27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fairly random collection of high-quality articles., 16 May 2002
This review is from: Globalisation: Making Sense of an Integrating World: Reasons, Effects and Challenges (Economist) (Hardcover)
“Globalisation” has three high points, each of which stands out for a different reason.
First there’s Clive Crook’s self-confessed polemic in defence of globalisation. It’s a masterclass in rhetoric. Crook moves effortlessly across the range of the debate, from inequality to the power of big business, global institutions to national politics. He also blends theory (always nattily explained) with evidence (chosen well, but not too selectively). He gives ground when it is due and can tub-thump when he wants to. A one-sided contribution to the debate, certainly, but a thoughtful one.
Chapter two is “Popular Myths and Economic Facts”. This is an excellent and compact survey of different facets of globalisation, from migration to transport, media to foreign direct investment. The only pity is that the statistics, almost five years old, have not been updated (at the very least, in an appendix).
The third outstanding contribution is Robert Wade’s piece “By Invitation”, on inequality. Here Wade uses The Economist’s techniques: a thoughtful laying out of the evidence, followed by a clear and bold policy recommendation. But he argues for a position that The Economist would not normally take – that inequality, properly measured, probably is increasing, and furthermore poverty reduction is not enough: relative inequality is a problem even if the poor are getting richer.
The rest of the book has some impressive elements but is less than the sum of its parts. There’s a survey on taxation, one on equity markets, one on international financial architecture, and some thought-provoking stuff on the uses of technology. There are some nice short articles on how different industries (wine, oil, retail, law) have been wrestling with globalisation.
I found much of the survey on equity informative about the facts, but unpersuasive about the implications. Author John Peet asserts that an equity culture is preferable to a system based around banks – partly because banks, with their deposit insurance, are subject to “moral hazard”. Well, maybe – but it’s not enough to count the costs of banking and not the benefits. An entrepreneurial culture needs risk-sharing institutions, even if they do lead to moral hazard. (The limited liability company, of which The Economic Newspaper Ltd. is a case in point, is another example!)
Another relative weakness in the book is a lack of treatment of environmental issues. “Skeptical Environmentalist” author Bjorn Lomborg writes a persuasive account of one side of the story, but it might have been more persuasive yet if one of his opponents had been given an opportunity to reply. Lomborg’s piece is a good start to the debate, but on other subjects this book is both broader and deeper.
I am still looking for somebody to write the definitive book on globalisation: thoughtful, wide-ranging, stylishly written and properly structured. This book has the first three qualities in spades – good enough to stand out from the rest of the field.