Trends and problems of the modern world. Modern development trends

The modern world economy is a natural result of the development of production and the international division of labor, involving an increasing number of countries in the world reproduction process. Throughout the XX century. there was an expansion and deepening of the international division of labor at all levels - from regional, interregional to world. The international division of labor is the specialization of countries in the production of certain goods, which states trade with each other. Specialization is increasing and cooperation is strengthening. These processes are outgrowing national boundaries. International specialization and cooperation of production turn productive forces into global ones - countries become not just trading partners, but interconnected participants in the world reproductive process. In the course of deepening the processes of international specialization and cooperation of production, interdependence and interweaving of national economies increases, which form an integral system.

Since about the mid-1980s. the processes of internationalization of economic life, the processes of renewal of technology and production technology are accelerating, the newest branches of production are rapidly developing, the share of science-intensive products in the total volume of production is growing, and informatics and communication are developing. There is an accelerated development of transport technologies. Now the share of transport in the created world gross product is about 6%, and in world fixed assets - about 20%. New transport technologists have made it possible to reduce transport tariffs by more than 10 times. The development of transport ensures the transportation of goods weighing about 10 tons for each inhabitant of the Earth.

Informatization is developing on the basis of the development of communication facilities. Communication has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, accounting for about 20% of the world's gross product. The growth rates of this industry are among the highest compared to other industries. New technologies used in communications have made it possible to raise the speed of information transfer and all volumes to a previously inaccessible level. For example, fiber optic cables have a performance that is about 200 times better than copper cables; developed countries of the world are already linked by these types of communication. Mobile communication has become widespread in many countries of the world. The growth rates of mobile communication systems are also high in Russia, although the coverage of the country's regions with mobile communication is very uneven. However, the tariffs of these systems are gradually decreasing, and they are even becoming competitors of wired telephone communications. Work is underway to create a unified world mobile communications based on about 60 stationary operating satellites. The world satellite communication system has already been formed, which includes about a hundred communication satellites and a network of terrestrial repeaters. The world satellite system is complemented by national communication systems. Work is underway to create a world satellite computer network that would connect personal users with computers via the Internet into a global system.

Advances in the development and practical application of the latest technologies, along with deepening specialization and strengthening of cooperative ties, have led to an unprecedented rate of growth in international trade - more than 6% per year from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The volume of international trade is currently $ 6 trillion. The exchange of services has grown even faster. During the same period, their volume increased by 2, L times and is currently estimated at 1.5 trillion dollars. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes the dynamics of international trade: the annual growth rate of turnover is about 8%, which is more than double the average annual growth in industrial production.

The acceleration of international trade relations was facilitated by the spread and unification of the rules of everyday behavior, a certain "standardization" of people's ideas about living conditions. These standards of life and behavior are spread both through the world mass culture (movies, commercials) and through the consumption of standard products produced by the world's giant corporations: food, clothing, footwear, household appliances, cars, etc. New products are necessarily widely advertised, conquering almost the entire world. Advertising expenses occupy an increasing share in the price of goods, but advertising expenses allow them to conquer new sales markets, bringing huge profits to manufacturers. Almost the whole world uses the same marketing technologies, uniform service methods, sales technologies. In the structure of international trade, there is a progressive increase in the service sector (transport, tourism, etc.). In the late 1990s, according to the IMF, services accounted for about a third of world exports. The growth of international trade in goods and services is facilitated by the dissemination of information about them via the Internet. According to experts, now more than half of the world's enterprises find profitable partners by offering their products on the Internet. The dissemination of information about products and services over the Internet increases the profitability of the business, as it is the most cost-effective way to inform potential buyers. Moreover, the Internet allows you to get feedback, transmit the most complex and detailed information. The Internet complements and improves traditional trade and transport technologies and allows the formation of world prices for basic goods and services on exchanges and in electronic trading systems. World prices are very sensitive to various events in the economy and politics of the leading countries of the world.

The high growth rates of international exchange of goods, services, information, and capital indicates that the interdependence of national economies has increased significantly, and the growth rates of international exchange are much faster than economic growth, even the most dynamic developing countries... This means that the world economy is acquiring not just trade, but more industrial integrity. The processes of an increase in the level of interaction, the interdependence of national economies, an unprecedented increase and acceleration of trade in goods and services, the exchange of capital and the strengthening of transnational capital, the formation of a single financial market, the emergence of fundamentally new networked computer technologies, the formation and strengthening of transnational banks and corporations are called globalization of the world economy.

Globalization concerns, perhaps, all processes occurring in the economy, ideology, law, scientific activity, ecology. The processes of convergence and interpenetration of national economies (convergence) are supported and reinforced by the process of convergence of laws, regulations, and possibly informal social institutions (rules of behavior, traditions, etc.). The UN, international economic and financial institutions: International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, World Bank, etc.). Television and the Internet also have a powerful impact on the life and consciousness of people, creating, sometimes imperceptibly, uniform stereotypes of thinking and behavior. Facilities mass media make any information known almost instantly, presenting it in one way or another, form a certain attitude towards events known to people, politicians. Thus, formal and informal social institutions, "armed" with modern cutting-edge technologies, have become a global governing, consciousness-forming element.

