Globalization's Impact on Welfare and Society

Welfare Society in a Globalized World

Market and Social Control

The market has had to accept some social control policies. This is the setting in which people seek their representation. There is a new prevalence of economics over politics. The market is valued as the foundation of the welfare society.

Globalization

Social costs:

• Almost full employment growth
• Old forms of labor organization (suitable for large and stable markets)
• Uniform work
• Standardized products
• Mass consumption
• Effects of perverse state performance
• Structural unemployment

Key areas:

• Industry
• Productive work
• Territorialization
• Material concentration
• Vertical integration
• Hierarchy and bureaucracy
• Homogeneity conditions (stable job)
• Social recognition of the union: strong

Informational Services

• Business networks
• Immaterial labor
• Productive economic concentration decay
• Decentralization
• Vertical

Globalization has shifted from a market economy to a market society.

Globalization Benefits

• More and greater diversity of goods and services to choose from
• Advocates of the mainstream trend: lower prices due to competition
• It extends the awareness of human rights, especially for children and women
• Technology is transferred
• Benefits for those who get income from capital
• Skilled workers, the best fit for new technology
• Relocations increase jobs in developing countries
• A fall in immigration in these countries

Problems

The increase in social inequality that globalization was supposed to attract prosperity. Divesting from public enterprises and labor flexibility would leave people on the street. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have increased social inequality, as all available indicators show.

Disadvantages (Economic)

• The extreme competitiveness creates uncertainty, which discourages investment.
• The loss of sovereignty and autonomy of national states. Operators (with their power to reverse or not) push to make policy decisions that suit them.
• The absolute power of the capital market will again totally dominate the world of work.
• The homogenization of the world, their cultures, lifestyles, and thought.
• It is undeniable that the current consumption level is unsustainable.
• The possible depletion of natural resources is common.

"Risk Society"

Eight salient features:

1. The risks cause irreversible damage processes and foster social inequality.
2. There is a political and institutional vacuum.
3. Social movements are the new legitimacy.
4. In the new societies lies in the individual a process of "individualization".