Is globalization a positive trend?
Introduction
The case for this claim is made by Ann O Krueger. She is described by Rourke as “special adviser to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund” (Rourke 2008, 2). Krueger is one of the most prominent academic economists in the USA. She is currently Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, has worked with the IMF over many years, and served as its Chief Economist from 2001 to 2006 (IMF, nd). Her statement is a speech which she made in 2006 to the Board of Governors of the IMF and the World Bank group.
The case against this claim is made by Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, in a speech he made to the Group of 15 in 2004. Born in a mud hut, Chavez has only a secondary-school education. He rose though the ranks in the Venezuelan army, was involved in an attempted left-wing coup in 1992, and was elected President in 1998. He has become well-known as a critic of the IMF and of US foreign policy, and has survived several US-sponsored attempts to overthrow him (see Gott 2005, for details of his career). The meeting he addressed was a gathering of leaders of less-developed countries formed to pressure the IMF into adopting more generous policies towards developing countries. Both Krueger and Chavez refer to “globalisation,” a term for the growing interdependence in many ways of people around the globe (Rourke 2007, 126-35). In fact they are debating a much narrower topic – the free-market policies which the IMF has imposed on the developing world.
The case for neo-liberal globalization
Krueger’s speech is a celebration of the role of the IMF and World Bank. The period since 1945, she argues, has been one of “phenomenal economic success” (Krueger, 2008, 12). She cites the rise in life expectancy in one of the largest developing countries, India, in support of this. This she attributes to the expansion of international trade, resulting from policies of trade liberalization by national governments and…