Policies Compatible with an Integrated World Economy

The analysis in the previous chapter leads to two important conclusions. First, continuous economic progress requires constant adaptation and change in economic organisation as well as in the rules and conventions which guide economic behaviour. This applies to all phases of economic development and to each level of economic activity. Second, with greater international integration and interdependence, the character of the world economic environment has become distinctly oligopolistic in the last quarter of the twentieth century. International economic developments are dominated by the objectives and policies of a relatively small number of large industrial nations and, to a lesser extent, a few oil producers. However, while each of them can have a perceptible influence on the growth and stability of other economies, none is large enough to impose a particular economic order on the rest of the world and manage the international economy accordingly. Equally, no sovereign state is willing to hand over to a supranational authority the right to determine its economic objectives and policies.