In Defense of Global Capitalism
Encyclopedia
In Defense of Global Capitalism (in Swedish
: Till världskapitalismens försvar) is a book by Swedish
writer Johan Norberg
promoting economic globalization
and free trade
. The book was originally published in May 2001 by the Swedish think tank Timbro
. Since then, a number of translations into other languages have followed.
In the book, Norberg examines the arguments put forward by the anti-globalization movement
. According to Norberg, "the diffusion of capitalism in the last decades has lowered poverty rates
and created opportunities for individuals all over the world. Living standards
and life expectancy
has risen fast in most places. World hunger
, infant mortality
and inequality
have diminished. This is because of an economic and technological development that is the result of free market
policies. The poor countries that have liberalized their economies have shown impressive results, while those that have not are stuck in deep misery. Therefore, we need more capitalism and globalisation if we want a better world, not less".
As of 2008, the book has been translated into a dozen of languages including: English
(including British
, American
, Australian
and Indian English
), German
, Dutch
, Turkish
, Estonian
, French
(including Canadian French
), Finnish
, Spanish
, Chinese
, Polish
, Czech
, Arabic
, Russian
and Mongolian
.
The book was also the basis for the Channel 4
2003 documentary film Globalisation is Good
, which was presented by Norberg.
, editor-in-chief of Reason
, wrote on the book: "A powerful moral and economic case for globalization. Norberg throws rhetorical Molotov cocktails both at left-wing critics who would condemn developing countries to poverty by insisting on First World workplace and environmental standards as a prerequisite for trade and at Western governments whose free market rhetoric is shamefully undercut by draconian tariffs on textiles and agriculture, the two areas in which the developing world can actually compete."
Samuel Brittan
of Financial Times
wrote:
"Giving clear and verifiable sources, he nails one by one the fallacies and selective statistics that are used by the anti-capitalist protesters."
Anne Applebaum
of Washington Post wrote: "Johan Norberg makes the case that free trade is good for the developing world, good for freedom, good for social progress, even if the dull old Marxists refuse to see it. It can be no accident that not one but two glamorous young pro-capitalists have emerged in Europe over the past year. [Norberg and France's Sabine Herold
] ...the [anti-globalization] movement has in recent years provided a cushion for those politicians -- European, American, Japanese and developing world alike -- who drag their feet about opening markets. Maybe now, if the young, the hip and the free-thinking start pushing the other way, the ministers in their suits will be forced to listen too".
Ben Stein
, former speechwriter for U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon
and Gerald Ford
, wrote: "Johan Norberg's book is a stunningly insightful, brilliantly detailed refutation of the crank theories of the anti-globalists. In Defense of Global Capitalism is a shining example of what a gifted mind can do working with the truth to advance the cause of capitalism, which in the end is the cause of every decent man and woman".
William H. Peterson of Washington Times wrote: "I hail him [Norberg] for making his case for globalization with solid facts, statistics, bar-charts, and lots of flesh-and-blood examples drawn from his travels"
Dave O'Brien of Winnipeg Free Press
called Norberg "Europe's answer to our own Naomi Klein
" and Jacqueline Thorpe of the Canadian National Post
wrote: "It is a sweet irony that the task of defending global capitalism from the likes of Canada´s own Naomi 'No Logo' Klein has fallen on the shoulders of a pony-tailed Swede who started out as an anarchist obsessed with goth music and black clothes. But it is a role Johan Norberg, author of In Defence of Global Capitalism and at 30, every bit as good-looking as left-wing pin-up Ms Klein, has easily morphed into. ...His book, which won the Antony Fisher Memorial Award in 2002, counters anti-globalization arguments with facts, figures, but mostly common sense".
Former chairman of the National Bank of Poland
Leszek Balcerowicz
wrote: "The liberal cause has obtained a powerful communicator, Mr Johan Norberg from Sweden. He combines mastery of facts and a deep understanding of theories, with the gift of lucid and emotionally moving argumentation."
Swedish Professor of Philosophy and socialist Torbjörn Tännsjö
wrote: "Johan Norberg has written an agreeable book in defence of capitalism and globalisation... Even in labour movement discussion circles I think it would repay close study".
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
: Till världskapitalismens försvar) is a book by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
writer Johan Norberg
Johan Norberg
Johan Norberg is a Swedish author and historian, devoted to promoting economic globalization and liberal positions. He is arguably most known as the author of In Defense of Global Capitalism...
promoting economic globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
. The book was originally published in May 2001 by the Swedish think tank Timbro
Timbro
Timbro is a libertarian, free market think tank and book publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden, that works to promote ideas, influence legislation and public opinion...
. Since then, a number of translations into other languages have followed.
In the book, Norberg examines the arguments put forward by the anti-globalization movement
Anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement, is critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or...
. According to Norberg, "the diffusion of capitalism in the last decades has lowered poverty rates
Measuring poverty
Although the most severe poverty is in the developing world, there is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries, this condition results in wandering homeless people and poor suburbs and ghettos. Poverty may be seen as the collective condition of poor people, or of poor groups, and...
and created opportunities for individuals all over the world. Living standards
Standard of living
Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
and life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
has risen fast in most places. World hunger
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
, infant mortality
Infant mortality
Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths per 1000 live births. Traditionally, the most common cause worldwide was dehydration from diarrhea. However, the spreading information about Oral Re-hydration Solution to mothers around the world has decreased the rate of children dying...
and inequality
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
have diminished. This is because of an economic and technological development that is the result of free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
policies. The poor countries that have liberalized their economies have shown impressive results, while those that have not are stuck in deep misery. Therefore, we need more capitalism and globalisation if we want a better world, not less".
