Human Rights and National Boundaries
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-67, Nov-Dec 1991)
Ever since the collapse of communist party regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the proponents of “liberalization” have become ever more aggressive in advocating a market economy as the panacea for all problems related to economic prosperity and political and social justice. We are told that this magic mantra will pull the erstwhile Second World as well as the Third World out of the economic and political morass they find themselves in. The assumption is that removing the restrictions imposed upon private enterprise within a country and free flow of capital from one country to another are the most effective ways to remove poverty. The IMF, World Bank and other powerful international funding agencies backed by Western governments are banging at the ruling elites of the Third World, making them cringe and crawl to obtain good character certificates regarding their liberalization measures….