Globalization is in a coma

The phenomenon of globalization has been the most significant development in the world since the beginning of the 1980s. With the globalization process, the building blocks of a new order containing a new economic understanding began to be laid on an international scale, and efforts were made to validate the free market economy internationally in this new order. In this context, an end was put to protectionist policies and state intervention in the industrial, trade, banking, and financial sectors; the aim was to rapidly privatize and liquidate existing public institutions and enterprises, reduce social security expenditures, promote individual solutions, and ensure full freedom by removing all obstacles in front of the goods and services sector.

This period also transformed into a market mechanism process where market forces escaped the control of nation-states and began to direct and shape the economy on an international level. As a result, national economies have become more fragile and prone to crises. Many countries, including our own, have been affected by this situation.

The globalization process has re-questioned the economic roles and functions of the state in the public sector. In this context, economic crises emerging in developed and developing countries, the rapid change and development of economic doctrines, and rapid political developments between countries have led to changes and restructuring in the public sector. The function of the state has been reorganized according to the volume and composition of public revenues and public expenditures, which are the fundamental variables of the public economy. These regulations were made within the framework of the neo-liberal transformation developing in the world since the 1980s.

With the structural adjustment policies implemented since the 1980s under the leadership of the IMF and the World Bank, neo-liberal thought began to institutionalize. Along with globalization, the downsizing of the state, the contraction of public expenditures, and ultimately the liquidation of the social state were targeted.

However, what has been experienced in the world and in Turkey with globalization reveals that there is a greater need for a social state than ever before.

In this process, income distribution has continuously deteriorated to the detriment of low-income groups, both internationally and within nations. Environmental quality and quality of life have declined. Financial crises have negatively affected social life in all countries through the contagion effect. Furthermore, the claim that the place of the social state can be filled by so-called non-governmental organizations continues to be a utopia.

In a national and planned development economy, economic growth and development are understood as the increase in real gross social product over a certain period, which is, in short, an increase in the standard of living (increase in welfare).

In a national planned development economy, the prevention of poverty and unemployment and the realization of social security and justice are prerequisites.

The way to achieve our goals is possible through the balanced and fair distribution and redistribution of national income.

To prevent unemployment and poverty, to ensure and maintain price stability, and to provide the necessary funds to reduce income disparities in economic and social terms, a national planned economic reform must be carried out in accordance with the understanding of a social and welfare state.

Prof. Dr. Duran BÜLBÜL