ABSTRACT
The term globalization refers to a process of increasing cross-border interactions and transactions in the economic and socio-cultural spheres. In other words, globalization describes the loss of significance of national borders. This process of "de-bordering" or "denationalization" is being perceived as both a "natural" process and a political project. By far the most important global force associated with the term globalization is the market: the "game" of supply and demand. The central political globalization debate, however, revolves less around the general welfare benefits of globalization than around the political answers to the market-induced adaptation processes and around the distribution of welfare gains. Critics of globalization fear that the achievements of the welfare state are coming under pressure from globalization and the competition that it has unleashed. Since in many poor developing countries the state is weak and fails to perform key functions, economic globalization can also have detrimental effects in other spheres when "undesirable markets" flourish.
