What Globalization for the Many?

Abstract

Development “is a way of getting acquainted with ourselves” (Dobrescu, 2020, p. 9). Starting with The Century of the Emerging World (2013) and continuing with No Project Country (2019), Paul Dobrescu explores Romania’s recent history of development, in an attempt to understand what future is envisaged by current economic policies. As usual, the conclusions of the analysis are an elegy. Development was not a real priority during transition in Romania, but a rhetoric. “We had lived a time of development without freedom and we inaugurated a time of freedom without development” (p. 167). That is not to say that Paul Dobrescu’s newest book is a disheartening read. On the contrary, it invites meditation on the fate of countries and puts their development into a global perspective which, in rationalizing historical trends, provides a well-grounded explanation for contemporary developments, while giving hope for a more equitable future. If anything, Paul Dobrescu’s books are deeply humanistic (in a way globalization itself, his arch-theme spanning more than 20 years, is supposed to be) and serve as a reminder of the fate of the many.