The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century

"Capitalism is the most successful wealth-creating economic system the world has ever known," declares Robert Gilpin. Yet it has skeptics. "Individual nations and powerful groups within nations that believe the world economy functions unfairly and to their disadvantage, or who wish to change the system to benefit themselves to the detriment of others, are an ever-present threat to the stability of the system." The task, then, is to ensure its survival through wise leadership that provides fair rules governing trade, investment, and currency. At a time when the economies of the world appear more linked than ever, and the tug of even further internationalization feels irresistible, Gilpin says nothing is inevitable. The whole system must rest on secure political foundations--foundations that Gilpin argues have weakened since the end of the cold war. "Growing concern over economic globalization and increased competition have intensified the movement toward economic regionalism and the appeal of protectionism," he writes. The Challenge of Global Capitalism was actually completed before the World Trade Organization's disastrous 1999 meeting in Seattle; after watching the protests unfold there, even the most Pollyannaish observers must admit that Gilpin warns of a real threat. His book will appeal mainly to economists, but serious nonspecialists will also find its sober prose accessible. --John J. Miller