ABSTRACT
Advocating globalisation as the way to address social and environmental challenges is like recommending antibiotics to deal with a virus. The downside of globalisation are not 'just temporary effects' as claimed by its supporters. Neither the social democratic nor the communitarian models can withstand the pressures of globalisation, which systematically undermines traditional family, state and community-based mutual support contracts and practices. Corporations and community-based civil institutions understand better than governments and their multilateral equivalents that there is a new social contract in the making. It is not vested with the legal legitimacy of a social clause within the World Trade Organisation framework, or the pomp and ceremony of a G7 resolution. Organisations such as the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development could well have a role to play in the economic processes, as could governments. The newly industrialised countries would certainly not be enjoying their economic prosperity without export-led growth—sustained economic growth does alleviate poverty.