Globalization covers the most important processes in the world economy. One of the sides of the globalization process in the economy is the globalization of finance, which has also become possible thanks to the latest technologies in the field of communications and communications. Our planet is covered with an electronic network that allows real-time financial transactions, moving the world's financial flows. Thus, daily interbank transactions have now reached $ 2 trillion, which is approximately 3 times the level of 1987. In the world, the weekly financial turnover is approximately equal to the annual US domestic product, the turnover in less than a month is comparable to the world product in a year. It can also be noted that financial transactions carried out in various forms (loans, credits, foreign exchange transactions, transactions with securities, etc.) exceed the volume of world trade by 50 times. A significant place in the financial market is occupied by the international electronic currency markets, where transactions in the volume of about $ 1.5 trillion a day are concluded.

The financial market, thanks to networked computer and information technologies, has become a powerful element of globalization, influencing the world economy. In the process of globalization, there is also a globalization of capital accumulation. This process was initiated by savings generated by households, firms and governments. These financial resources are accumulated in the banking system, insurance companies, pension and investment funds, which invest them. The enlargement of property and its global redistribution are complemented by investments mobilized from the Eurodollar markets that emerged in the 1960s.

The main factor in the globalization of reproductive processes has become transnational corporations (TNK) and transnational banks (TNB). Most modern international corporations take the form of TNCs, which are companies in which the head part belongs to one country, and branches and direct portfolio investments are carried out in many countries of the world. Currently, there are about 82,000 TNCs and 810,000 of their foreign affiliates in the world economy. TNCs control about half of world trade and 67% of foreign trade. They control 80% of all world patents and licenses for the latest equipment and technology. TNCs almost completely control the world market for most (from 75 to 90%) agricultural products (coffee, wheat, corn, tobacco, tea, bananas, etc.). In economically developed countries, TNCs carry out the bulk of the country's export supplies. In TNK, 70% of international payments on loans and licenses pass between the parent organization of the corporation and its foreign branches. Among the 100 largest TNCs, the leading role belongs to American ones: the share of American TNCs in the total assets of 100 TNCs is 18%, British and French 15 each, German - 13, Japanese - 9%.

In the context of globalization, competition between TNCs is intensifying. TNCs from developing and transitional economies are crowding out TNCs from economically developed countries. In the market for electrical and electronic equipment, their share is 14%, in metallurgy - 12, telecommunications - 11, oil production and refining - 9%. But still the North American ones dominate. The total volume of their overseas assets is twice that of Japan's. Competition between the largest corporations leads not only to mergers and acquisitions of previously independent companies. IN recent times completely new transnational structures are emerging. Mergers and acquisitions cover the latest sectors of the economy: communications and telecommunications (for example, the merger of the largest "Internet" company "America Online" and the telecommunications company "Time Warner"). Significant changes are also taking place in traditional industries, where a global redistribution of property is also taking place.

Born in post-war period, deepens the process of regional economic integration, which is one of modern forms internationalization of international economic life. Two or more states participate in economic integration. The countries participating in economic integration are pursuing a coordinated policy on interaction and interpenetration of national reproduction processes. Participants integration process form mutual stable ties not only in the form of trade, but also strong technical, technological and financial interaction. The highest stage of the integration process will be the creation of a single economic organism pursuing a single policy. The integration process is currently taking place on all continents. Trade and economic blocks of different strength and maturity have been formed. About 90 regional trade and economic agreements and arrangements are now operating with varying effectiveness. Integration participants unite their efforts in industrial and financial cooperation, which gives them the opportunity to reduce production costs and pursue a single economic policy in the world market.

The modern deplorable state of mankind against the background of supposedly progressive technical progress has many characteristic features that are not difficult to determine. Our successes in the study of inert matter make up only a small fraction of the total accumulation of knowledge about the world around us.

Our science is fragmented into highly specialized areas, the original relationship between which has been lost. Our technology literally throws most of the generated energy into the chimney, polluting the human environment. Our education is based on the upbringing of "calculating-logical machines" and "walking encyclopedias", which are completely incapable of a flight of fantasy, creative inspiration that goes beyond the framework of outdated dogmas and stereotypes.

Our attention is literally "glued" to TV screens and computer monitors, while our Earth, and with it the entire biosphere, is literally suffocating from the products of environmental and mental pollution. Our health depends entirely on the consumption of more and more new chemicals, which are gradually losing the battle with constantly mutating viruses. And we ourselves are beginning to turn into some kind of mutants, which are free applications to the technology we have created.

The consequences of such a thoughtless invasion of the environment are becoming more and more unpredictable, and therefore catastrophically dangerous for ourselves. Let's try to take a closer look at all the processes that occur in the real world around us. The time has come for awakening, leaving the "world of dreams". We must finally realize our role in this world and with wide eyes, cast off the glamor of illusions and mirages, in which we have been in captivity for the last millennia. If we remain a “planet of sleepers”, the wind of evolution will simply “blow away” us from that great scene of life, which is called “Earth”, as it was many millions of years ago with other forms of life.

What is actually happening now? What are the typical trends in the modern world? What prospects await us in the very near future? In the second half of the twentieth century, futurologists began to answer these questions, and now more and more researchers from various fields of science, religion, and esoteric knowledge are joining their voice. And this is the picture emerging against this background.

