Bangladesh, no less than the world at large, is confronted with a new challenge. It is a challenge not only of making the market work. More importantly it is the challenge of bridging the gulf between the market and the common good. As in the world in general so also in developing and less developed countries market economy now strides the world like a colossus. It also exposes its inherent weaknesses and fragility. Its imperfect nature is clearly manifested especially in less developed and developing countries. Bangladesh is no exception. Although over the years the national economy has been generously liberalised and the private sector has become stronger during the last three decades, the state still holds the vital strings in its hands. The government can easily play ducks and drakes with the economy. There is ample scope for market distortion by manipulations and patronage of the powers that be.
On the other hand, private sector business has also acquired political teeth. Many businessmen are in politics and parliament. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is: they often turn their politics into lucrative business. Major political parties seem to be highly influenced and even manoeuvred by big business. It does not matter whether they are holding state power or not.
The question, though universal, is particularly relevant to Bangladesh today: How to gear the market towards the welfare of the common people? Is there really a way to wed the market to the common good, in the world as a whole and Bangladesh in particular?
As the ancient Greek poet Euripides (5th Century B.C) wrote:
There are many shapes and mysteries
Past hope and fear
That God brings to be
And the end men look at for
Cometh not
And a path is there
where no man thought.
THE "POST THIRD WORLD WAR" SCENARIO: AN OVERVIEW: It's a new world, the world from the nineteen-nineties until today (2014). The post cold-war era, heralded by the demise of the Soviet Union and dramatic collapse of the one-party socialist politico-economic order in Eastern Europe, is characterised by the marks of the aftermath of a virtual global war. The "Third World War" has taken place in our own times. The features that distinguish it from preceding global conflicts are clear and unmistakable. It was fought in apparent peace and quiet. The vanquished veritably collapsed from within.
A superpower crumbled into nothingness with whimpers. An entire system crashed to destruction on account of internal weaknesses. The socialist order in Europe died. The bipolar international order disappeared even as the 1990s began. The victors won virtually without firing a single shot. The democratic, multi-party, market-friendly West emerged as the apparent sole arbiter of the destiny of our planet. The U.S.A. seemingly is still the only polar power left to bestride the world like a colossus.
Nevertheless, as the American themselves say, "There is no free lunch". A new world order is yet to be created. At its best it is an uncertain 'unipolar world'. At its worst, it is a mind-boggling spectacle of fast emerging disorder. Like any post-global war situation, this one too is fraught with grave uncertainties and severe socio-economic and political strains and tensions. The signs and symbols of a post-global war world are clear. Continental maps have been redrawn. Many new states have appeared. The tragic thing is that in the aftermath of the silent and invisible 'global war', not universal peace but many local wars have broken out.
Ethnic, religious, colour conflicts in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa have thrown millions into nightmares of blood and fire. Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Azerbijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kampuchea, parts of the South Asian subcontinent and South Africa are burning illustrations of these distressing phenomena.
Save in some prosperous North American, West European and Far-eastern states, governance is weak and under extensive threat and order is in short supply. In several African and East European states, especially in the Balkans, government has virtually disappeared. The less said about economic emancipation in these areas where human life itself is hostage to mindless men in arms, the better.
Many areas in the post-cold war Eastern Europe and in drought-driven, tribal war-riddled Africa are forecasting the shadows of a world caught in the web of incertitude, "an evolving polyarchy - a place without a dominant structure of cooperation and conflict - in which nation-states, sub-national groups, and transnational special interests and communities all (are) vying for the support and loyalty of individuals and conflicts (would have to be) resolved primarily on the basis of ad-hoc bargaining and a shifting context of power-relationships".
No wonder that in such a situation, "Europe is confronting its worst refugee crisis since World War II" and "The worst drought in decades, war and famine are forcing millions of Africans to leave their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries".
A NEW EMERGING WORLD ECONOMY: "THE MARKET RULES": If the political heart of the victorious system in the 'bloodless global war' is 'participatory democracy', the economic core is "free enterprise, open market or market-friendly economy" with increased emphasis on privatisation and role of private sector trade, commerce and industry. The market rules, or is about to, in a world eager to utilise the potentialities of market - forces to secure better life.
Not only in the societies hitherto agglomerated in the erstwhile Soviet Union and its former eastern European satellites but also in the socialist People's Republic of China and Vietnam and other hitherto pro-socialist polities of the former 'Third World' there is increasing awareness of the Keynesian truth that:
"The important thing for government is not to do things which individuals are doing already and do them a little better or little worse, but to do things which at present are not done at all." (John Maynard Keynes, 1926).
Free, private enterprise in a market-friendly economy is the new emerging socio-economic culture of the world of our times as it stands in the second decade of the new millennium. The market is the dominant component of the new economic order. Freedom and unfettered participation constitute the canons of current times in political and economic affairs. Nevertheless the economic life of the planet does not seem to be immune from the effects of the politico-social tumults following the sea-change of the late eighties and early nineties of the last century. Economies of the technologically advanced, industrialised and economically prosperous North, including those of the West such as the resource-rich U.S.A., are not all well. Recession still haunts these societies. The indebtedness of the U.S.A. is about US$ 17 trillion. Despite endless talks and promise of free trade, many technologically and industrially advanced economies are still in a state of unrest. Their lack of confidence is manifest in their increasing protectionist tendencies. Potentially fierce trade wars are in incipient progress among nations of the industrialised and rich North.
As regards the developing and less developed countries of the Global South, their increasing reliance on market-friendly economy does not yet seem to have yielded the desired dividend.
Does this indicate that a new international economic disorder is fast unfolding ?
POVERTY AND INEQUITY IN A "FOUR-STORIED" WORLD: Even as our world proceeds through the beginning of a new century poverty, malnourishment, illiteracy and superstition haunt millions. Modern civilisation has achieved technological wonders. Amazing strides in transport and communication have virtually annihilated time and space. The world of our times has become a veritable 'global village'. Men have stepped on the moon. Man-made machines have traversed inter-planetary space and obtained close views of planets within the solar system.
Yet, this also is a world in which more than 775 million (2012) eke out a pitiful existence below the poverty line : " . . . some 842 million (FAO-2013) go to bed hungry each night. More than 1.5 billion lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation . . . some 57 million (2013) children do not have access to even primary education."
In strictly political and military terms, the world today seems to be a unipolar one, with emerging shades of polycentric, even polyarchic trends. In economic terms it may look like a four-storied structure in which there are:
* the Rich-Rich: entities such as the U.S.A. which are rich both in natural endowments and technology and industry.
* the Poor-Rich: countries such as Japan with scarce natural resources but highly developed institutional technological and industrial infrastructure and prosperous economy.
* the Rich-Poor: petro-dollar rich entities with relatively new-found wealth based on earnings from their oil and petroleum resources but without adequate human resources and institutional, technological bases to sustain prosperity should the oil wells become dry :
* and finally, the Poor-Poor: the vast majority of the world's nations mainly comprising the so-called South.
These poor-poor countries contain the majority of human beings. They are euphemistically called the 'developing' or 'less developed' nations. By and large, their citizens are poor. In the less developed countries of the South a citizen is economically endowed with roughly one-hundredth of the resources of his or her counter-part in the rich and prosperous North.
Dr. Mizanur Rahman Shelley, founder Chairman of Centre for Development Research, Bangladesh (CDRB) and Editor of quarterly Asian Affairs, was a former teacher of political science in Dhaka University and former member of the erstwhile Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) and former non-partisan technocrat Cabinet Minister of Bangladesh.
cdrb@agni.com