Is globalisation an obstacle to development or an opportunity for poorer countries?
This was one of the most contentious issues in the commission set up by the German Parliament to study the “Globalisation of the World Economy”. Even the international organisations do not agree. World Trade Organisation and World Bank stress the positive effects of globalisation; in reports by UNDP and UNCTAD where Third World countries have a louder voice the predominant view is critical. From globalisation’s apologists we hear glad tidings: the global liberalisation of markets, they say, is promoting growth, and more growth means more affluence. But where and for whom? Globalisation’s critics, on the other hand, claim that its blessings are bestowed only on the strong in the world economy; few developing countries profit, and where they do, the benefits are often confined to minorities. In an exemplary row in the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Cologne economist Carl Christian von Weizsäcker hailed the globalised world market as a “generator of affluence”; Attac activist Susan George beg
