ABSTRACT
A basic issue in Western society has been the meaning and role of the division between public and private in the political, economic and social spheres. Lester Thurow (2000) has called globalisation a political revolution brought about by business. As a political project it is often identified with the project of spreading ‘market democracy’, one of the hallmarks also of the current administration of George W. Bush in the United States. ‘Globalization means homogenization. Prices, products, wages, wealth, and rates of interest and profit tend to become the same all over the world . . . Under the protection of American military power, globalization proceeds relentlessly’ (Waltz 1999).1
