ABSTRACT
Over the last 40 years, “globalization” has become shorthand to describe multidimensional changes in the international economy and world politics. It refers to worldwide epoch-defining changes in the organization of societies, economies, and politics. The free market laissez-faire agenda, based on the neoliberal assumption that markets lead to optimal outcomes, 1 has been pursued by those who benefit from such a deregulated, winner-take-all environment. Unfettered globalization coupled with political commitment to liberalization 2 – as a major force driving global change – is expected to ensure these outcomes (see Karagiannis, 2004, among others). Advances in technology and modern communications have brought about new contacts and discourse among peoples, social movements, transnational corporations, and governments. International capital has managed to restore highly profitable returns on certain investments and operations 3 creating opulent prosperity for some at the expense of many, resulting in growing disparity, poverty, and misery. Globalization carries the economic benefits of specialization and division of labor to the world level but these benefits are not equitably distributed. Decisions of multinational corporations give rise to corporate strategies that are concentrated in the hands of a few, bypassing polyarchic decision-making systems, such as the democratic process, that are preferable for social and economic stability. Within such a dismal international context, we provide an alternative national purpose strategy while taking a range of development-related impediments into account.
