South Perspectives - November 1996

Summary

The present publication reviews the historical evidence and presents the key economic arguments to sustain the case against the now conventional wisdom regarding liberalization, growth and development policy and it sets out the main elements of a South platform and a rationale for a strengthened UNCTAD. The analytical points and policy conclusions are set out at some length in this summary in order to provide a full and coherent statement of the argument.

First, however, in order to forestall possible misunderstanding, attention needs to be drawn to two important points. The first point to be emphasized is that the publication gives considerably more space to the problems of low economic growth and mass unemployment in the North than it does to similar problems and that of poverty in the South. The main reason for this is not that the economic difficulties of developing countries are regarded as being any less serious. Far from it. The reason is that one of the central aims of the publication is to assess the merits of liberalization and globalization as policy options for the South. It is therefore essential to assess the experience of the advanced industrial countries which, over the last fifteen years, have taken this process furthest.

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