GLOBALIZATION - ILLUSIONS, HOPES, RESERVATIONS AND CHANCES

The author attempts to answer several questions: what is the essence of globalization, what outcomes it brings about, what follows from its inevitability, what can be done to stave off its negative results? It is demonstrated that globalization should not be perceived in a narrow sense, as a vehicle to equalize the levels of economic development but, rather as a process by which the world market is formed. Three dimensions of globalization should be analyzed: economic, social and political. The author points to the results that neoliberal principles evoke when applied under global conditions in the world economy which is dominated by supranational corporations and when the doctrine of the 'new economy' is being implemented. The article is concluded with an appeal that the old paradigm of thinking about the economy should be changed, that the neoliberal principles should be discarded and that new, world-wide rules for policy making should be formulated and that these rules should be followed by international institutions.