Documento De Corel Office

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Documento De Corel Office CATHOLICISM, SOCIAL VALUES AND THE WELFARE SYSTEM IN SPAIN Víctor Pérez-Díaz, Elisa Chuliá, Joaquín P. López Novo and Berta Álvarez-Miranda ASP Research Paper 102(b)/2010 Summary 1. Introduction 2. The development of the Spanish welfare 3. The cultural background of the Spanish welfare system 4. The institutions of the Spanish welfare system 5. Conclusion: The central role of the Catholic Church and religion in the Spanish welfare system This paper will be published in 2011 as part of the project “Religion, values, and the welfare state, the significance of religious communities to the normative background of European welfare states”, directed by Prof. Dr. Hans-Richard Reuter and Prof. Dr. Karl Gabriel of the University of Münster (Germany). We thank Stefan Leibold for his comments and remarks. Víctor Pérez-Díaz, Elisa Chuliá, Joaquín P. López Novo, and Berta Álvarez-Miranda, ASP, Gabinete de Estudios ASP Research Papers Comité de Redacción /Editorial Board Víctor Pérez-Díaz (director) Berta Álvarez-Miranda Navarro Joaquín Pedro López Novo Josu Mezo Aranzibia Juan Carlos Rodríguez Pérez Fernando González Olivares (redactor jefe) Comité Científico Internacional /International Scientific Committee Daniel Bell (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) Suzanne Berger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Peter Gourevitch (University of California, San Diego) Peter Hall (Harvard University) Pierre Hassner (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, París) Kenneth Keniston (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) © Víctor Pérez-Díaz, Elisa Chuliá, Joaquín P. López Novo and Berta Álvarez-Miranda This paper should not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior permission of the authors Depósito legal: M-6126-1994 ISSN: 1134 - 6116 1. Introduction Spain entered the 21st century as a late but already consolidated parliamentary democracy with a service-oriented economy, a fairly rigid labor market including considerable groups of people affected by vulnerable employment, an ageing society and a mature welfare. In spite of the steep decline of fertility rates –which rank among the lowest in the world–, the fast rise of immigration since the mid 90s has boosted the Spanish population from 40 million to 47 million inhabitants. In the mid 70s of the past century, after the death of General Franco –who had ruled the country since the end of the Civil War (1936-39)– reformist elites belonging to both the authoritarian regime and its political opposition engaged in negotiations to steer a peaceful transition to democracy. This process established a bridge between the old and the new regime allowing for endogenous institutional change without breaking the principle of legality and the rule of law, and was facilitated by King Juan Carlos who had been appointed by Franco as his successor in the position of chief of state. The 1978 Constitution established a parliamentary monarchy and opened the door for a new territorial organization of the state (estado de las autonomías) which has taken the institutional shape of seventeen autonomous communities, each one with extensive legislative and executive powers (particularly in the realm of education, health care and social services). Strongly decentralized and poorly integrated, the Spanish territorial model has been defined by some observers as “asymmetric federalism” because not all autonomous communities enjoy the same rights vis à vis the central state. Furthermore the process of devolution is still open, partly in response to the conflicting demands of the nationalist parties. Only two national parties have been able to lead the central government: the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) and the Partido Popular (PP). The PP, though not being a Christian-democratic party, is nearer to the Catholic Church, especially regarding family and education issues. The proportional electoral system overrepresents large parties; small parties tend to be organized at the subnational level, either with a nationalist or regionalist orientation. Nonetheless, a highly concentrated vote grants them representation in the national bicameral parliament, and they often wield a fair amount of power as allies supporting the minority governments led by one of the two big national parties. Spain has been hard hit by the current financial and economic crisis, which once again has taken unemployment to the staggering rate of 20% of the active population (close to five million people), which doubles the average rate of the European Union. Rising unemployment and a severe GDP drop have strained the welfare state, specially the Social Security accounts, which have to face the dramatic increase of unemployment benefits and income transfers in the face of diminishing workers’ contributions and inputs from taxes. In this context, a rise in the share of social expenditure to GDP may be expected, presumably reducing the social expenditure gap between Spain and the EU (20.9% and 26.9% of GDP in 2006)1. 1 Statistics in Focus 40/2009 (Population and social conditions). 1 In such critical situations the role of the families as welfare providers becomes even more noticeable. In spite of the state’s growing weight in the welfare system during the last fifty years, Spanish families continue to play a crucial role as welfare-producing cells: sharing resources to buffer the impact of unemployment among their members, helping each other to muddle through, and providing care for their dependents. They thus constitute a pillar of social cohesion that both supplements the welfare state and compensates for its shortcomings. