GLOBALIZATION, DEVELOPMENT AND INTEGRATION: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

Globalization, Development and Integration offers a European perspective on globalization. It looks at some of the characteristics of the current phase of globalization, such as the asymmetries in the way it manifests itself in daily life, including the crucial and often controversial role played by agriculture, and the effects that it produces on poverty and inequality throughout the world. The book devotes particular attention to the problems experienced by developing countries, by studying what the appropriate macroeconomic policies are to deal with globalization, and how international labour markets work in a globalised economy. The book also examines how Europe has responded to globalisation: might there be a “European model” to deal with the challenges of globalisation? Can such a “European model” survive in an increasingly globalised economy? In the chapter, Asymmetric globalization: theoretical principles and pragmatic behaviour guiding market liberalization, Pompeo Della Posta argues that the application of economic theory to globalization is characterized by many asymmetries relative, for example, to the sectors to be liberalized (developed countries resist liberalizing textiles, clothing and agriculture) and to the different role played over time by the ‘infant industry’ argument for protection, by environmental and social regulations, and by goods, capital and labour markets liberalization. In his view a further asymmetry is represented by the different weight assigned to the liberalization of the external sectors of the economy with respect to that assigned to the internal sectors (an example is provided by the protection which is often granted to the professional associations). The reasons asymmetries exist in part can be traced back to the presence of strong lobbies, which dismiss the principles of globalization when the impact might have negative redistributive effects on their constituency. Yet, the adoption of appropriate commercial or subsidy policies may be justified (from the perspective of economic theory) by the presence of either internal or external market distortions. These asymmetries also characterize the European context, as the chapter argues in detail. The recent experience of the European Globalization Fund might also provide an interesting experiment regarding the feasibility and success a temporary redistributive scheme may have in gaining a wider social consensus for the globalization process.