Introduction

From the mid-1980s, the South started to experience profound changes and transformations. In fact, the Southeast Asian economies pursued sustained growth dynamics and improved their integration into the international economy. Even though the Southeast Asian economies pursued their strong growth, the other Third World economies, particularly Africa and the Arab world did not succeed in either resuming growth or ending the marginalisation, despite the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), recommended by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The SAPs sought to establish a stabilisation component in order to reduce the deficits and promote a series of structural reforms, to ensure a greater private regulation of the economy, and to increase the integration of national economies into a globalisation that is considered as essential and irreversible. This economic and social crisis has had important political consequences in the form of protests against the legitimacy of the state.