Limits to Globalization

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A01=Elmar Rieger
A01=Stephan Leibfried
argue persuasively
Author_Elmar Rieger
Author_Stephan Leibfried
book
Category=GTQ
Category=JKS
Category=KCS
changes
combination
conditions
decades
endogenous
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
expansion
external
globalization
governments
necessary
need
new
processes
reasons
reform
second
societies
state
system
two
war
welfare
western
world

Product details

  • ISBN 9780745628516
  • Weight: 748g
  • Dimensions: 170 x 246mm
  • Publication Date: 12 May 2003
  • Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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In this exciting new book, Rieger and Leibfried argue persuasively for the need to understand developments in welfare and social provision alongside the processes of globalization. In the two decades following the Second World War, the massive expansion of the welfare state system arguably allowed Western governments to expose their societies to uncontrollable external risks associated with the deregulated global economic environment. The authors contend that the combination of changes in welfare and technological innovation provided the necessary conditions for globalization by limiting some of the more harmful effects of economic change.


Today, the developed welfare state is in need of reform for various endogenous reasons. If such reforms are to work effectively, however, Rieger and Leibfried claim that governments must take into account the complex ways in which domestic social policy and external economic policy are interconnected. They maintain that the present climate provides a unique opportunity for policy-makers to engage constructively with globalization, warning that failure to think creatively about welfare in this context could result in governments falling back into an unhelpful and out-moded protectionist stance.


Drawing on case studies from Germany and the United States, Rieger and Leibfried show how welfare reform has worked in practice in the Western world. Contrasting these findings with the experience of East Asian states, they go on to argue that whilst welfare systems may appear to be similar, they function in different ways depending on the cultural setting. These cultural differences may condition the way in which welfare state regimes are able to mitigate the effects of globalization upon particular societies and economies.

Elmar Rieger is Associate Professor and Stephan Leibfried Professor for Political Science, both at the Centre for Social Policy Research, Bremen University

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