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the role played by Catholicism in the development of the Spanish welfare state, to ascertain if a religious tradition was “welfare state-productive”, or rather “welfare system productive”, and, in that case, to highlight the specific ways in which it contributed to both the genesis and the advance of such system. Our preliminary answer to this research question is that Spanish Catholicism has been –and still is– a welfare state productive religious tradition, and that its contribution to the making of the welfare system has been many-sided. We stress three contributions of the Catholic Church and Catholicism by and large. First, the Church has contributed to building a welfare institutional infra-structure (schools, hospitals, asylums, orphanages…) both before the rise of the welfare state and in parallel to its development; this infrastructure has been accommodated within the welfare system as a private branch of service provision. Second, Catholicism has played an important role as a cultural idiom during the nearly four decades-long Francoist regime, which was the period in which the Spanish welfare state effectively took-off. Nowadays, in a context of mounting secularization, religious pluralism and religious privatization, it is easy to underrate the influence that Catholicism exerted in Spain’s public life in the past century, particularly in the first half. However, after the Civil War, Catholicism became both the state religion and the ideological common denominator endorsed by all the political families (Phalangists, the military, conservative monarchist and different strands of Catholics) that participated in the politics of the elite’s “limited pluralism” (Linz 1970; Tusell 1988). Under the Francoist regime, Catholicism was so pervasive that all institutions and policies carried a catholic stamp, even if policy makers did not explicitly belong to a catholic faction. In addition, fiscal conservatism during Francoism kept social expenditure low and left ample room for the Catholic Church to expand welfare infrastructure, particularly –but not exclusively– in the educational sector. And third, throughout the development of the welfare state, the Church has also played a major role as both a provider of social assistance to the poor, and as a lobby on behalf of the very poor and insufficiently protected by the welfare state. Within the Spanish civil society, specific Church organizations stand out as advocates for social inclusion and vehicles for granting basic aid to marginalized groups. In the first part of this chapter we sketch the development of the Spanish welfare state, characterizing the main stages in its development and the role played by the Catholic Church in each phase. We then point to the historical course of the Church and its cultural influence on the social values underlying the welfare state. In the third part, we look at the institutional structure and the functioning of the welfare system pointing at current difficulties and challenges. Finally, we recapitulate our argument and develop some concluding arguments that may stimulate further research. 2 2. The development of the Spanish welfare state 2.1. Early steps in the emergence of a modern welfare state Initiatives to design welfare policies in Spain can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. In the context of political and economic crisis after the loss of the last Spanish colonies in America (1898), the “social question” gained public saliency. According to outstanding intellectuals of that time, the modernization of agriculture, the encouragement of industrialization and public works, and the development of a social protection system to cover risks of poor peasants and workers became the keys to Spain’s “regeneration” (Comín 1999; Costa 2009). The establishment in the early 1880s of the Commission for Social Reform, a nationwide network of committees in charge
Recommended publications
  • 17.158 Political Economy of Western Europe
    17.158 Political Economy of Western Europe Course Description Examines role of European states in postwar period of rapid economic growth and current crisis. Includes analysis of different state traditions ("etatist," liberal, authoritarian); government's role in decline of some economies and rise of others; why and where Keynesianism, indicative planning, and state enterprises were introduced; alternative conceptions of contemporary economic problems (new international division of labor? too few producers? oil shock?); and of policies to deal with them (industrial policy? monetarism? protectionism?). Requirements Students must do all the reading before attending the class. The course focuses on reading and discussion. The assignments are either 1. two short papers (12-15 pages each) or 2. a major research paper. Grading Grading is based mainly on the essays, with some consideration of class participation. The course focuses on reading and discussion. The assignments are either (1) two short papers (12-15 pages each) or (2) a major research paper. The short paper topics will be distributed Class #6 [due Class #8] & Class #10 [due Class #12]. 2 Class #1 Introduction Class #2 National Traditions of State and Economy: Britain Samuel Beer, British Politics in the Collectivist Age, (Knopf, 1965) chapters 1-3; Tony Cutler, Karel Williams, and John Williams, Keynes, Beveridge and Beyond, (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), Introduction and chapter 1; Donald Winch, “Keynes, Keynsianism, and State Intervention,” and Margaret Weir, “Ideas and Politics:
