ABSTRACT
In this chapter we use history to gain perspective on the relationship between globalization and the social welfare state. In the late 1900s and early 2000s, the increasing exposure of national economies to global economic relations prompted much academic examination and punditry. The postWorld War II era witnessed a tremendous expansion of global exchange in goods and services-connecting consumers in one country with producers in other countries. Since the 1970s, the demise of many barriers to capital mobility and the resurgence of global finance led to massive increases in cross-border capital flows (currency trading, portfolio investment, and direct investment). The pace of these changes, particularly on the financial side, has since accelerated. The growing density of cross-national economic relations raises questions about the changing role of markets and states, the limits of national and sub-national governance under globalization, the shifting risks that individuals face in this changing state of affairs, and the efficacy of the social welfare state by which many of those risks might be managed. Despite the many praises of globalization, which invoke the spirit of Ricardo’s and Mill’s enhanced social welfare, universal harmony, and common interest, many worry that globalization limits national policy autonomy and erodes the ability of the state to provide social welfare goods.
