THE NEW SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM:
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,
NETWORKING, GLOBALIZATION
In the last quarter of this century, a new form of socio-economic organization has
emerged. After the collapse of statism, in the Soviet Union and throughout the
world, it is certainly a capitalist system. Indeed, for the first time in history the
entire planet is capitalist, since even the few remaining command economies are
surviving or developing through their linkages to global, capitalist markets. Yet
this is a brand of capitalism that is at the same time very old and fundamentally
new. It is old because it appeals to relentless competition in the pursuit of profit,
and individual satisfaction (deferred or immediate) is its driving engine. But it is
fundamentally new because it is tooled by new information and communication
technologies that are at the roots of new productivity sources, of new
organizational forms, and of the formation of a global economy. Let us briefly
examine the profile of this new world we are living in, which in fact is shared by
all countries despite the diversity of their cultures and institutions.