Globalization, American Politics, and Welfare Policy

Abstract

The welfare state is under attack in all of the rich countries where it flourished over the course of the twentieth century. Rollbacks are said to be imperative. The big argument for why this is so emphasizes globalization and technological change, which together have heightened international trade and investment competition. But rather than a widespread race to the bottom that these economic determinants would suggest, welfare state outcomes have been very different from country to country. These variations, and in particular the fact that the United States has been the rollback pioneer, argue that politics plays a large role in contemporary welfare state politics. American developments are best explained by paying attention to the political mobilization of business over the past two decades, on the one hand, and the uses of the politics of resentment and marginalization on the other hand.