ever-higher economic growth worldwide. There is still a chance that the Doha Round
the current series of trade talks could continue this pattern, but on the verge of
the WTO's Hong Kong ministerial meeting, the prospects do not look good. In this special
edition of Foreign Affairs, some of the world's top experts on international trade
consider what will be necessary for the Doha Round to succeed and what might happen
if it does not.
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From UNRISD -
October 2005
Methodological
and Data Challenges to Identifying the Impacts of Globalization and Liberalization on
Inequality
By Albert Berry
Globalization (the increasing degree of economic interaction among countries) and
liberalization (reductions in government intervention in markets, partly with respect to
international interaction but also more generally) are two of the defining features of the
last couple of decades. Both have given rise to contentious debate, with views ranging
from the very optimistic to the very sceptical. In this paper, Albert Berry reviews the
evidence on how the two trends have affected inequality (and hence poverty) at the world
level and within countries.
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The sources of neoliberal globalization
By Jan Aart Scholte
In reflecting on the future fate of neoliberalism, it is important to understand where the
doctrine has come from and what sustains it: know the past and present in order to shape
the future. On this inspiration, this paper offers an account of the institutional and
deeper structural forces that have given neoliberalism its primacy in shaping
globalization over the past quarter-century...What, more precisely, does globality entail?
It is argued that globalization involves the growth of transplanetaryand in
particular supraterritorialconnections between people. Hence, globality is in the
first place a feature of social geography. A distinction therefore needs to be rigorously
maintained between globalization as a reconfiguration of social space and neoliberalism as
a particularand contestablepolicy approach to this trend.
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The Search for
Policy Autonomy in the South: Universalism, Social Learning and the Role of Regionalism
By Norman Girvan
This paper argues the need for the South to secure greater autonomy in development
policy... It utilizes a political economy analysis in the historical context of
decolonization and contemporary globalization... in the 1950s, the new subdiscipline of
development economics made a significant contribution to policy autonomy in the global
South by legitimizing the principle that their economies should be understood within their
own terms and by providing justification for policies that built up its industrial
capabilities...However, the marginalization of development economics and its policies in
the 1980s resulted in a marked discontinuity in the accumulation of policy experience in
much of the South and the squandering of much of intellectual capital developed in the
earlier period. Neoclassical economics and neoliberal policies ruled out the notion of an
economics sui generis for the developing countries. Nonetheless, developments since the
late 1990s have shown that the triumphalism was premature, as global social movements,
financial crises, contradictions in the World Trade Organization (WTO) process and the
shifting political climate in the South have served to undermine the Washington consensus
and have re-opened space for academic enquiry and policy experimentation in the South and
North.
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Globalization:
Themes in Theories of Colonialism and Postcolonialism
-- The Concept of Globalization
Globalisation refers to the process of the intensification of economic,
political, social and cultural relations across international boundaries. It is
principally aimed at the transcendental homogenization of political and
socio-economic theory across the globe. It is equally aimed at “making global
being present worldwide at the world stage or global arena”. It deals with the
“increasing breakdown of trade barriers and the increasing integration of World
market (Fafowora, 1998:5). In other words, as Ohuabunwa, (1999: 20) once opined:
"Globalisation can be seen as an evolution which is systematically
restructuring interactive phases among nations by breaking down barriers in the
areas of culture, commerce, communication and several other fields of
endeavour." This is evident from its push of free-market economics, liberal democracy,
good governance, gender equality and environmental sustainability among other
holistic values for the people of the member states.
The process of globalisation is impelled by the series of cumulative and
conjunctural crises in the international division of labour and the global
distribution of economic and political power; in global finance, in the
functioning of national states and in the decline of the Keynesian welfare state
and the established social contact between labour and government. In fact, its
hallmark of free-market capitalism has been aided among other factors by the
sudden though expected changes within the physiology of global political
community in recent times.
Within the parameters of the foregoing, globalisation could be correctly
defined from the institutional perspective as the spread of capitalism (MacEwan,
1990). However, it is germane to adumbrate that the collapse of the Eastern
block in the late 80s and early 90s led to the emergence and ascendancy of a
global economy that is primarily structured and governed by the interests of
Western behemoth countries, thus, facilitating the integration of most economies
into the global capitalist economy. With the demise of the Eastern Europe in the
early 90s, capitalism as an economic system now dominates the globe more than it
had been at any time in its history. Even, China, by far the largest
non-capitalist economy, has undergone dramatic changes in its international
economic policy orientation, and, is today the recipient of almost one-half of
all foreign direct investments that go into developing nations - this is a
country that essentially blocked all foreign investments until the 1980s (United
Nations, 1995b). Beyond this simplistic analysis of globalisation in terms of
capital inflows and trade investment, it is important to state that it has been
of disastrous consequences to the governments and people of the African
continent.
-- Postcoloniality
and the Postcolony: Theories of the Global and the Local
-- English
in Carthage; or, the "Tenth Crusade"
-- Globalization, Its
Implications and Consequences for Africa
-- Imagining a Global
Democratic Public Sphere: Reclaiming Feminism, Schooling and Economic Justice --A review
of Robin Goodman's World, Class, Women
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