Globalisation and Its Impact on the Relations of the Centre and the Peripheries in Europe

Berend T., Ivan

The long course of globalisation, commencing with the Hanseatic League has seen rapid acceleration since the 1980's. World trade and foreign capital investment has grown exponentially and there has been a profound change in the international distribution of labour. The role of multinational companies and the sheer number of speculative financial transactions has increased dramatically.
Even so, free market capitalism and parliamentary democracy has not become as absolute as neo-liberal economics has. In the eighties Reagan and Thatcher applied the principles of market fundamentalism and IMF and World Bank followed suit.
Supporters of globalisation say that everybody is a winner; its critics believe that it leads to chaos and polarisation. Evidence suggests that both consequences co-exist simultaneously. The difference between the richest and the poorest countries has grown to 1:40 - however, many countries are left behind because they are excluded from globalisation. In Central and East-Europe, as the example of Southern Europe shows, many countries have the opportunity to catch up.

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