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Action Problems in Monitoring Managers the Enron Case As a Systemic Problem
    COLLECTIVE ACTION PROBLEMS IN MONITORING MANAGERS THE ENRON CASE AS A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM By Peter Gourevitch University of California, San Diego [email protected] At the core of the Enron disaster lies a problem of considerable conceptual interest and importance: the obstacles to collective action which arise when an agent (in this case the managers) is monitored by many principals (in this case the shareholders) rather than one principal (Lyne and Tierney, 2002). This occurs often in politics and other areas, and deserves some attention not only to understand the problems of corporate governance and the human suffering caused by the Enron failure but also to understand the type of problem more broadly (Shinn and Gourevitch, 2002). In the Enron case, stockholders were taken advantage of by managerial greed, reinforced by the collusion among “reputational intermediaries” who play an important part in the monitoring system. The Enron case also informs the lively discussions that compare corporate governance systems—the shareholder model of the US and the UK in contrast with the stakeholder model associated with Germany and other countries in continental Europe (Aguilera and Jackson, 2002; Dore, 2000; Lazonick, 2000; Berger and Dore, 1996; La Porta, et. al.2000.) The US model is said to protect the rights of external shareholders from the abuses that can be carried out by “inside owners,” or blockholders common in the stakeholder model. And it appears to do so. But the US model has a vulnerability which arises out of its virtues: the laws that protect external investors create fragmented ownership, which in turn creates a collective action problem: no one has an incentive to pay the transactions costs required to monitor the managers.
    [Show full text]
  • PG CV May 2014
    CURRICULUM VITAE (May 2014) PETER ALEXIS GOUREVITCH Office: Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, 9500 Gilman Drive, UCSD , La Jolla, Ca 92093-0519 tel: 858 534 –7085; fax 858 534 –3939 EDUCATION Ph.D. Harvard University, 1969 (Political Science) B.A. Oberlin College, 1963 (High Honors in Government) EMPLOYMENT 2012 – Emeritus Professor, School of International Relations and Department of Political Science, UCSD. 1981-2012 Professor of Political Science University of California, San Diego 1986- 1996 Professor, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) UCSD 1986-96 Founding Dean, Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego 2014 Fall, Visiting Professor, Watson Institute, Brown University 2012,2013 ( Fall) , Visiting Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto 2011 (Fall) Visiting Research Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto 2008-09 Acting Director, Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation, 2009-10 (Aug 1-Feb 1) Acting Dean, School of IR/PS , UCSD 2005-06 Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation, New York 2002-03 Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto 2001-02 Visiting Research Fellow, Center for European Studies, Harvard University 1986-96 Founding Dean, Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego 1980-83 Chairman, Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego 1979-81
    [Show full text]
  • 09252714.Pdf
    C/82-6 INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF MIT Compiled by the Center for International Studies Center for International Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 October 1982 a October 1982 INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF MIT Compiled by the Center for International Studies MIT as an institution, its faculty, student body, and research staff, are deeply engaged in contemporary affairs, an engagement that necessarily implies a major interest in international issues and concerns. The attached survey was compiled by the Center for International Studies to try to assemble existing information about MIT's varied international ties. We undertook this task for a number of reasons -- it would be useful to have available in one place information about a facet of MIT's character directly relevant to this Center's interests; it would be informative to others at MIT and to interested outsiders to realize how deep and pervasive are the Institute's interest and involvement in the affairs of the whole world; it might help individual members of the faculty identify others with converging interests; and it might help identify some priority needs or opportunities. We are thus making it available to the MIT community and others in the belief it will be interesting and useful. Summary and Abstract The purpose of this survey is merely to describe MIT's varied international activities, not to evaluate or explain them. Moreover, the true international role of an institution like MIT cannot be expressed only by what can be counted. There are many other facets of that role -- international professional travel of faculty and staff; personal advisory activities for government, industry, and international organizations; or the effects on international affairs of the research and human products of MIT -- that cannot be meaningfully catalogued.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Development Seminar PLAN 773 Course Description This Co
