Ebook Globalization and social cohesion: Risks and responsibilities
The welfare state and its constituent social policies hold a somewhat paradoxical position in debates about globalisation. On the one hand, the social policies that characterise modern welfare states are perceived as luxuries which we can no longer afford in a world of intensely competitive markets. On the other, these same policies are equally claimed as the primary vehicle for governments to help people through the process of adjusting to economic change, thereby maintaining social cohesion. Across most of the OECD nations debates about the role of the welfare state in the context of the global economy oscillate between these two positions.
Over the past ten to fifteen years the changed economic conditions brought about by globalisationhavebecomeincreasinglyapparent yet many— if not most—OECDgovernments have been slow to formulate any strategic social policy response to the impact of globalisation. In part, this lack of strategic attention to adapting to the global economy may be attributed to uncertainty about the precise nature of the impact of entry to the global economy, and how this would flow through to social programs. In part, it may be attributed to domestic social policy agendas that were preoccupied with internal social and demographic changes that were challenging existing policy structures and requiring more immediate attention. Finally, as
welfare state analysts such as Ramesh Mishra have observed, “it is not the economic facts about globalisation but their political implications” that may have prevented explicit policy debates about the costs of globalisation and the social policyadjustments that might be required to smooth the transition into the global economy.
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Ebook Globalization and social cohesion: Risks and responsibilities( 12 page type pdf, 74 KB )
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