The Globalization and Development Reader: Perspectives on Development and Global Change, 2nd Edition

Introduction

Part III focused on the radical economic changes globalization has entailed, and the political transformations engendering such economic changes. Proponents of globalization, including Johan Norberg (back in Chapter 15), argue that unfettered global trade greatly benefited the world; but the outcomes of globalization remain a hotly contested question. The readings in Part IV enter this debate by offering nuanced analyses that attempt to identify both the winners and the losers in the global reorganization of capitalism. Part V, in turn, will discuss whether globalization allows for a genuine possibility of progressive change. These selections represent a variety of voices participating in the discussion, including analyses that go beyond the common focus on economic development and growth.

These analyses reprise older debates surrounding classical liberal economic theory (which supported free trade and little government intervention in the economy). Both nineteenth-century and contemporary critics of economic liberalism question whether the world has truly benefited from the unfettered flow of trade and money. They remind us that non-interventionist policies are hardly more “value-free” or neutral in their outcomes than interventionist policies. Any policy – including a policy not to have policies – prioritizes one set of goals (for example, economic growth) over others (for example, environmental protection, poverty alleviation, or human rights), and systematically ...