In The Left Alternative, Unger describes the situation of the world today as a "dictatorship of no alternatives": a condition in which in the world seems to offer few alternatives for lifting the majority of people out of lives of poverty, drudgery, and belittlement.
Unger sees this "left alternative" offering great potential for developing countries, in helping them achieve both national difference and prosperity for their citizens, while rejecting the neoliberal agenda that threatens to stifle real national difference as the price of entry into global markets.