Summary
R.F.M. Lubbers
Seattle: tussen economisering en burgersamenleving
R.F.M. Lubbers opens a series of four articles on the recent Summit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle. In Seattle, the author argues, the success of the ‘globalization’ process in its technological, economic, but foremost political-ideological dimension, which made it possible to continue and develop the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organisation, clashed with its self-created backlash which emerged in the civil society. Seattle has emphasized that the WTO is at a loss how to continue with its ‘deeper integration’ in an era of ‘globalization’. If one takes as hypothesis that it is no longer feasible to leave everything to the market or to expect the market to do the job and that it is imperative to avoid fragmentation of the world economy, than global governance is called for. But this global governance has to take into account the leading role of the United States.