Globalization, domestic politics, and transatlantic relations

Abstract

For two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall globalization functioned as a unifying force in the West. In the absence of a common security threat, the United States and Europe found common ground in a neoliberal agenda calling for the freer movements of capital, goods, services, and peoples across national boundaries.Today, support for that neoliberal agenda has been rapidly weakening across the West. Drawing on a variety of quantitative measures, we show that Western support for globalization has declined, both at the level of national policy and at the level of party politics. We argue that this erosion of domestic support for globalization is closely linked to the rise of populist parties in Europe and the US. We consider the implications of this shift in the West's domestic politics for the future of transatlantic cooperation and leadership.

The Backlash Against Globalization

“…European integration and globalization more generally have become more salient issues in political discourse (Hooghe & Marks 2009). At the same time, the tone of the debate has become more negative (Burgoon et al 2017, Trubowitz & Burgoon 2020 as electoral pressure by globalization-skeptic parties has weakened support for proglobalization policies among mainstream parties (Abou-Chadi & Krause 2018, Meijers 2017.…”

The international consequences of Brexit: an English School analysis

“…Perhaps the EU was too confident that the days of sovereignty were numbered; too complacent in the face of a recrudescence of nationalist sentiment? Maybe there is something in the argument that European integration has been driven by and designed for political and administrative elites who have grown insensitive to the attitudes and desires of their publics (Calhoun 2016;Burgoon, Oliver and Trubowitz 2017)?…”