ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the some questions by reviewing some representative social science work, both on globalization processes' extent and policy impacts. It reviews some of the empirical indicators in this work, addressing the descriptive question of how far globalization has actually gone. The chapter examines the potential causal question of globalization's connection to social policy with the help of multivariate methods. Competing hypotheses are possible to formulate on the second-order question on globalization's policy impacts. There is a basis in literature for drawing other conclusions about the impact of globalization on social policy. One major distinction in the classes of globalization definitions used by social scientists goes between globalization as import/export dependence, or alternatively as the deregulation of international financial transactions. Varying ways of measurement are used among those focusing on the dismantlement of regulations. The chapter offers some interpretations on the overall patterns of results, as well as sketching out some directions for continued research.