Analysis of scientific data provided by G. T. Molitor, I. V. Bestuzhev-Lada, K. Kartashova, V. Burlak, V. Megre, Yu. Osipov, L. Prourzin, V. Shubart, G. Bichev, A. Mikeyev , H. Zenderman, N. Gulia, A. Sakharov, U. Sullivan, J. Galperin, I. Neumyvakin, O. Toffler, O. Eliseeva, K. Medouz, I. Yanitskiy, A. Voytsekhovsky P. Globoy, T. Globa, I. Tsarev, D. Azarov, V. Dmitriev, S. Demkin, N. Boyarkina, V. Kondakov, L. Volodarsky, A. Remizov, M. Setron, O. Davis, G. Henderson, A. Peccei, N. Viner, J. Bernal, E. Kornish, E. Avetisov, O. Grevtsev, Y. Fomin, F. Polak, D. Bell, T. Yakovets, Y. V. Mizun, Y. G. Mizun, allows to identify the following problems of modern technocratic civilization:

1) the dependence of the worldview and lifestyle on the media, computer and television "drug addiction", contributing to a sedentary lifestyle, withdrawal to virtual reality, reduced immunity, propaganda of cults of violence, "golden calf", promiscuous sex;

2) a high degree of urbanization, which contributes to the separation of people from natural natural rhythms, which also provokes a decrease in immunity, an increase in stressful situations, mental and infectious diseases, and worsens the ecological situation;

3) the ripening of another world war against the background of the threat of exhaustion natural resources, the escalating struggle for markets and energy sources, excessive stocks of weapons of mass destruction;

4) the transformation of a person into a cybernetic organism: a person-machine, a person-computer (biorobot), into an appendage and a slave of created technical devices;

5) a decrease in the birth rate against the background of the physical degeneration of humanity, the collapse of family relations, the growth of drug addiction, prostitution, crime (social catastrophe);

6) imperfection school curriculapreparing a new generation of biorobots with the psychology of predators (explicit and hidden forms of aggression towards the outside world), with talents and abilities hammered by brainless cramming;

7) global disturbance of ecological balance (deforestation, growth of carbon dioxide and harmful impurities in the atmosphere, erosion of fertile lands, an increase in the number of natural disasters, natural Disasters, man-made accidents and disasters);

8) degradation of thinking abilities against the background of automatism of actions in the conditions of technocratic life, scheduled by the clock, watching primitive "soap operas", low-grade action films, reading tabloid press, computer "toys";

9) a global crisis in the fundamental sciences caused by the stratification and narrow specialization of orthodox sciences, blind denial of religious and esoteric knowledge, adherence to outdated dogmas within the framework of classical physics of the 19th century, a whole cascade of new discoveries that do not fit into generally recognized paradigms;

10) the evolution of technical devices to the detriment of the evolution of the person himself, his abilities and talents, the harmonious development of both hemispheres of the brain;

11) mutational processes due to illiterate genetic experiments in floraleading (through food) to a violation of the genetic code of animals and humans;

12) the flourishing of terrorism based on religious and ideological fanaticism and separatism;

13) the emergence of new types of diseases characteristic of a technocratic society, as well as mutations of already known viruses, due to the use of carcinogenic substances and side effects synthetic drugs (an annual increase in both the diseases themselves and the number of patients), one-sided development of medicine (fighting the consequences, not the causes of diseases);

14) a weak positive trend in art and culture, the emergence of new types of culture and anti-culture that deny universal human values.

The modern world is shaking with the pace of changes taking place in it, and Russia, in addition, with the depth of instability and crisis phenomena. In conditions of rapid changes in the political and social environment, shock and stressful states of people become not an exception, but rather a rule. It is very difficult to navigate in changing social situations and adapt to cascades of environmental, political, scientific shifts in the world. This leads to the growth of chaotic elements in public consciousness and culture.
It is unclear how to live today and what awaits us tomorrow. Landmarks have been lost, what to prepare for and what moral rules should be adhered to in their activities. The question arises of what to live for at all. The dark depths of animal instincts held back by culture and historical tradition begin to dictate their primitive survival policies. This stage of increasing uncertainty and chaos is reflected in contemporary art, mass culture, and philosophy.
Modern means of communication multiply the streams of transmitted information. Many families of the Russian intelligentsia, following the old traditions, honor the book and collect their own vast libraries. But for each member of these families, a time inevitably comes when he realizes that he will never read or even leaf through everything collected.
Even more acute is the feeling of unfulfilled intentions, the sea of \u200b\u200bthe possible, but still unknown, the feeling that the virtual world creates. Crowds of people, accumulations of historical events, huge masses of all kinds of information - every person encounters all this every day and involuntarily through television, radio, video recordings, computer disks and floppy disks, via the Internet. At the same time, as a rule, stencils of primitive mass consciousness are imposed. Streams of information overwhelm, hypnotize, not having time to be analyzed, they wash off each other. An overabundance of information suppresses its personal comprehension and use. Confusion is introduced
and*

in the personal world of every person, the feeling of indistinguishability of life and the need to follow the presented models of behavior is implanted, there is no room for invention and flight of creative thought. In the event that a person's personal protective shells are weakened, the process of generating new information and new knowledge, which requires the achievement of inner silence and concentration of intellectual activity, can significantly weaken.
Strengthening information flows in society is analogous to strengthening diffusion, dissipative elements in comparison with the organizing principle (the work of nonlinear sources) in the evolution of complex systems. This leads to a decrease in the growth rate while maintaining the basic systemic properties. Humanity is partially returning to the past. The development of society slows down, the stage of a kind of new Middle Ages begins. This is one of the scenarios for the implementation of the global demographic transition in the coming decades of the 21st century. ^

The main trends in the development of the modern world as a challenge to global development

The relevance of the study of this topic is that we observe the contradictory consequences of the influence of global development processes in modern society, management processes, public administration.

