CIAO DATE: 11/03

The State of International Relations Research and Perspectives in Germany

Gunther Hellmann, editor
August 2003

Globalization as a Problem, as a Solution, and as a Part of the Landscape by Philipp Genschel

Abstract

There are basically three stories about the globalization-welfare state nexus. The first story argues that globalization is the cause of the chronic crisis of the welfare state (globalization theory). The second maintains that whatever the cause of the welfare state crisis, globalization is not part of it (globalization skeptics). The third story holds that globalization, far from causing the welfare state’s troubles, is a consequence of these troubles and part of their solution (revisionism). The paper reviews each of these stories and traces their intellectual origins.