    Department of City and Regional Planning (Urban and Regional) Economic Development Seminar PLAN 773 Instructor: Professor Meenu Tewari Class meets T: 3:30-6:00 Room 207, New East Room: New East 301 Phone 962-4758 Office hours: W: 2:00-4:30 pm Email: [email protected] or, by appointment. Course Description This course critically examines fundamental concepts and theories of economic development, and traces how policy thinking about the development process has evolved over time. Changing global economic trends, and new findings from extensive empirical research over the past two decades have posed several new challenges to our understanding of how regions develop, change, and grow. We will use directed readings, policy debates, and case materials to examine how our current thinking about key development problems—such as economic growth, employment, competitiveness, industrial upgrading, skill formation, the organization of work, and institutional arrangements that sustain innovative development processes—has changed in light of new local and global challenges. The course has three components. The first introduces students to historical debates about economic development, their policy implications and how they have been applied to issues of local and regional development. The second part examines how these debates have shifted in recent years in response to the emergence of new problems in economic development such as globalization, outsourcing, the rise of the “new competition” and the need for regions and localities to find new ways to adjust and prosper in an uncertain and volatile global economy and in the face of new threats such as a changing climate. How do these new pressures alter normative debates about place, upward mobility and economic progress? How do they change our thinking about economic development theory, policy and practice? What does it mean for regulation and governance of local economies? The third component uses case studies to address some of these questions.
    [Show full text]
  • Utopias and Dystopias All Sessio
    CES Virtual 27th International Conference of Europeanists Europe’s Past, Present, and Future: Utopias and Dystopias All sessions are listed in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). June 2, 2021 1 Pre-Conference Side Events MONDAY, JUNE 14 Networking with Breakout Sessions (private event for fellows) 6/14/2021 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM EDT Mandatory for all dissertation completion and pre-dissertation fellows Through the Science Lens: New Approaches in the Humanities 6/14/2021 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Mandatory for all dissertation completion and pre-dissertation fellows Moderator: Nicole Shea, CES/Columbia University Speakers: Dominic Boyer - Rice University Arden Hegele - Columbia University Jennifer Edmond - Trinity College Territorial Politics and Federalism Research Network Business Meeting 6/14/2021 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Business Meeting Chair: Willem Maas - York University TUESDAY, JUNE 15 Mellon-CES Keynote Discussion: Crises of Democracy 6/15/2021 10:00 AM to 11:30 PM Keynote Sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Mandatory for all dissertation completion and pre-dissertation fellows Chair: Nicole Shea – Director, Council for European Studies Speakers: Eileen Gillooly - Executive Director, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University Jane Ohlmeyer - Professor of History at Trinity College and Chair of the Irish Research Council 2 European Integration and Political Economy Research Network Speed Mentoring Event 6/15/2021 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM Networking Event Chair: Dermot Hodson - Birkbeck, University of London Knowledge Production and
    [Show full text]
  • External Trade Policy Liberalization in the European Union Brian T
    What Happened to Fortress Europe?: External Trade Policy Liberalization in the European Union Brian T. Hanson One of the most striking features of the international economy since the mid-1980s has been the proliferation and intensification of regional trading arrangements around the world. Among the most prominent developments, the European Union (EU) imple- mented a program to create the world’s largest single market, embarked on creating a common currency, added five new member states, and is contemplating the further addition of ten or more countries.1 The United States, Canada, and Mexico launched the North American Free Trade Agreement and have announced their intention to expand the arrangement widely in Latin America to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas. In Asia, the rapid growth of regional trade and investment flows has piqued interest in the creation of formal regional trade arrangements. The most ambitious plan has been the declaration of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group to create a regional free trade area by 2020. This eruption of regional economic initiatives has aroused deep concerns about their impact on the international economy. Many fear that decades of progress to- ward increased international trade liberalization reached though the rule-based mul- tilateral system of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be destroyed as Europe, North America, and Asia become ‘‘fortresses’’ in which some trading partners obtain refuge, while others For their thoughtful comments on earlier drafts, I would like to thank Karen Alter, Phineas Baxandall, Suzanne Berger, James Caporaso, Cliff Bob, Brian Burgoon, Mark Duckenfield, Jeffry Frieden, Eugene Gholz, Peter Gourevitch, Peter Hall, Torben Iversen, David Lake, Richard Locke, Sophie Meunier, Andy Moravcsik, Ken Oye, Paul Pierson, Dick Samuels, Alberta Sbragia, Nick Ziegler, and three anonymous reviewers.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley GAIA Books