In the most generalized sense, "global development" refers to the "contraction of the world", on the one hand, and the rapid growth of self-consciousness, on the other. According to E. Giddens, globalization is a consequence of modernity, and modernity is a product of the development of the West. Global development as the leading trend in the development of the modern world is understood as a fundamental change in the world order, as a result of which national borders began to lose their original meaning, caused by the development of information and communication technologies, the dictates of mass culture. You can often hear that "the planet is shrinking" and "distances are disappearing", which indicates the penetration of globalization processes into all spheres of life, including education.

The topic of global development is extremely dynamic, as in modern conditions globalization is accelerating, significant changes are taking place in the practice of international business, which are reflected in numerous publications on globalistics - a new branch of knowledge that studies planetary processes. The problem of global development, and hence global governance, is extremely controversial and controversial. Researchers-globalists, political and public figures of various countries, managers of leading transnational corporations adhere and ardently defend not only in theory, but also in practice, opposite views, which leads to acute international conflicts. Global changes are not only rapid, but very often those that cannot be predicted, which is why the alternatives to globalization look so opposite, threatening the existence of humanity.

At the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century, a global revolution took place that embraced all countries and peoples, a network of the most economic relationships that began to grow rapidly. As a result global revolution, happens:

Deepening interconnections between major financial centers;

Close technological cooperation among firms;

Global information networks linking the world into one whole;

National markets, which can be seen less and less as a criterion for market segmentation;

Combination of intense competition with the expansion of elements of interaction and cooperation;

Internationalization of production ties in high-tech industries based on direct investment;

Formation of global markets.

Recently, heated discussions began to take place around the problems of global development:

1) "global competition", which tends to grow;

2) "globalization of education";

3) "economic globalization";

4) "cultural globalization";

5) "political globalization";

6) "global civil society";

7) "global consciousness";

8) "global outlook";

9) "global world order".

Globalization can be viewed as a civilizational shift, which has already become a social reality and has occurred as a result of global development.

It reflected:

Intensification of cross-border economic, political, social and cultural ties;

The historical period (or historical epoch) that followed the end of the Cold War;

The triumph of the American (Western European) value system based on a combination of a neoliberal economic program and a political democratization program;

A technological revolution with multiple social implications;

The inability of nation states to independently overcome global problems (demographic, environmental, observance of human rights and freedoms, distribution nuclear weapons), requiring joint global efforts. The term "globalization" itself entered the international political and scientific circulation in the sixties. The beginning of the historical process, which, of course, determined the architecture of the modern world at the beginning of the XXI century, researchers attribute to several centuries ago: the time range covers the period from 1500 to 1800.

In the context of the periodization of M. Cheshkov, the following stages of global development are distinguished:

1) the prehistory of globalization (proto-globalization) - from the Neolithic revolution to the axial time;

2) the prehistory of globalization (the emergence of a global community) - from the axial time to the era of the Enlightenment and the first industrial revolution;

3) the actual history of globalization (the formation of a global community) - the last 200 years.

Since the late 60s pp. XX century, globalization is becoming a leading trend in modern development. According to Western philosophers, the world has entered a phase of "global uncertainty"

A historical retrospective allows us to determine at the end of the twentieth century. two critical periods contributed to the deepening of global development:

1) the collapse of the USSR and the SFRY;

2) global financial crisis 1997-1998 pp.

There are various theoretical approaches to assessing the globalization process

1) Functionalist approach, notes the role of nation states in saving national economies from harmful influence "hybrid" and "cosmopolitan" globalization;

2) an apologetic approach, emphasizes the role of global markets in innovation processes and, accordingly, the evolution towards neoliberal doctrine, seeks to limit state intervention in the processes of "cosmopolitan globalization" as much as possible;

3) a technological approach, in the context of which the main attention is paid to the latest "cybernetic" technologies as a condition of selective, "hybrid globalization", which allows peripheral countries to integrate into the global economy while maintaining their own regional specifics.

The typology of the paradigm of understanding global development as a historical phenomenon was proposed by the Dutch researcher J. Pieters:

- "Clash of civilizations" - the fragmentation of the world is inevitable due to the existence of civilizational differences rooted in cultural differentiation, the determining of which are national, cultural and religious factors;

- "McDonaldization" - homogenization of cultures carried out by transnational corporations, in the context of which, under the banner of modernization, the phenomena of Westernization, Europeanization, Americanization have become widespread. The McDonald restaurant and most of its maximum derivatives are products of American society and have been aggressively exported to another world. For example, today MacDonald opens many more offices abroad than in the United States. Already about half of its profits are made outside the United States. Although "MacDonald" is popular all over the world, however, at the same time, it meets with resistance from intellectuals and community leaders. MacDonald and many other McDonaldized business areas have spread throughout the world, but continue to maintain their American foundation and their American roots;

- "Hybridization" - a wide range of intercultural mutual influence, leading to both mutual enrichment and the emergence of new cultural traditions.

