Global Economy: Moving from a Standardized to a Non-Standardized Development Model

  The world economy has entered a new phase of its development — the destruction of the technological system created after the WWII.  The purpose of the article is to argue that the destruction of the standardized economy is the main cause of the most acute problems of the world economy.  The common features of standardized production and economy of scale are investigated. The key role of dual use technologies in the development of a global system of standardized production and a special role of the Chinese economy in the development of the economy of scale, which the country played in the 21th century, are described. The author comes to the conclusion that the cyclical downturn of the world economy is caused mainly by the exposition of the techno-economic model of standardized production, which leads to the aggravation of international economic conflicts and contradictions such as trade wars, global supply chain disruption, disintegration and many others. The destruction of the standardized economy of scale is manifested in the increase in the production and transportation costs, the global inflation growth, the global supply chain disruption. In the study the author applies the methods of empirical research and theoretical cognition. Methodological novelty is presented in the argumentation of the global economic transition from a standardized economy of scale to a non-standardized economy of scope. The business localization, the new trend towards resource saving mode in production, the necessary diversification of industrial production consistent with the specifics of the given locality are just a few among others arguments that testify to this transformation. The article highlights preliminary features of economy of scope, based on the non-standardized technologies, such as heterogeneity, diversification of production, continues technological improvement, compliance with a specific regional comparative advantage in business clustering.