Global economic governance in question: Africa's adverse position and policy reform

[摘要] In essence, the central focus of this study is the governance of globalisation, and morespecifically, the (supra-national) economic governance of economic gobalisation. At itscore, the challenge concerning globalisation in the 21st century is not to stop theexpansion of global markets. The challenge is to find the rules and institutions forstronger governance �?local, national, regional and global �?to preserve the advantages ofglobal markets and competition, and to provide sufficient space for human, communityand environmental resources to ensure that globalisation works for people �?not just forprofits. Unfortunately, at present globalisation is primarily working for the rich nations atthe cost of mainly the poor nations and it is increasingly becoming a source of seriousglobal instability, which inhibits global economic prosperity for all. Making mattersworse, global economic governance is found to be increasingly inadequate in providinggood governance to the global economy and, in fact, contributes �?whether intended ornot �?significantly to the marginalisation of the majority of the world's poor countries.This, however, is not to suggest that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the WorldBank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) only contribute to these countries'marginalisation as they have, indeed, especially over the last decade, made notableattempts to help these countries develop and grow economically. The concern is that theglobal economic governance that is currently provided is incongruent to the needs forbetter supra-national governance as presented by globalisation and marginalisation, inparticular. In the latter's case, the marginalisation of a region such as Africa is of specificconcern, mainly due to the fact that, as a continent, it best illustrates the serioussignificance of the problem of global inequality the global economy is facing.Hence, at issue in this study are two critical concerns regarding the progression of theglobal economy: a governance void, i.e. the inadequacy of global economic governancearrangements coupled with the declining authority of the nation-state in the global marketplace, and global inequality, i.e. the divide that is opening up between the developed andmost of the developing countries, which appears to be perpetuated by globalisation andthe technology revolution, thus making it harder for the latter countries to catch up.Importantly, this presents the rationale behind the need for structural reform in globaleconomic governance as well as policy reform in developing countries, most notablyAfrica, to ultimately improve the governance of globalisation and the enabling capacityof a region like Africa �?to put itself in a better position to reap more of the benefits ofglobalisation. In its investigations, the study found that global economic governance isindeed severely deficient, that Africa is grossly underdeveloped and that its marginalisationis worsening, and that structural policy reforms in both Africa and global economicgovernance need to be complementary and be based on a clear and agreed-upon set ofnorms, goals and principles that is mutually beneficial to the interests of both thedeveloped and the developing countries. In fact, in the case of global economicgovernance, it was found that not only reform, but a remodelling of this system isrequired. The key areas investigated in this study include conceptual interpretations andthe co-historical progression of economic thinking and global economic governance,deficiencies in global economic governance and a number of contributing factors,Africa's marginalisation, reform and remodelling of the system of global economicgovernance and critical areas where economic reform is most needed in Africa. Finally,this study is important �?as the current global financial crisis is once again revealing –because there is a pressing need for structural change in global economic governancearrangements and, given the severity of global inequality, a corresponding change (i.e.reform) is required on the part of developing countries, especially Africa, to becomemore globally competitive and restore some balance to current global asymmetries.

[发布机构] University of the Free State