The Duality of Globalisation: A View from the South

This article defines economic globalisation as the process of integrating the economic systems of state-based polities and outlines the main dimensions of this process. An empirical analysis indicates that the globalisation process is far less advanced than the contemporary debate would indicate, and that globalisation is not a process that affects all states equally. For the economic superpowers, globalisation is far less limiting than for small powers. This duality is the key to understanding the influence of technology and economic liberalisation. The article concludes that superpower dominance in a post-Cold War era created the mythology of globalisation to fill the intellectual vacuum createdby the end of Marxism. The smaller states, lacking influence over the global knowledge structure, accepted this interpretation and acted within the roles as determined by the globalisation paradigm