    UC Berkeley GAIA Books Title Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4qf1c74d Authors Vogel, David Kagan, Robert A. Publication Date 2002-07-24 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies Edited by David Vogel & Robert Kagan Published in association with University of California Press Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies An Introduction David Vogel and Robert A. Kagan I. Introduction The intellectual impetus for this volume emerged from the issues addressed in Trading Up: Consumer and Environmental Regulation in a Global Economy written by David Vogel (1995), one of the volume’s editors. In Trading Up , Vogel explicitly challenged the claim made by globalization critics, especially those from the environmental community, that economic liberalization leads to a lowering of regulatory standards. Vogel argues that, on the contrary, under certain circumstances, global economic integration can actually lead to the strengthening of consumer and environmental standards. The result is thus more akin to a “race to the top” than to a “race to the bottom.” Trading Up primarily dealt with one category of national policies – those that governed the safety and environmental impact of traded products. The aim of this volume is to extend the focus of Trading Up by focusing on a broader array of issue areas. Since the impacts of globalization are likely to vary by policy area, we solicited essays on the impact of globalization on labor rights, women’s rights and capital market regulations, in additio n to environmental standards.
    [Show full text]
  • Senior Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Co-Director, EU Program at Princeton
    February 2018 SOPHIE MEUNIER Senior Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Co-Director, EU Program at Princeton Robertson 437 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 Tel.: +1 609 258 4863 [email protected] www.scholar.princeton.edu/smeunier PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2007- Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Princeton present Affairs NJ Senior Research Scholar (with continuing appointment) since 2017 Research Scholar (2007-2017) Co-Director European Union Program at Princeton Affiliated Faculty in the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Program in Law and Public Affairs, the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, and the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance 2002-2007 Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Princeton Affairs NJ Associate Research Scholar (tenure-track) 2001-2002 Princeton University, Center of International Studies and Department of Princeton Economics NJ Research Associate 1998-2001 Princeton University, Center of International Studies and Woodrow Wilson Princeton School NJ Visiting Research Fellow and Lecturer in Public and International Affairs OTHER AFFILIATIONS 2016-2017 Institute for Advanced Study Princeton Visiting Fellow NJ 2015- Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations Shanghai, present Senior Research Fellow China 2012- CIRANO Montreal, present Associate Fellow Canada EDUCATION 1989-1998 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Cambridge
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture #1 New Offshoring of Jobs & Global Development
    The New Offshoring of Jobs and Global Development: An Overview of the Contemporary Global Labor Market Lecture #1 Gary Gereffi Duke University [email protected] International Labor Organization (ILO) 7th Nobel Peace Prize Social Policy Lectures Kingston, Jamaica, December 5, 6 & 7, 2005 The New Offshoring of Jobs and Global Development: An Overview of the Contemporary Global Labor Market1 Gary Gereffi Duke University 1. The Great Global Job Shift A cover story in the February 3, 2003 issue of Business Week highlighted the impact of global outsourcing over the past several decades on the quality and quantity of jobs in both developed and developing countries (Engardio et al., 2003). The first wave of global outsourcing began in the 1960s and 1970s with the exodus of production jobs in shoes, clothing, cheap electronics, and toys. After that, routine service work, like credit-card receipt processing, airline reservations, and the writing of basic software code began to move offshore. Today, the computerization of work, widespread access to the Internet, and high-speed private data networks have allowed a wide range of knowledge-intensive jobs to become more footloose. 2 Global outsourcing reveals many of the key features of contemporary globalization. It deals with international competitiveness in a way that underscores the growing interdependence of developed and developing countries; a huge part of the debate centers around jobs, wages, and skills in different parts of the world; and there is a focus on how economic activities are organized across firms and country boundaries, and where in this production chain value and employment is created.
