Document Abstract
Published:
2008
Global political-economic and geopolitical processes, structures and trends
Shifts in the global political economy
This paper assesses major shifts in the global political economy and geopolitics since the 1970s which have brought together processes of governance and liberalisation in often uncomfortable ways.
The authors argue that geopolitical realignments that were in part responsible for neo-liberal policy ascendancy occurred through important power shifts reflected in roughly a dozen major moments. But these reflected underlying structural dynamics that emerged during the 1970s — stagnation, financial volatility and uneven development. Processes of governance and liberalisation have important manifestations in society, including the generation of structural constraints to improved health policy.
The context has been a series of durable economic problems: stagnation, financial volatility and uneven development. Political alignments have followed, and remain in an adverse balance of power, from the standpoint of redistributive socioeconomic reform. Any expectation that global governance offers solutions, given the prevailing political-economic and geopolitical processes, structures and trends, should be carefully re-evaluated.
The paper concludes with a number of considerations for contemporary politics and public policy, and public health. These include:
The authors argue that geopolitical realignments that were in part responsible for neo-liberal policy ascendancy occurred through important power shifts reflected in roughly a dozen major moments. But these reflected underlying structural dynamics that emerged during the 1970s — stagnation, financial volatility and uneven development. Processes of governance and liberalisation have important manifestations in society, including the generation of structural constraints to improved health policy.
The context has been a series of durable economic problems: stagnation, financial volatility and uneven development. Political alignments have followed, and remain in an adverse balance of power, from the standpoint of redistributive socioeconomic reform. Any expectation that global governance offers solutions, given the prevailing political-economic and geopolitical processes, structures and trends, should be carefully re-evaluated.
The paper concludes with a number of considerations for contemporary politics and public policy, and public health. These include:
- the problems of health care associated with and largely caused by globalisation follow from the volatile political economic processes (including South-North resource drain) and hostile geopolitical environments
- progressive nationalists and global justice advocates may have the will and vision to advance the required far-reaching reforms - whether they have the capacity and support depends upon politics, but the past three and a half decades of elite mismanagement should alert readers to the dire consequences of top-down strategies for improved healthcare
- the future will be forged where neoconservative/neoliberal globalisation-from-above is countered by globalisation-from-below (and in some cases such as healthcare and water that will entail de-globalisation of patent rights and municipal services contracts).
