Taming the beast: neo-classical globalisation, the poor, and the role of the state

Abstract

Globalisation is greatly, and perhaps irreversibly, changing the world we live in. Currently we are witnessing a virtual melting of global cultures into one global village, primarily through the sophistication of networks of telecommunications, an increased movement of people, and the growing number and scope of international businesses. This thesis will focus on the area of economic, or neo-classical globalisation, which is through state action, or, rather, inaction, causing alarming levels of poverty worldwide. International economic and financial organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, as well as other agents of international capital, namely Multinational Corporations, are, through their actions and conditions, forcing developing countries to lessen the protection of social and economic human rights of their citizens. This erosion of the welfare state has in the last three decades of accelerated globalisation plunged more than a billion people below the severe poverty line. This thesis deals with the way this sad state of affairs came about by looking at the factors which caused it. The growing global poverty is a direct consequence of following the neo-classical approach in governing economic transactions, and in order to stop this growth it is, thus, necessary to find a set of solutions within the current global economic framework.