Title
Globalisation, extremism and violence in poor countries
Abstract
Globalisation—understood as external and internal market liberalisation—generates conditions in poor countries that are conducive to the emergence of extremist movements, instability and conflict. Liberalisation and the accompanying requirement of macroeconomic stabilisation subject people to rapid and sometimes devastating changes in fortune. Yet globalisation has had vastly different effects in different countries. Many have succumbed to sporadic growth or stagnation, inequality and turmoil, whereas others have achieved a broadly based prosperity, peace and democracy. A comparison of two liberalising African cases—Egypt and Mauritius—is employed to explain this divergence in paths. Mauritius has so far deftly navigated the maelstrom of globalisation by achieving growth with considerable equity and genuine democracy, while Egypt has followed a path of belated and partial liberalisation, irregular growth, the rise of new inequalities and insecurities, repression and violent Islamist movements. The major reason for this divergence lies in certain contingent institutional and class processes.
Department(s)
Political Science
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/0143659042000256869
Publication Date
2004
Recommended Citation
Sandbrook, Richard, and David Romano. "Globalisation, extremism and violence in poor countries." Third world quarterly 25, no. 6 (2004): 1007-1030.
Journal Title
Third world quarterly
