The Legal,Political,and Economic Environments Facing Buciness: Looking to the future

          The major changes in the future will involve important political
          and economic developments. It is clear from the events of the late
1980s and early 1990s that totalitarianism is being challenged—but is fighting
back—throughout the world. Significant political instability will be the rule
rather than the exception in countries with shifting political ideologies. In the
Soviet Union and China, the pressures for  political liberalization  will con-
tinue, although the  price is likely to be significant human loss. A new gen-
eration of leaders may have to rise up to lead these countries into the twenty-
first century.
    Economically, the same type of liberalization will take place in the cen-
trally planned economies. Those countries, however, will probably opt for a
form of democratic socialism rather than a pure laissez-faire capitalist system
such as that found in Hong Kong. Transforming a centrally planned economy
into a market economy is a difficult and painful process. There will be high
levels of unemployment  and economic stagnation in the transition.  Those
conditions may induce political instability, and it is impossible to predict the
outcome. Nevertheless, Eastern Europe will need technical and managerial
help and will have to turn more to the West to obtain it.
    The  challenges  for the industrial countries will be to open markets to
trade and services while continuing  to liberalize goods trade without raising
protectionist barriers against the developing countries. The slow growth of
the early 1990s will lead to greater trade pressures and  protectionism and
could threaten the atmosphere of cooperation that developed in the  1980s.
The Legal,Political,and Economic Environments Facing Buciness: Looking to the future

The industrial countries of the West will be constantly challenged by the in-
dustrial and emerging nations of Asia, and the competitive balance of power
may continue to shift to Asia. That puts even greater pressure on the  indus-
trial countries of the West to innovate in  product and process technology in
order to remain competitive.
    The developing countries will continue to grapple with political and eco-
nomic  instability, inflation, balance-of-trade deficits, and high debt service.
They are in a difficult and almost insolvable position. Their growth and de-
velopment will have a significant effect on the industrial countries as markets
and as a source of production of intermediate and final products.

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