Sunday, 09 June 2013 12:21

Is political polarization beneficial ?

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In fact, this problem is not easy to answer, because we could imagine several sub-questions without finding a remedy for our pain …: Is bipolarization better than monopolarization? Is bipolarization better than polypolarization? And in what temporal and geostrategic context ?

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The invisible hand of the market that Adam Smith referred in his famous book “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” but also “the invisible hand of Jupiter” in “History of Astronomy” is today is one of the best known and mystified metaphors of economic liberalism.

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Given the economic properties of the countries south of the Mediterranean and their geo-economic location, they have their own characteristics in terms of their performance and foreign direct investment attraction. In one hand, because of their similarities and their differences in their economic growth, their openness, their debt structuring, their exchange rate regime, the structure of foreign trade, and their level of economic interdependence intra-group and extra-group, it is relevant to try to assessing the achievements and attractiveness of these countries for foreign direct investment and to try analyzing their determinants in particular in the case of Tunisia.

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The development strategy of developing countries has been characterized in the 1960s and 1980s by a disconnection from the global economy and essentially a planned and autonomous policy of industrialization, focused mainly on local market demand. The priority given to attractiveness to FDI shows the change in industrial policy towards accession to economic liberalism and the gradual opening up to the global economy.

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Due to the structural characteristics of the economies of the SEMCs and their relative degree of economic liberalization, some countries of the SEMCs have been undertaking ambitious privatization programs for more than a decade with the objective of:

  • Restructure national economies by promoting a more competitive national economic environment;
  • Attract foreign direct investment, an alternative privileged form of medium and long-term capital inflow, and until now considered insufficient to make the policy of economic liberalization and integration into the globalized economy succeed.
  • Finance the current account deficit through the fresh inflows of capital mentioned above;
  • Balance national budget deficits;
  • And to develop the stock markets;
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