ALBERTO MAJOCCHI

Sviluppo sostenibile e globalizzazione: conflitto o compatibilità?

N. 197

 

Summary — There are many positive effects deriving from the process of globalisation: it is a first step towards the creation of a world unified market and it has favoured the growth of countries in the past excluded from the benefits of industrialisation. But there are also limits and dangers of this process. In this paper the A. tries to discuss the impact of globalisation on environmental protection reaching the conclusion that globalisation is favourable to the environment if correct environmental policies are in place. Qtherwise the consequence of increased trade flows could be a deterioration of environmental conditions. In the field of agriculture it is not at all sure that free trade is able by itself to guarantee an efficient allocation of resources on the world market, especially if environmental, territorial and social effects of agricultural production are correctly taken into account. The liberalisation of capital markets, while it has favoured in the past the access to the capital market of developing countries, is also the source of large risks of financial instability as it has been the case during the last decade. The conclusion reached in this paper is that, in order to avoid all these risks, an effective and democratic government of the globalisation process is needed. The United States are unable to provide this kind of government. It is mainly a European responsibility — guaranteeing a federal outcome to the process of European unification—to provide a first step forward towards an effective and democratic government of the world economy.