Abstract

The dark side of globalization

The article discusses the dark side of globalization. The author states that the world's political leadership and transnational corporations celebrated the recent passage of the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, with its associated World Trade Organization, as a sort of global messianic rebirth. They have proclaimed that these new ruling structures will bring on a $250 billion expansion of world economic activity, with benefits trickling down to all nations. The author states that economic globalization involves arguably the most fundamental redesign and centralization of the planet's political and economic arrangements since the Industrial Revolution. Yet the profound implications of these changes have barely been exposed to serious public scrutiny or debate.