Which Western countries at the end of the twentieth century. can we call them "leading"? Detailed answer

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Which Western countries at the end of the twentieth century. can we call them "leading"? Detailed answer

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Which Western countries at the end of the twentieth century. can we call them "leading"?

By the end of the twentieth century. the leading countries that make up the core of Western civilization have confidently entered the phase of post-industrial society. By this time, the most difficult part of the structural restructuring of the economy was over, and most countries in this region showed fairly stable and stable economic growth rates - an average of 2-2,5% per year.

Particularly successful last decade of the twentieth century. turned out to be for the United States, which went even further ahead of its competitors.

A peculiar sign of this decade was the process of globalization. This term refers to a multidimensional process, the main components of which are usually distinguished:

1) formation of a single world financial market;

2) formation of a unified information network;

3) liberalization of world trade;

4) a sharp expansion of transnational companies (TNCs) in the world economy.

The process of globalization is developing unevenly. The process of globalization of financial markets is going on most intensively. In recent years, the movement of speculative capital, torn off from the real sector of the economy, has been developing at a faster pace. The volume of transactions with currency, bonds and securities is growing especially fast. It is this part of the general global movement of capital that begins to have the greatest impact on the dynamics of the development of civilization. So far, adequate regulators of this sphere of capital movement have not been developed, and because of this, it is precisely this sphere that acts as the main source of instability in the global financial market, which has recently turned into several regional crises.

The core of the qualitative changes in the economy of Western countries were shifts in the field of information and communication technologies, which radically transformed the material basis of society. First of all, in these countries, the role of industrial-type production has noticeably decreased. This has altered the sources of economic growth. Among them, information, the main commodity in the global economy, began to occupy an increasing place. This has been made possible by the advent of the rapidly developing Internet.

Profound qualitative changes in the economy, caused by the process of its globalization, have also brought large-scale problems, which are called (and not without reason) global. Among them, the environmental problem comes to the fore. Scientific and technological progress has led to the fact that there is a threat to the safe habitation of man.

The demographic problem, traditional for humanity, also causes concern. The growth of the world's population so far has absolutely no correlation with the rate of economic growth. Most of the population growth is in countries with a low standard of living. And now hunger and poverty in a number of countries of the world are no exception.

A serious problem is the depletion of the planet's resource potential, especially the depletion of sources of raw materials.

The transition of the leading Western countries to the stage of post-industrial development has somewhat exacerbated social problems in the region. In these countries, despite the rapid change in the structure of the economy and favorable economic conditions, unemployment persists, a sharp gap in the income level of the richest part of society and those who are at the bottom of the social ladder.

The situation is also aggravated by the ongoing national-ethnic conflicts in countries such as Spain, Great Britain, France, Canada, and Italy. Political scandals also played a destabilizing role, for example, those connected with the attempt to impeach US President William Clinton in 1999, or with a series of revelations of the intentions of the governments of E. Blair and George W. Bush Jr. during the preparations for the war in Iraq.

But these trends have not weakened the conviction of Western civilization that the evolutionary path of development is the only possible one in the future. The sharp strengthening of conservative forces is a thing of the past. Today, Western countries are looking for ways to ensure social harmony and optimal forms of management of a post-industrial society. But this process is colliding with a growing anti-globalization movement, which makes it difficult to solve the problem of consolidating society.

Author: Irina Tkachenko

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