As of 2008, the book has been translated into a dozen of languages including: English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
(including British
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
, American
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, Australian
Australian English
Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....
and Indian English
Indian English
Indian English is an umbrella term used to describe dialects of the English language spoken primarily in the Republic of India.As a result of British colonial rule until Indian independence in 1947 English is an official language of India and is widely used in both spoken and literary contexts...
), German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(including Canadian French
Canadian French
Canadian French is an umbrella term referring to the varieties of French spoken in Canada. French is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians, a figure constituting roughly 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has co-official status alongside English...
), Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Mongolian
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
.
The book was also the basis for the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
2003 documentary film Globalisation is Good
Globalisation is Good
Globalisation is Good is a 2003 documentary film written and presented by Johan Norberg and produced by Freeform Productions for British Channel 4. The film is based on Norberg's much celebrated book In Defense of Global Capitalism that shows his view of the impact of globalisation, and the...
, which was presented by Norberg.
Reviews
Nick GillespieNick Gillespie
Nick Gillespie is the editor of Reason.com and Reason.tv and was the editor in chief of Reason magazine from 2000 to 2008...
, editor-in-chief of Reason
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
, wrote on the book: "A powerful moral and economic case for globalization. Norberg throws rhetorical Molotov cocktails both at left-wing critics who would condemn developing countries to poverty by insisting on First World workplace and environmental standards as a prerequisite for trade and at Western governments whose free market rhetoric is shamefully undercut by draconian tariffs on textiles and agriculture, the two areas in which the developing world can actually compete."
Samuel Brittan
Samuel Brittan
Sir Samuel Brittan is a British columnist for the Financial Times and an author.At Cambridge he was taught by Peter Bauer and Milton Friedman...
of Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
wrote:
"Giving clear and verifiable sources, he nails one by one the fallacies and selective statistics that are used by the anti-capitalist protesters."
Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum
Anne Elizabeth Applebaum is a journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has written extensively about communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She has been an editor at The Economist, and a member of the editorial board of The Washington Post...
of Washington Post wrote: "Johan Norberg makes the case that free trade is good for the developing world, good for freedom, good for social progress, even if the dull old Marxists refuse to see it. It can be no accident that not one but two glamorous young pro-capitalists have emerged in Europe over the past year. [Norberg and France's Sabine Herold
Sabine Hérold
Sabine Herold is a French classical liberal activist and main spokeswoman of Alternative libérale, a French liberal/libertarian party.-Biography:Herold was born in Reims, France. Her parents are both teachers...
] ...the [anti-globalization] movement has in recent years provided a cushion for those politicians -- European, American, Japanese and developing world alike -- who drag their feet about opening markets. Maybe now, if the young, the hip and the free-thinking start pushing the other way, the ministers in their suits will be forced to listen too".
Ben Stein
Ben Stein
Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...
, former speechwriter for U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, wrote: "Johan Norberg's book is a stunningly insightful, brilliantly detailed refutation of the crank theories of the anti-globalists. In Defense of Global Capitalism is a shining example of what a gifted mind can do working with the truth to advance the cause of capitalism, which in the end is the cause of every decent man and woman".
William H. Peterson of Washington Times wrote: "I hail him [Norberg] for making his case for globalization with solid facts, statistics, bar-charts, and lots of flesh-and-blood examples drawn from his travels"
Dave O'Brien of Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Free Press
The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1872, as the Manitoba Free Press, it is the oldest newspaper in western Canada. It is the newspaper with the largest readership in the province....
called Norberg "Europe's answer to our own Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
" and Jacqueline Thorpe of the Canadian National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
wrote: "It is a sweet irony that the task of defending global capitalism from the likes of Canada´s own Naomi 'No Logo' Klein has fallen on the shoulders of a pony-tailed Swede who started out as an anarchist obsessed with goth music and black clothes. But it is a role Johan Norberg, author of In Defence of Global Capitalism and at 30, every bit as good-looking as left-wing pin-up Ms Klein, has easily morphed into. ...His book, which won the Antony Fisher Memorial Award in 2002, counters anti-globalization arguments with facts, figures, but mostly common sense".
Former chairman of the National Bank of Poland
National Bank of Poland
Narodowy Bank Polski is the central bank of Poland. It controls the issuing of Poland's currency, the złoty. The Bank is headquartered in Warsaw, and has branches in every major Polish town...
Leszek Balcerowicz
Leszek Balcerowicz
Leszek Balcerowicz is a Polish economist, the former chairman of the National Bank of Poland and Deputy Prime Minister in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's government...
wrote: "The liberal cause has obtained a powerful communicator, Mr Johan Norberg from Sweden. He combines mastery of facts and a deep understanding of theories, with the gift of lucid and emotionally moving argumentation."
Swedish Professor of Philosophy and socialist Torbjörn Tännsjö
Torbjörn Tännsjö
Torbjörn Tännsjö is a Swedish professor of philosophy. He has held a chair in Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University since 2002 and he is Affiliated Professor of Medical Ethics at Karolinska Institute...
wrote: "Johan Norberg has written an agreeable book in defence of capitalism and globalisation... Even in labour movement discussion circles I think it would repay close study".
Awards
| Year | Award | Awarded by | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award | Atlas Economic Research Foundation Atlas Economic Research Foundation The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, also known as the Atlas Network, is a non-profit organization based in the United States which organizes and convenes workshops, offers training, runs prize programs, and provides advisory services in order to continue growing and strengthening an informal... |
|
| 2003 | Publizistikpreis der Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-Stiftung | Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-Stiftung Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-Stiftung The Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-Stiftung was founded in May 1999 to mark the 100th birthday of the Nobel Prize winner Friedrich August von Hayek. The foundation has its seat in Freiburg im Breisgau and is run by Dr. habil Lüder Gerken. Sponsors are Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG... |