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| IT IS A CONSCIOUS CHOICE FOR AN OPEN SOCIETY |
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Globalisation is often portrayed
as a inevitable extraneous force, imposed by "the economic potentates".
It is often quoted to justify decisions
such as privatisation, balanced public budgets, reforms of the labour
market and of product regulation. "We have to do it -Governments
say- even if we would prefer not to". There are two lies in this statement: that globalisation is imposed, and that it is inevitable. Many examples show that in facts international economic integration poses very few restrictions to the actions that governments can carry out -first of all to the power to impose taxes and regulations. The choices defined as "imposed by globalisation" are in facts choices on merits, made because, at the bottom, these are (today) the voters' preferences. This is on the one hand a good piece of news, since in means that there is no "economic potentate" intent on making democracy an empty word, but on the other hand it indicates a sad and diffused lack of leadership and responsibility in many governments. The fact that globalisation is not inevitable, then, is shown by history. Measured as percentage of the world's gross product, international trade was much bigger at the beginning of 1900 than it is now. International trade was halted by World War I (and, by the way, the stop was one of the bottom causes for the birth of the dictatorships that caused World War II). It was only in the second half of the 20th century that international trade slowly recovered, and with it an increasing number of countries was able to lift themselves out of poverty. It is entirely possible that history will repeat itself, that a combination of vested interests and lack of leadership will halt again globalisation. This would be a disaster since globalisation is for everybody an opportunity for a freer and more open life, and for a huge number of people in emerging countries the best hope to get out of poverty. |
Choosing Globalisation I How To Contact Us