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5.20
Socio-political model-Liberalism
 
  Consumerism is the social model whereby citizens of nations and the world are given access to the widest possible choice of consumer items to buy, with workers working to make money to purchase goods and through the freedom of trade barriers the standards of living will increase.  
     
 
  Element Component
State Creed
"To protect and encourage the values and rights of citizens."
"To remove government interference and oppression against the individual and enterprise".
 
Belief System
Declaration/statement of rights
 
 
Law
Constitution
 
 
Body politic
Executive leadership, democratically elected parliament dominated by multi-party system.
 
 
Industry
Smaller privately owned businesses, large middle class of industry/entrepreneurs.
 
 
Infrastructure
 
 
 
Knowledge
Promotion of education, difference of views, critical thinking.
 
 
Trade
 
 
 
Sovereignty & Defence
Lower emphasis on defence/military spending.
 
 
Economic activity
Tends to be more diverse, given freedom of commerce.
 
 
Communication
Generally open and diverse communication.
Open media.
 
Gross production
 
 
 
 
     
  The postwar outlook that eventually took shape, with origins actually extending to the internationalists surrounding Woodrow Wilson during World War I (1914-1918) was simple in its fundamental premise:  
  First, it was the assumptions:  
  (1) That every nation will act out of its own self interest;  
  (2) Every nation ultimately do what it thinks will best promote its own economic well being and national security.  
  Second, it was to convince each nation that its self-interest, from consumer goods, to security was best protected by protecting the other fellow's self interest.  
  In short, the idea was to build international economic interdepenednece or, in the fashion of today's language, a global economy.  
  Cordell Hull, as a senator and as Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of state, had been arguing this point prior to the Second World War and had sought to show how national prosperity was dependent on a vitality shared among nations.  
  He initiated a series of trade agreements in 1934 that stimulated a liberalization of trade. He wrote in his memoirs as 1916 that "unhampered trade dovetailed with peace; high tariffs, trade barriers and unfair economic competition with war."  
  He reasoned that if he could get a freer flow of trade- freer in the sens of fewer discriminations and obstructions- so that one country would not be deadly jeanlous of another, the living standards of all might rise.  
  Implementing this sort of philosophy after 1945 would be as daunting as it had been after WWI.  
  The creation of the global order, the early outlines of a new epoch had to begin with the material rehabilitation of natios injured by the war and an economic system that ssured increasing levels of prosperity everywhere.  
  American economic dominance was the first obstacle to making the vision a reality. When the United States entereed the war, it held about 80 percent of the world's gold supply. American decision makers realized that the United States accounted for nearly 50 % of the world's gross domestic product in 1948.T  
  Clearly, for one nationa toaccont for half the dollar value of all goods and services exchanged on the planet was unrealistic. American products needed markets; that required the revitalisation of Europes econmic strength.  
  A "dollar shortage" whether real or imagined, was a hurtful to America as it was to Europe.  
  Second, the rejuvination and reconstruction of a Europe devastated by war had to proceed against a nightmarish backdrop of deprivation and hopelessness. Millions were homeless. The infrastructure was in a shambles even two years after the war Bridges were still in disrepair.  
  A lack of coal caused a deficit of steel production that inhibited the construction of everything including ironically badly needed coal mines.  
  Skilled workers who had gone off to war had not returned. Long standing commecial relationships had been destroyed. Inflation had rendered many currencies useless.  
  Agriculture for lack of fertilizer and neglect of the soil, could not yield the harvests necessary to prevent starvation throughout Europe.  
  The Americans were crucial in restoring confidence, providing money, food, fuel and machinery and in pushing Europe toward sharing defense, economic integration and the common Market.  
  Along with the establishment of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fynd, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Bretton Woods arrangements, the United Nations and particularly the Marshall Plan, American efforts were clearly aimed at building a world order out of different dimension. The intention was to demonstrate the power of mutual aid and collective responsibility. It was to erstore faith in free market systems and to inspire democratic processes.  
  The Marshall Plan is often taken as embematic of both the challenge and the achievement. It was, according to historian Michael Hogan, an outgrowth of America's "search for a new economic order at home and abroad."  
  In this sense, the plan was an effort to recast Europe in America's own image.  
  1960 the twist in the tail  
  The primary lesson of epochal change isthe obvious one: it requires adaptation. America's success in accalerating global economic interdependence was not matched by its readiness to deal with this new inter-relatedness.  
  A nation that held sway over most of the globe at midcentury openly wondered, not more than a generation later, about the decline of its ability to compete internationally.  
  The roller coaster ride of America's international competitiveness provides dramatic evidence that judgement, as well as resources, needs to keep pace with the changes taking place.  
  The success of various reconstruction activities would have consequences for which US industry leaders were not prepared.  
  America's unique position at the end of the war was an anomoly. It was unlikely that 6 percent of the world's population could continue to accont for half of the world's economic activity.  
  Indeed, by the late 1960's, the American share in the world economy had declined to around 25 percent, roughly where it remains today.  
  The surprise that emerhed throughout the world was that the changes caused a whole new set of business dynamics to develop. In a phrase, transformation to a global economy forced corporations worldwide to renew and reinvent themselves.  
 
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