The world into the 21st century: Globalization, market capitalism and sustainability

Abstract

The solution to the economic and political crises of the earlier decades of the 20th century was sought and found in state intervention through planning, as it was the case in many countries. However, towards the end of the century, technological progress and rapid innovations especially in the field of information technologies, have led to the global integration of financial markets and changing trends in many fields such as the rapid increase in international trade and growing interest in regional integrations. 1980s and the aftermath has been the period of rising capitalist market economy, trying to integrate globally. For some, it was a new phase in the world history or rather was the “end of the history”, and globalizing capitalism was going to solve all the problems on earth. Soon it was increasingly realized that the market economy was causing some global problems with fatal consequences such as the climate change. Moreover, with the global crisis originating from the financial markets and spreading to all sectors during the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, it became apparent that the globalizing capitalism was not capable of handling all the problems on earth. The aim of this paper is to analyze some major global problems, their repercussions, their probable future consequences and to discuss policies towards a more livable world.