IV.
However, globalization has repercussions that extend beyond markets for goods and beyond networked financial markets: it also affects our approach to nature; it affects people's lives and living conditions in many countries.
It has been a while since there has been a broad-based international protest movement on the scale of the anti-globalization movement. For the first time in years people from across the world, from very different social and political backgrounds, are coming together with a shared cause: from the Guatemalan farmer to the New York student, from the trade union representative in Göppingen to the Cardinal of Genoa.
This movement has prompted thorough reflection, and it asks good questions. This is true even though its demonstrations end, time and again, in violence. Everyone must realize that violence is not an instrument of political argument. Sensible critics and sensible supporters of globalization are not irreconcilable.
Globalization's supporters emphasize the opportunities inherent in it. Its critics oppose negative developments and point out the risks. Criticism is always a kind of early-warning system that politicians and business should not ignore.
The 1998 Nobel Prizewinner in Economics, Amartya Sen, has said that although he is in favor of globalization, he thanks God for the anti-globalization movement. How right he is.
V.
Only those who have clear values that extend beyond the commercial can shape globalization. We must be clear about how we can secure and promote freedom and justice for all in the age of globalization. Our freedom is important to each and every one of us. Economic freedom is one of the fundamental liberties. It is the prerequisite for a strong economy and for prosperity for all. That is why money can justifiably be called an instrument of liberty.
Economic freedom, like all freedoms, is based on preconditions and depends on ties. It will quickly expire where there is no order and where order cannot be enforced. Giving the market a framework and organizing competition fairly is one of humanity's major cultural achievements.
No one is free simply because he can participate in the market. But everyone loses part of his freedom if he is excluded from the market. Only those who regard the freedom of the market as part of universal human freedom can credibly seek the freedom of the market. The market, too, depends on conditions that it cannot itself create.
If the market is now becoming global, we need systems of order that will secure people's freedom worldwide. Politicians must ensure that the freedom of the global market cannot impinge on the freedom of individuals. Everyone must be able to share in the benefits of the global division of labor. We are a long way from this ideal. Globalization is not yet as global as it sounds:
Forty percent of the world's population live in the poorest countries of the world, their share of world trade is less than three percent. In contrast, over three-quarters of world trade is effected by just under sixteen percent of the world population. Over eighty percent of direct investment is concentrated on just ten countries. Thirteen percent of the world population lives in Africa, but they have only 0.3 % of all Internet connections. There is no way around it: so far globalization runs the risk of fragmenting the globe.
We can never assess the market solely in terms of its impressive results for the winners. We must also always ask how these results were achieved.
A policy of freedom will only be convincing in economic terms, too, if it frees people from exploitation, poverty and over-indebtedness, if it provides equal opportunities, if it helps promote mutual respect and if it lets all people share in global developments. The aim must be no more and no less than such a liberal order.
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