Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
certainly not reject the idea that the social and political leadership should
make an “option for the poor,” he would even more strongly endorse
the insight of liberation theology that empowerment of the disenfran-
chised will require their own self-advocacy, and their initiative in defin-
ing and claiming their rightful social agency.
But Is It Possible?
Although Niebuhr adds a salutary dose of reality to the encyclical tra-
dition's nonconflictual social optimism, the realities of the new global
economy may likewise need to correct Niebuhr's hope for change. Are
limitation and control of genetic engineering really possible, given the
powerful financial and political interests invested in its development
and sale?
The more radical critics of globalization have painted a dismal, yet
rather compelling picture of the gradual erosion of the nation-state, the
national market, and the bargaining power of labor in a new “post-
Keynesian” era in which the liberal welfare state has been dismantled in
favor of the internationalization of capital under monetarist policies free
of political interference.
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When and if the global market is controlled at
the global level (for example, by transnational institutions such as the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, or the WTO), it ulti-
mately will be in the interests of business. Indeed, although the “free
market” is the philosophical linchpin of economic globalization, actual
competition is highly circumscribed and, for the most part, limited to
major trading blocs and relatively independent economic powers (for
instance, the European Union, the United States, and Japan), and to
“certain giant corporations, cartels, or oligopolies over world market
share—in automobiles or pharmaceuticals, for example.”
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This analysis
seems borne out by such phenomena as the international patent rights
regime enforced by the WTO and the difficulty experienced by South
Africa in obtaining drugs according to national legislation governing pro-
duction or imports.
On the other side, however, these and similar examples may be indi-
cating that lesser powers (including NGO's, nations, regional coalitions,
and even internationally organized labor) can fight back. According to
a more optimistic analysis, a new global civil society is taking shape,
