Global Inequalities, Alternative Regionalism and the Future of Socialism

Abstract:

This paper examines global inequalities and the future of capitalism and socialism through an investigation of the oligarchic wealth on which the current global order is based and also looks at growing challenges to these social foundations of the present global system. The bifurcation of the world-system in the 1980s - with the ascent of Chinese-led East Asia and fall of Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe (and other regions) is explored, as is the prospect for alternative regionalisms - from Latin America to East Asia - which may challenge the oligarchic wealth on which the current global system is based, through the generalization of democratic wealth across the global system.

Full citation:

Reifer, Thomas Ehrlich (2011) "Global Inequalities, Alternative Regionalisms and the Future of Socialism"; Austrian Journal of Development Studies (Journal für Entwicklungspolitik); Vol. 27: 1; Special issue "Giovanni Arrighi: A Global Perspective." Pages 72 - 94.

Contents:

1. Introduction: the 'developmentalist illusion'

2. The wealth of nations and the growing divide between rich and poor

3. Global polarization, oligarchic wealth, and the bifurcation of the global system

4. Alternative regionalisms, democratic wealth, and the future of socialism

5. Conclusion: global capitalism and the future of socialism