Title: Globalisation and the politics of unequal development

Authors: Kunirum Osia

Addresses: Maryland State Department of Education, 2301 Argonne Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Abstract: The failure of the World Trade Organisation|s (WTO) ministerial conference in Cancun and the forced resignation of the president of Bolivia, indicate serious concern about globalisation. Those who protest against globalisation feel that the continuing deprivations and inequality in the world are distrustful of globalisation but insist that the concept itself does not have universal applicability. There are conceptual ambiguities, conflicting claims, differences as to how data have been interpreted, and assumptions made in measurement. There are concerns about methods in some studies and lack of clarity about how much power cross-country data sets have for detecting any underlying effects of greater openness or other covariates. This paper argues that given the unequal development in today|s world coupled with the institutional and infrastructural weaknesses of developing countries, especially Africa, globalisation will be of no benefit to these countries.

Keywords: globalisation; growth; development; politics; colonialism; institutional weakness; African countries; WTO; World Trade Organisation; unequal development.

DOI: 10.1504/WRSTSD.2004.004853

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, 2004 Vol.1 No.1, pp.25 - 36

Published online: 07 Jul 2004 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article