As many observers have noted, a key aspect of the problem
is that the world economy as a whole is in the process
of transition to what has been called a “postindustrial
age,” characterized by the emergence of a system that is
not only increasingly global in scope but also increasingly
technology-intensive. This process, which futurologist
Alvin Toffler has dubbed the Third Wave (the first two
being the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions), has
caused difficulties for people in many walks of life—for
blue-collar workers, whose high wages price them out of
the market as firms begin to move their factories abroad;
for the poor and uneducated, who lack the technical
skills to handle complex tasks in the contemporary economy;
and even for members of the middle class, who have
been fired or forced into retirement as their employers
seek to slim down to compete in the global marketplace.2
It is now increasingly clear that the Technological
Revolution, like the Industrial Revolution that preceded
it, will entail enormous consequences and may ultimately
give birth to a level of social and political instability that
has not been seen in the developed world since the Great
Depression of the 1930s. The success of advanced capitalist
states in the second half of the twentieth century
was built on the foundations of a broad consensus on the
importance of several propositions: (1) the importance of
limiting income inequities to reduce the threat of political
instability while maximizing domestic consumer
demand; (2) the need for high levels of government investment
in infrastructure projects such as education,
communications, and transportation as a means of meeting
the challenges of continued economic growth and
technological innovation; and (3) the desirability of
cooperative efforts in the international arena as a means
of maintaining open markets for the free exchange
of goods.
As the twenty-first century gains momentum, all of
these assumptions are increasingly coming under attack.
Citizens are reacting with growing hostility to the high
tax rates needed to maintain the welfare state, refusing to
support education and infrastructure development, and
opposing the formation of trading alliances to promote
the free movement of goods and labor across national
borders. Such attitudes are being expressed by individuals
and groups on all sides of the political spectrum, making
the traditional designations of left-wing and right-wing
politics increasingly meaningless. Although most governments
and political elites have continued to support most
of the programs that underpin the welfare state and the
global marketplace, they are increasingly attacked by
groups in society that feel they have been victimized by
the system. The breakdown of the public consensus that
brought modern capitalism to a pinnacle of achievement
raises serious questions about the likelihood that the
coming challenge of the Third Wave can be successfully
met without a growing measure of political and social
tension in both the domestic and international arenas.
World History
