ABSTRACT
The management problems of the North-South system are quite different from those of the Western system. For the interdependent system of developed market economies, the crucial issue is whether it is possible to achieve the necessary political capability at the national, regional, and global levels to ensure that international economic relations continue to result in mutually beneficial outcomes while also modernizing (although not drastically altering) the international economic institutions that have been in place since World War II. The North-South system is separate from, but also embedded in, the Western system. It is separate because the rules of the North-South system reflect the much lower income levels and resource bases of the developing countries. It is embedded because the countries of the North (actually the West) have veto power over important changes in the system. The main question for the North-South system is whether it is possible to change the system so that more than a small number of developing countries benefit from it.