Thus, one should speak of three perspectives of global development as a social phenomenon:

1) socio-economic - economic globalization studies the formation of global markets and the strategy of behavior of corporations and international financial and economic institutions, the prospects for the formation of fundamentally new economic relations and types of economy;

2) socio-political - political globalization studies the role of the state and other subjects of international life in a globalized world, the prospects for the formation of a global civilizational society, forms general legal principles and norms;

Sociocultural - cultural globalization studies profound changes in cultural stereotypes in connection with the latest scientific, technical, social innovations, the prospects for intercultural and intercommunicative dialogue in the context of information and communication space.

As a result of global development taking place in the modern world, new trends of the modern world have formed, new political actors have appeared on the political arena, they began to dictate "their own rules of the game", globalization has emerged as a determining factor in modern economic life, which determines a new quality of internationalization of the world economy.

In our opinion, economic globalization determines all processes and requires:

Adapt their economic institutions to new requirements;

Strengthen the power of capital owners - investors, multinational corporations and global financial institutions;

To approve the formation of new international mechanisms for the accumulation and movement of capital;

Promote organic entry into this irreversible process, which no state in the world can resist;

Support the virtualization of economic borders between states in the context of globalization.

In the most generalized sense, "global development" refers to the "contraction of the world", on the one hand, and the rapid growth of self-awareness, on the other. According to E. Giddens, globalization is a consequence of modernity, and modernity is a product of the development of the West. Under "globalization" as the leading trend in the development of the modern world is understood a fundamental change in the world order, as a result of which national borders began to lose their original meaning, caused by the development of information and communication technologies, the dictates of mass culture. Global development, according to some Western experts, is the most fundamental challenge facing modern history lately.

Discussions about global development as the main trend of modern times can be grouped into four discourses:

1) civilizational, or regional;

2) ideological;

3) academic;

4) tender.

Some Western authors are confident that in all areas of global development (economic, political, cultural, social, anthropological), the most promising and advanced is the economic one. Different countries react differently to globalization, since historical, political, cultural and economic characteristics affect how the main trends in the development of the modern world are reflected and affect the formation and development of such a phenomenon as globalization. It is no coincidence that new sciences and disciplines have recently appeared: "global philosophy", " global political science"," global sociology "," global communication studies "," global cultural studies. "A new conceptual-categorical apparatus has appeared -" global thinking "," global governance, "global civil society "," global man "," global networked society "," global outlook "," global trends "," global market "," global information networks "," global culture "," global information technologies "," global web ", which have a lot of contact with other social sciences.

A number of factors contributed to the formation of the global economy:

Strengthening the integration of financial markets;

The telecommunications revolution made it easier for corporations to establish permanent contacts with all countries of the world, conclude agreements with partners located anywhere in the world;

Expansion of the scope of activity of transnational corporations, which have powerful technological and financial resources, which allows them to locate production around the world in such a way as to achieve the greatest efficiency through the use of cheap labor;

The refusal of transnational corporations from the Fordist system of labor organization and the transition to a flexible system of using labor, makes it possible to adapt to constant changes in the world economy in order to maintain their positions and conquer new markets;

The growing participation of third world countries in world trade, as well as in the global investment process and the international division of labor;

The rapid growth in our time of interdependence between countries, within which no country in the world can no longer remain on the sidelines of the world economy and lead an isolated, autarkic existence.

The main basic megatrends in the development of the modern world as a challenge to global development are reduced to the global civilization process and are reflected in the socio-cultural sphere. this:

1) "cultural polarization";

2) "cultural assimilation";

3) "cultural hybridization";

4) "cultural isolation".

1. "Cultural polarization". It was under the sign of this megatrend that a significant part of the 20th century passed: we are talking about the confrontation between two camps - capitalist and socialist. The main mechanism for the implementation of this megatrend is the polarization and segmentation of the political and geo-economic map of the world, accompanied by the formation of military-political and economic regional associations (coalitions, unions).

2. "Cultural assimilation" is based on the conclusion that there is no alternative to "Westernization". The process of establishing universal (universal) forms and rules in international relations is becoming increasingly important.

3. "Cultural hybridization" is complemented by the processes of transcultural convergence and the formation of translocal cultures - diaspora cultures as opposed to traditional cultures that are localized and strive for national-state identity. The world is gradually turning into a complex mosaic of translocal cultures, penetrating deeply into each other and forming new cultural regions with a network structure. The intensification of communications and intercultural mutual influence, the development of information technologies that contribute to the further diversification of the diverse world of human cultures, resist their absorption by some universal "global culture".

4. "Cultural isolation". The XX century gave many examples of isolation and self-isolation of individual countries, regions, political blocs (“cordons sanitaire” or “iron curtain.” to the power of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, resorting to such measures as socio-cultural autarchy, restrictions on information and humanitarian contacts, freedom of movement, cruel censorship, etc. Therefore, in the future, we will define concepts, concepts and approaches to the analysis of globalization.

The modern world (by which I here mean, of course, only society, but not nature) is a product of a long previous development. Therefore, it cannot be understood without referring to the history of mankind. But turning to history can only help if you are guided by the correct general approach to it. I am an adherent of the unitary-stage view of world history, according to which it is a single process of progressive development, in the course of which stages of world significance are replaced. Of all the unitary-stage concepts that have existed and exist today, the theory of socio-economic formations, which is a necessary moment in the Marxist materialist understanding of history (historical materialism), is most consistent with historical reality. In it, the main types of society, which simultaneously represent the stages of its world development, are distinguished on the basis of the socio-economic structure, which gave reason to call them socio-economic formations.

