Globalization of Crises and/or the Crisis of Globalization
189state-building process. However, everything indicates that, actually, the
major factor in the inability of the state to optimally address changes
which are brought by globalization is the misunderstanding of this
phenomenon. It is interesting to note that this is a characteristic of those
states which had been, in the recent past, under authoritarian or totalitarian
systems of governance. The new rise of neoliberalism in the West, in the
1980s and 1990s, came parallel to the wave of political and economic
liberalization in most countries for several reasons: disappointment in
populist ideology based on socialism and post-colonial nationalism; a
decline in government revenue due to the decrease in or absence of foreign
aid as a result of the end of the Cold War, or the failure of the planned
economy and the consequential increased indebtedness; and, an increase in
legal migration, travel, and communication development, which has
opened up alternative possibilities. Perhaps the most illustrative example
of this process is provided by Samuel Huntington in his description of the
spread of democracy in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, which
he calls the “third wave of democratization.”
During the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, we saw an
increase in the risk of instability. Political liberalization was accompanied
by economic liberalization. It might seem paradoxical, but empirical
analyses show that this process leads to a weakening of state institutions.
Many countries, including Serbia, have already experienced a major
decrease in tax revenues and significant tax evasion, due to declining
legitimacy and the increasing inability of the state to collect taxes; the
strong growth of corruption; and a fall in investment (both public and
private), and consequently also in production. Reduction of the income tax
leads to an increase in dependence on external and private sources
through, for example, loans and/or organized crime. Cuts in public
spending, as a result of reduction of the fiscal base, as well as pressures
from external donors and creditors, continue to undermine the legitimacy
of the state and its institutions. The rise of the so-called “grey economy,”
combined with increased inequality, rising unemployment, and a
strengthening of rural-urban migration, as well as the loss of legitimacy
and the inadequate functioning of the state based on the rule of law, can
and do lead to the reappearance of private armed forces (bodyguards and
security facilities) for the protection of their economic interests from
organized crime.
The terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 on the Pentagon and the
Twin Towers in the United States, represent a turning point in the sphere
of global security. Nowadays, "the world is not the same", and
international cooperation among intelligence and security services has