Jay R. Mandle - Böcker

Because political campaigns in the United States are privately funded, America's political system is heavily biased toward the interests of wealthy campaign contributors. As a result, government policies have largely ignored the growth in income inequality caused by technological change and economic globalization. This omission has been tolerated because most Americans do not support interventionist government policies. They believe that the government serves the interests of the campaign donors rather than the public. This skepticism concerning the public sector's fairness must be overcome before effective programs to offset mounting inequality can be implemented. Though in recent years legislation to reform the financing of political campaigns has been adopted, private wealth continues to dominate the political process. Political cynicism therefore persists. A voluntary system of public funding of candidates for office is required to generate the trust in the public sector necessary to reverse the trend toward inequality.

Because political campaigns in the United States are privately funded, America's political system is heavily biased toward the interests of wealthy campaign contributors. As a result, government policies have largely ignored the growth in income inequality caused by technological change and economic globalization. This omission has been tolerated because most Americans do not support interventionist government policies. They believe that the government serves the interests of the campaign donors rather than the public. This skepticism concerning the public sector's fairness must be overcome before effective programs to offset mounting inequality can be implemented. Though in recent years legislation to reform the financing of political campaigns has been adopted, private wealth continues to dominate the political process. Political cynicism therefore persists. A voluntary system of public funding of candidates for office is required to generate the trust in the public sector necessary to reverse the trend toward inequality.

The argument the author presents is that globalization is associated with the economic growth necessary to alleviate poverty. Globalization therefore should be encouraged. At the same time, governments must adopt policies that address the needs of those who are victimized by the dislocations caused by the process. The book responds to the opponents by emphasizing globalization's potential to alleviate poverty, but at the same time is critical of those who defend globalization without acknowledging the costs it imposes on innocent victims. In addressing the activist opponents of the process, the author maintains that they should not reject the global integration of world markets because of a concern for justice. Instead activists can advance the interests of the world's poor by mounting political movements to advance international agreements to stabilize the world economy and ensure labor rights.

In this volume of The Annals, the contributors explore their individual subjects within common understanding of the term "globalization". There is agreement that the term refers to the consequences of two phenomena that, in combination, have resulted in what David Harvey calls the global "compression of time and space". The first phenomenon is technological changes in the processing and dissemination of information related to finance and production. The second is the international spread of the technical competence necessary to use these advances efficiently.

The articles in this volume of The Annals are presented to illuminate important dimensions of the globalization process. While this collection is not proposed to be a definitive presentation in the range of subjects covered or in the treatment that is accorded them, it is intended that these articles provide perspective on globalization at a time when it is subject of intense public scrutiny.

The first three articles are broad in scope, tracing the origins of globalization to new technologies, assessing globalization's impact on human well-being, and analyzing the effect of the global economy on Southeast Asia. The impact of globalization on migration and labor is the subject of the next three contributions, followed by three articles addressing important problems with regard to international trade. The last group of articles considers cultural and other changes associated with globalization.