Economy & Business, Volume 18, 2024

Rezumat: Since the period of the industrial revolution, the world has been subjected to the rapid processes of establishing new networks of contacts between individuals and organizations, particularly rapid in the area of communication, production, services and trade, resulting in economic development and enabling cooperation on an unprecedented scale in this area. Not all countries have benefited from these opportunities equally. As time passes, it becomes more and more visible that, beneath the surface of cooperation, there is a ruthless scramble for access to markets and the related opportunities to gain money and power under the guise of the globalization process. This is accompanied by the skepticism towards the effectiveness of the fair "free trade" and the search for forms of action ensuring the achievement of one's own, egoistic interests, also related to the increase in isolationist tendencies as well as nationalist sentiments in many regions of the world and having impact on the social and political as well as cultural sphere of the life of nations. These spheres include an increase in social and ethnic tensions and rising the question about the possibility of conducting fair trade and genuine international cooperation. This situation also creates convenient opportunities to act for the populistically-oriented opponents of democracy, who try to "seduce societies" using the slogans of "national unity" and instill in them aversion to all those who do not share their vision of the world.