K. Marx himself believed that in the history of mankind, five socio-economic formations have already changed: primitive communist, "Asian", antique (slave-owning), feudal and capitalist. His followers often omitted the "Asian" formation. But regardless of whether four or five socio-economic formations figured in the picture of the change in the stages of world-historical development, it was most often believed that this scheme is a model of the development of each specific individual society. those. sociohistorical organism (sociora)taken separately. In such an interpretation, which can be called linear-stadial, the theory of socio-economic formations came into conflict with historical reality.

But it is also possible to look at the scheme of development and change of socio-economic formations as a reproduction of the internal need for the development of not every sociohistorical organism taken separately, but only all sociohistorical organisms that existed in the past and exist now together, i.e. only human society as a whole. In this case, humanity appears as a single whole, and socio-economic formations, first of all, as stages of development of this single whole, and not socio-historical organisms taken separately. This understanding of the development and change of socio-economic formations can be called globally stadial, globally formational.

The global stage-by-stage understanding of history necessarily presupposes the study of interaction between individual concrete societies, i.e. sociohistorical organisms, and their various kinds of systems. Sociohistorical organisms that existed at the same time next to each other always influenced each other in one way or another. And quite often the influence of one sociohistorical organism on another led to significant changes in the structure of the latter. This kind of influence can be called social induction.

There was a time in human history when all sociohistorical organisms were of the same type. Then, the unevenness of historical development began to manifest itself more and more sharply. Some societies moved forward, while others continued to remain at their previous stages of development. As a result, different historical worlds... This became especially noticeable during the transition from a pre-class society to a civilized society. The first civilizations emerged as islands in the sea of \u200b\u200bthe primitive communal system. All this makes it necessary to clearly distinguish between advanced sociohistorical organisms and those lagging behind in their development. I will call the highest socio-historical organisms for a given time superior (from Latin super - over, over), and the lower - inferior(from Latin infra - under). With the transition to civilization, superior organisms usually did not exist alone. At least a significant part of them, and subsequently all of them taken together, formed an integral system of sociohistorical organisms, which was center of world-historical development... This system was world, but not in the sense that it covered the whole world, but in the fact that its existence affected the entire course of world history. All other organisms formed historical periphery... This periphery was subdivided into dependent from the center and independent From him.

Of all the types of social induction, the most important for understanding the course of history is the influence of superior organisms on inferior organisms. It - sociological superinduction... It could lead to different results. One of them consisted in the fact that under the influence of sociohistorical organisms of the higher type, sociohistorical organisms of the lower type were transformed into organisms of the same type that influenced them, i.e. pulled up to their level. This process can be called superiorization... But the influence of superior sociohistorical organisms could lead to the fact that inferior sociohistorical organisms took a step, on the one hand, forward, and on the other, sideways. Such a result of the influence of superior sociohistorical organisms on inferior organisms can be called lateralization (from Latin lateralis - lateral). As a result, peculiar socio-economic types of societies arose that were not stages of world-historical development. They can be called socio-economic paraformations.

The new era, which began on the verge of the 15th and 16th centuries, is characterized by the formation and development of the capitalist mode of production. Capitalism spontaneously, spontaneously, without external influence arose only in one place on the globe - in Western Europe. The emerging bourgeois socio-historical organisms formed a new world system. The development of capitalism proceeded in two directions. One direction - development deep into: the maturation of capitalist relations, the industrial revolution, bourgeois revolutions that ensured the transfer of power into the hands of the bourgeoisie, etc. Another is the development of capitalism in breadth.

Western European world system capitalism is the first of the four world systems (it was preceded by three: the Middle Eastern political, the Mediterranean antique and the Western European feudal-burgher), which swept the whole world with its influence. With its appearance, the process of internationalization began. All existing sociohistorical organisms began to form a certain unity - world historic space... The historical periphery turned out to be not only and not simply drawn into the sphere of influence of the new historical center - the world capitalist system. It fell into dependence on the center, became an object of exploitation by the world capitalist system. Some peripheral countries completely lost their independence and became colonies of the West, while others, while formally retaining their sovereignty, found themselves in various forms of economic, and thus political dependence on it.

As a result of the influence of the world capitalist center, capitalist socio-economic relations began to penetrate into the peripheral countries, the whole world began to become capitalist. The conclusion involuntarily suggested itself that sooner or later all countries would become capitalist, and thus the distinction between the historical center and the historical periphery would disappear. All sociohistorical organisms will belong to the same type, will be capitalist. This conclusion formed the basis for emerging in the XX century. numerous concepts of modernization (W. Rostow, S. Eisenstadt, S. Black and others). In an extremely clear form it was formulated in the works of F. Fukuyama. But life turned out to be more complicated, it broke all logically perfectly flawless schemes.

The historical center and the historical periphery have survived and continue to exist to this day, although, of course, they have undergone significant changes. The historical periphery indeed gradually began to become capitalist, but the point is that in all peripheral countries dependent on the West European world center, capitalism took a different form than in the countries of the center. This was not noticed for a long time. For a long time it was believed that all the features of capitalism in peripheral countries are associated either with the fact that they are deprived of political independence, are colonies, or with the fact that this capitalism is early, not yet sufficiently developed, immature.

