The New Mantra of Globalization: Inclusion

British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted recently that he was so inept on computers and the Internet that he enrolled in a public course to learn the basics. When he noticed a classmate growing increasingly nervous, Blair leaned over to say he hoped having the prime minister present wasn’t causing the man’s jitters.

“Not at all,” replied the classmate. “I’m nervous because you’re not doing very well and you’re the prime minister. I’m doing very well--and I’m unemployed.”

Blair told that tale at the annual World Economic Forum here, summing up the theme at this year’s gathering of the rich and powerful: When it comes to globalization, the world is on a learning curve. The changes ahead are so profound that virtually everyone will be a part of them. And past prominence or performance doesn’t necessarily guarantee an edge.

Indeed, despite widespread recognition that the world is rapidly integrating its diverse economies and disparate societies, the conference in this Alpine ski resort underscored how little order and organization there is to that process of globalization. Yet this year’s weeklong session, which ended last Tuesday, marked a seminal turning point for a process that has so far been awkward, bitter and even Darwinian in widening rather than narrowing the gap between the world’s rich and poor.

President Clinton set the tone in what may come to be viewed as a landmark speech. Beyond specific calls for action now, it addressed the two basics that globalization needs most: rules and structures.

First, Clinton pronounced that globalization has to be inclusive to work. It has to be different from the last attempt at globalization a century ago, when the process was dominated by empires, colonial powers and autocrats, when not a single country had an electorate that represented all quarters of its society, and when the process exploited rather than empowered.

This time, he said, the first rule of globalization must be that it embraces and offers opportunities to all elements of all societies. The bottom line: E-commerce won’t work unless there’s also e-democracy.

“The factor about globalization that tends to be underappreciated is that it will only work if we understand it genuinely means interdependence,” Clinton said. “None of us who are fortunate can any longer help ourselves unless we are prepared to help our neighbors.”

Second, Clinton outlined a triangular structure for this new order--complete with checks and balances that constitute democracy writ global. One branch is made up of governments, the basic political unit that creates and enforces standards. The second branch is private business, the basic economic unit that generates livelihood.

The third is so-called civil society--the amorphous network of special interest groups, from the Red Cross to the AFL-CIO to Friends of the Earth, that represent issues and people not fully protected or addressed by business and government.

The sense of empowerment unleashed over the past decade by the demise of communism, apartheid and military dictatorships and by technological advances has opened the door for civil society to play as an equal on the international stage. While they’re the wild card in globalization, these nongovernmental organizations--known as NGOs--are among the most energetic and outspoken voices in the world today.

Nongovernmental Groups on the Rise

Four decades ago, there were fewer than 1,000 NGOs that operated in at least three countries. Today there are almost 30,000, according to the United Nations. Within the U.S., there are about 2 million such groups. In the brief decade since communism collapsed, 65,000 independent organizations dealing with the full range of issues have formed in Russia.

“We need a more unifying, more inclusive vision,” Clinton warned in explaining the need for broadening a process of integration dominated by the globalized business sector.

That theme was reflected extensively this year in Davos for the first time. In the labyrinthine underground conference center, where computer kiosks were set up at every corner, the world’s rich and famous--including Microsoft’s Bill Gates and AOL’s Steve Case--attended sessions with the likes of President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, and AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney.

Both the expanded invitation list to the Davos conference, now in its 30th year, and the speeches by Clinton and other world leaders were clearly forced by the growing uproar about globalization, evident in the protests that disrupted the World Trade Organization gathering in Seattle late last year.

‘Self-Interest That Is Mutual’

The belated recognition that globalization must literally be global--and not dominated indefinitely by wealthy industrialized nations and their techno-wizards--was widely reflected in Davos.

“The opening of the 21st century has seen a move away from a very narrow, perhaps selfish individualism toward the idea of belonging, of community, of a self-interest that is mutual,” Blair told the meeting.

Principles still await action. But proposals emerged in Davos on the next steps.

One idea called for a group of “eminent persons” to advise on how to build a global consensus and make groups such as the WTO more accessible and accountable.

Other proposals centered on closing the development gap, reflected in the fact that 4.8 billion of the world’s 6 billion people live in developing countries, 3 billion live on less than $2 a day, and 2 billion have never made a telephone call.

Suggestions ranged from conditional debt relief to having the most developed nations offer the least developed countries duty-free and quota-free access to nearly all goods.

Blair urged the world not to make the same mistake with information, the most valuable resource today, that it did a quarter of a century ago with oil, then the most vital commodity.

At least a decade of economic turmoil--whopping inflation, soaring interest rates, growing budget deficits, declining productivity and rising unemployment--was driven by quadrupling the price of oil in 1973 and putting it beyond the reach of many who needed it.

To ensure that the information revolution--represented by access and ability to use the Internet--does not become exclusive, Blair urged the world to make its primary investment for the next 15 years in education. Education is the basic step in eventually helping personnel at African health clinics link up with medical knowledge in Europe and farmers planting crops in South America determine the needs of commodity markets in North America.

Otherwise, Blair warned, the 150 million children of primary school age in developing countries who don’t go to school, the more than 900 million adults who are illiterate and the 60 countries that can’t keep up because they don’t have an educated class will be left behind--and increasingly bitter about globalization.

So far, as other speakers pointed out, the backlash is not really against the idea of a wired world that links virtually every aspect of life. It’s really about how the process works, how change is undertaken and who will gain or suffer. But that could change.

“Our success will depend,” Blair warned, “on whether we can change as fast as the environment around us.”