This is the first of four volumes reporting on the UNU-WIDER project on new regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which probably will have a crucial influence on the shape of the "new world order"--globalization and regionalization. They relate to each other as challenge to response, globalization being the challenge of economic and cultural homogenization of the world and regionalization being a social and political reaction. The leading writers in the field contribute thought-provoking and fascinating articles to this volume.

This is the first of five volumes reporting on the UNU-WIDER study on New Regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which probably will have a crucial influence on the shape of the 'new world order' - globalization and regionalization. These studies relate to each other as challenge to response, globalization being the challenge of economic and cultural homogenization of the world and regionalization being a social and political reaction. The leading writers in the field contribute thought-provoking and fascinating articles to this volume.

The post-socialist transitions in the East and the abandonment of state-led development (dirigisme) in the South comprise one of the most important global phenomena to unfold at the end of this century. Rebuilding Capitalism contains innovative work by well-known specialists in the fields of economic reform, macroeconomics, and development. It offers a global and integrative perspective on the theory and practice of economic reform after socialist and dirigisme. The book considers the historical origins of the current wave of market-oriented reform, reviews existing controversies on the design of economic reforms, and offers alternative criteria to evaluate policy performance. In particular it focuses on issues of macroeconomic adjustment and stabilization, liberalization policies, reform of the state, and interactions between economic and political transformation during the course of systematic transformation. A distinctive feature of this volume is that it covers a wide range of reform experiences from various countries. The analysis of post-socialist reform includes Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and cases of reforming socialism in Africa and Latin America (including a special chapter on Cuba). Post-dirigisme transitions are examined for Latin America and East Asia.