The insight came only in the middle of the 20th century. And initially from economists and politicians in Latin America. By this time, the countries of Latin America had been politically independent for a century and a half, and capitalism in them could in no way be characterized as initial or early. The Argentine economist R. Prebis was the first to come to the conclusion that the international capitalist system is quite clearly divided into two parts: the center, which is formed by the Western countries, and the periphery, and that capitalism existing in the countries of the periphery, which he called peripheral capitalism, qualitatively different from the capitalism of the countries of the center. Subsequently, the provision on the existence of two types of capitalism was developed in the works of T. Dos-Santos, F. Cardoso, E. Faletto, S. Furtado, A. Aguilar, H. Alavi, G. Myrdal, P. Baran, S. Amin and other adherents of the concept of addiction (dependent development). They convincingly showed that peripheral capitalism is not the initial stage of capitalism characteristic of the countries of the center, but a dead-end version of capitalism, in principle incapable of progress and condemning the vast majority of the population of peripheral countries to deep and hopeless poverty.

By now it can be considered firmly established that there are two qualitatively different capitalist modes of production: the capitalism of the center, which I prefer to call orthocapitalism (from the Greek orthos - direct, genuine), and capitalism of the periphery - paracapitalism (from the Greek. steam - near, about). Accordingly, along with the ortho-capitalist socio-economic formation, there is a paracapitalist socio-economic paraformation in the world. Thus, the impact of the superior capitalist sociohistorical organisms on the vast majority of inferior precapitalist sociohistorical organisms resulted not in the superiorization of the latter, but in their lateralization.

In the XIX-XX centuries. the world center has also undergone changes. It expanded both through budding (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) and superiorization (Nordic countries and Japan). As a result, the world ortho-capitalist system began to be called not Western European, but simply Western.

By the beginning of the XX century. Basically, the division of the world historical space, which coincided with the international capitalist system, into two historical worlds took shape: the western world ortho-capitalist system and the periphery countries, in which paracapitalism either arose or already arose. Along with many other countries of the world by the beginning of the XX century. tsarist Russia entered the dependent periphery. Paracapitalism arose in it.

Since by the beginning of the XX century. capitalism in Western Europe was finally established, then the era of bourgeois revolutions for most of its countries is a thing of the past. But the era of revolutions has come for the rest of the world, in particular for Russia. These revolutions are usually understood as bourgeois. But this is not true. They were qualitatively different from the revolutions in the West. These revolutions were not directed against feudalism, for in no peripheral country, including Russia, such a social system has never existed. Nor were they directed against pre-capitalist relations taken by themselves. These relations in peripheral countries did not oppose the capitalist ones, but were in symbiosis with them. And the main obstacle to the development of these countries was not pre-capitalist relations, but peripheral capitalism, which included pre-capitalist relations as a necessary factor. Therefore, the objective task of these revolutions was to abolish peripheral capitalism, and thus to abolish dependence on the center. While antiparacapitalist, these revolutions were inevitably antiorthocapitalist and were directed against capitalism in general.

Their first wave occurred in the first two decades of the 20th century: the revolutions of 1905–1907. in Russia, 1905-1911 in Iran, 1908-1909 in Turkey, 1911-1912 in China, 1911-1917 in Mexico, 1917 again in Russia. The October Workers 'and Peasants' Revolution of 1917 in Russia is the only one of all that won. But this victory was not at all in achieving the goal that the leaders and participants in the revolution set for themselves - the creation of a classless socialist, and then a communist society. At the then level of development of the productive forces, Russia could not go over to socialism. This level inevitably assumed the existence of private property. And in Russia after the October Revolution, which destroyed both pre-capitalist and capitalist forms of exploitation, the process of formation of private property, exploitation of man by man and social classes inevitably began. But the path to capitalist class formation was closed. Therefore, this process has acquired a different character in the country.

When they talk about private property, they usually mean the property of an individual who can use and dispose of it undividedly. This is a legal, legal approach. But property in a class society is always not only a legal phenomenon, but also an economic one. Private property as an economic relation is the property of one part of society, which allows it to exploit another (and more) part of it. People who make up the exploiting class can own the means of production in different ways. If they own them individually, then this personal private property, if in groups, then it is group private property.

And, finally, only the exploiting class as a whole can be the owner, but not one of its members taken separately. It - class-wide private property, which always takes the form of state property. This determines the coincidence of the ruling exploiting class with the nucleus of the state apparatus. This is the very mode of production that Marx once called Asiatic. I prefer to call it political(from Greek polity - state) production method... There is not one but several political modes of production. One of them - ancient political - was the basis of society in the ancient, and then in the medieval East, in pre-Columbian America. Other political modes of production sprang up sporadically in different countries in different historical eras. In post-October Russia, in the Soviet Union, a method of production was established that can be called neo-political.

If we consider the October Revolution of 1917 as socialist, then inevitably we have to admit that it was defeated. Instead of socialism, a new antagonistic class society emerged in the USSR - a neo-political one. But the essence of the matter is that this revolution, according to its objective task, was not socialist at all, but anti-paracapitalist. And in this capacity, she certainly won. The dependence of Russia on the West was abolished, peripheral capitalism, and thus capitalism in general, was abolished in the country.