    [Show full text]
  • Putting Citizens First
    PUTTING CITIZENS FIRST THE TASKS FACING EUROPE, HER PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE CHARACTER OF HER PUBLIC AUTHORITY Víctor Pérez-Díaz ASP Research Paper 22(b)/1998 Contents 1. The tasks facing Europe, and her public sphere: clearing up some factual and normative misunderstandings 2. The European process and the politics of difference 3. The character of the European political association, its underlying community and the test of foreign policy 4. Lessons from recent developments: governance by rules 5. Redefining leadership 6. The citizens' voice: reflections on survey results 7. Putting citizens first, and other alternative routes Bibliographical References Víctor Pérez-Díaz Complutense University of Madrid; and ASP, Gabinete de Estudios, Madrid. ASP Research Papers Comité de Redacción /Editorial Board Víctor Pérez-Díaz (director) Berta Álvarez-Miranda Navarro Elisa Chuliá Rodrigo Josu Mezo Aranzibia Pilar Rivilla Baselga Juan Carlos Rodríguez Pérez Celia Valiente Fernández Fernando González Olivares (redactor jefe) Comité Científico Internacional /International Scientific Committee Daniel Bell (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) Suzanne Berger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Peter Gourevitch (University of California, San Diego) Peter Hall (Harvard University) Pierre Hassner (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) Kenneth Keniston (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Vincent Wright (Oxford University) © Víctor Pérez-Díaz This paper should not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior permission of the author Depósito legal: M-6126-1994 ISSN: 1134 - 6116 1. The tasks facing Europe and her public of painful revision. space: clearing up some factual and normative From now on, domestic debates on economic misunderstandings* and social policy will have Europe as the crucial No way but forwards frame of reference.
    [Show full text]
  • Globalization and Politics
    Special Working Paper Series Globalization and Politics Suzanne Berger MIT IPC Globalization Working Paper 00-005 P1: FMF April 18, 2000 15:37 Annual Reviews AR097-03 Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 2000. 3:43–62 Copyright c 2000 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved GLOBALIZATION AND POLITICS Suzanne Berger Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; e-mail: [email protected] Key Words internationalization, neoliberalism, trade opening, social dumping, states and markets ■ Abstract This chapter reviews the issues at stake in current public and scholarly debates over the impact of changes in the international economy on domestic politics and society. Over the past two decades, there have been dramatic increases in the flow of portfolio capital, foreign direct investment, and foreign exchange trading across borders at the same time as barriers to trade in goods and services have come down. These changes raise many new questions about the effects of trade and capital mobility on the autonomy of nation-states and the relative power in society of various groups. The first signs of realignments within and between political parties of both the left and the right over issues of national independence and trade openness suggest a rich new terrain for political inquiry. INTRODUCTION The rise of public and scholarly interest in globalization and politics is a new phe- nomenon. Over the past decade, the liberalization of trade, finance, and investment across the world has opened vast new territories to dynamic economic actors. The rise of incomes in developing countries has created large new consumer markets. Producing across national boundaries has shifted research, development, and man- ufacturing activities involving higher and higher degrees of skill and value into other societies.
    [Show full text]