Limits to Globalization: Welfare States and the World EconomyISBN: 978-0-7456-2851-6
Paperback
416 pages
July 2003, Polity
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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.