At first, the new production - neo-political - relations ensured the rapid development of productive forces in Russia, which had thrown off the fetters of dependence on the West. The latter from a backward agrarian state turned into one of the most powerful industrial countries in the world, which subsequently ensured the USSR the position of one of the two superpowers. As a result of the second wave of anti-capitalist revolutions that took place in the countries of the capitalist periphery in the 40s of the 20th century, neo-politicalism spread far beyond the USSR. The periphery of the international capitalist system has sharply narrowed. A huge, whole system of neo-political socio-historical organisms has taken shape, which has acquired the status of a world one.

As a result, for the first time in the history of mankind, two world systems began to exist on the globe: neo-political and ortho-capitalist. The second was the center for the peripheral paracapitalist countries, which together with it formed the international capitalist system. This structure was expressed in what became customary in the 40-50s of the XX century. the division of human society as a whole into three historical worlds: the first (ortho-capitalist), the second ("socialist", neo-political) and the third (peripheral, paracapitalist).

The ability of neo-political relations of production to stimulate the development of productive forces was rather limited. They could not ensure the intensification of production, the introduction of the results of a new, third in a row (after the agrarian and industrial revolutions), a revolution in the productive forces of mankind - the scientific and technological revolution (STC). Production growth rates began to fall. Neo-political relations turned into a brake on the path of the development of productive forces. The need arose for the revolutionary transformation of society. But instead of a revolution, a counter-revolution took place.

The USSR collapsed. In its largest stump, called the Russian Federation, and other states that arose on the ruins of this country, capitalism began to form. The development of most other non-political countries followed the same path. The global neo-political system has disappeared. Most of its former members began to integrate into the international capitalist system, and in all cases into its peripheral part. Almost all of them, including Russia, again found themselves in economic and political dependence on the ortho-capitalist center. In all these countries, not just capitalism began to form, but peripheral capitalism. For Russia, this was nothing more than the restoration of the situation that existed before the October Revolution of 1917. The restoration took place on the scale of the world as a whole. Once again, only one world system began to exist on earth - the ortho-capitalist one. It is a historical center, all countries that are not part of it form a historical periphery.

However, there was no complete return to the past. All countries outside the western center are peripheral, but not all of them are dependent on the West. In addition to the dependent periphery, there is also an independent periphery. From the countries of the former neo-political world system, it includes China, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, until recently - Yugoslavia, from among others Burma, Iran, Libya, until April 2002 - Iraq. Of the countries that emerged on the ruins of the USSR, Belarus belongs to the independent periphery. Thus, the world is now divided into four parts: 1) the western ortho-capitalist center; 2) old dependent periphery; 3) new dependent periphery; 4) independent periphery.

But the main thing that distinguishes the modern world is the process of globalization taking place in it. If internationalization is the process of creating a world system of sociohistorical organisms, then globalization is the process of the emergence of one single sociohistorical organism on the scale of all mankind. This emerging world sociohistorical organism has a peculiar structure - it itself consists of sociohistorical organisms. Analogy - superorganisms in biological world, such as, for example, anthills, termite mounds, swarms of bees. They all consist of common biological organisms - ants, termites, bees. Therefore, it would be most accurate to talk about the process of formation in the modern world of a global sociohistorical superorganism.

And this one global superorganism in conditions when an orthocapitalist center exists on earth, exploiting most of the periphery, and the periphery exploited by this center, inevitably arises as classsociohistorical organism. It is split in two global class... One global class is the countries of the West. Together they act as the exploiting class. Another global class is formed by the countries of the new and old dependent periphery. And since the global sociohistorical organism is split into classes, of which one exploits the other, then in it must inevitably take place global class struggle.

The formation of a global class society inevitably presupposes the formation of a global state apparatus, which is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class. The formation of a global state cannot be anything other than the establishment of complete domination of the Western center over the entire world, and thereby depriving all peripheral socio-historical organisms of real not only economic, but also political independence.

The new state of the western center contributes to this task. In the past, it was split into warring parts. So it was before the First World War, when the countries of the Entente and the countries of Concord confronted each other. This was the case before the Second World War. The center is now largely unified. It is united under the leadership of the United States. The old imperialism was replaced by the alliance of all imperialists predicted by J. Hobson back in 1902, jointly exploiting the rest of the world [ 1 ]. K. Kautsky once called this phenomenon ultra-imperialism.

The famous G7 has already emerged as a world government, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as instruments for the economic enslavement of the periphery. No class society can do without special detachments of armed people, with the help of which the ruling class keeps the oppressed in subjection. NATO has now become such an apparatus of world violence.

Quite recently, the ortho-capitalist center was limited in the possibilities of aggressive actions by the existence of the world neo-political system and the USSR. Ultra-imperialism wore a strong muzzle. As a result, he was forced to come to terms with the collapse of the world colonial system. In an effort to get rid of this muzzle, the center and, above all, the United States initiated an arms race. But for a long time it was all in vain. Now the Soviet Union does not exist. The muzzle is ripped off. And the orthocapitalist center went on the offensive.

The process of establishing what the Nazis called the "Neue Ordnung" and their current successors "the New World Order" is under way. The main danger for the ultra-imperialist center is posed by countries that are politically and economically independent of it. Of course, China is the most dangerous of them for the ortho-capitalist center, but it is too tough for it yet. The first blow was inflicted on Iraq in 1991. Iraq was defeated, but the goal was not realized, the country retained its independence. The second blow was struck in 1999 against Yugoslavia. As a result, although not immediately, a pro-Western "fifth column" came to power in the country. Yugoslavia became part of the dependent periphery.

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