1989 marked the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of Soviet Union, one of the world leaders of the second half of the 20th century. The world seemed to be in the hands of a single leader: the United States of America.
Trade and financial integration, popularly known as “globalization”, went through a period of dramatically acceleration, creating new businesses and opportunities for millions of people while generating huge challenges and threats to humanity.
Global politics equalized democracy with economic freedom. In the mid-1990s, a computer network called “internet” became popular, which would radically change communications, the productive and consumption patterns and the functioning of many social institutions.
In a few years its use grew exponentially, making “internet” an important part of their lives for many people, accelerating even more market integration and globalization.
Observers seemed to believe that the formula “Liberal democracy-Market economy” would be able to close once and for all historical debates on how to better organize society. Some even preached that humanity was at the “end of history”.
In the economic field however, the dissolution of Soviet Union would not end the debates. Few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, crowds of protesters marched against globalization at meetings of international organizations (like the World Bank or the WTO) demonstrating against the effects of global market integration.
The demonstrations had little impact policy formulation; although the dissenters make themselves visible at the zenith of market reforms prestige and popularity, making a case against the so-called “Washington Consensus”.
By mid-2000s those popular movements lost strength, allegedly ending the dispute between state and market-driven economies, in favour of the latter. Few years later (2007/8), a financial crisis – unprecedented in size for the last eight decades – erupted. Many thought the crisis was capable of tearing down the international financial system, affecting millions of people and posing a decade-long threat on global economic stability. Sure, history did not reach its end.
