Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Palley, Thomas I

Titel

A labor perspective on globalization

Ist Teil von

• Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft = International politics and society, 2009-01, Vol.2 (2), p.22-39

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In contrast to neo-liberals and Third Way social democrats, labor social democrats' perspective on globalization sees the current structure of globalization as fundamentally problematic, and therefore calls for a profound architectural change. The labor social democrats' perspective builds on three central features. First of all, it is recognized that globalization is hurting many working families and widening social divisions by increasing income inequality. A major reason for this is the detachment of wages from productivity in many industrialized countries, since production has become increasingly mobile. Restoring the link between wages and productivity thus represents a core challenge for labor social democrats in the era of globalization. Second, the debate on the size of net gains or losses from globalization misses the point. Nor is it a matter of halting globalization; rather globalization is being wrongly constructed. Globalization, as constituted in terms of the neo-liberal paradigm, pressures both workers and governments through international competition and the power of corporations and financial markets. For labor social democrats the challenge is to change these conditions, with labor interests and social democratic governments pressuring corporations and financial markets, which together have helped to foster a new phenomenon known as 'financialization.' This demand leads to the third feature of the labor perspective. Globalization alone does not explain what has been happening to growth and income distribution, and it should not be looked at in isolation. Instead, globalization should be seen as a core element in the neo-liberal economic paradigm that has been implemented in the post-1980s. In other words, the debate on globalization is ultimately about changing the economic paradigm. If the 'climate of opinion' is to be changed political power is needed. The challenge facing labor advocates is therefore to construct new economic visions that are supported and legitimated also by economic logic. Adapted from the source document.