Introduction: Globalization and Third World Development in the Twenty-First Century

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores three interrelated themes surrounding the impacts of globalization on Third World poverty during the first few decades of the twenty-first century. These themes are the welfare role of the state in the age of market triumphalism, the ability of civil society to fill any vacuum created by state withdrawal and influence of the global environmental movement in prescribing how the poor can use their environment. From a third World perspective, the important link between Sustainable development and globalization has to do with its implications for poverty-alleviation. The book takes an optimistic view regarding future prospects for viable state-market wedlock to address poverty. It reveals some of the weaknesses of state action against the power of foot-loose capital. The book examines the links between civil society and neoliberalism using the South African example as a case in point.