International Organizations, the EU and Global Social Policy

Abstract

Much of the discussion about globalization assumes a certain economic logic which suggests there is an inevitability to the process and form of globalization. It is a ‘fact’ of life to which governments have to adjust. The contribution of this chapter is to draw attention to the politics of globalization and, in particular, the ‘hidden’ politics of international organizations such as the Bretton Woods organizations, the WTO, the UN social agencies, the OECD and others. Many of them, it will be argued, have been major players in encouraging a particular neo-liberal form of globalization. While encouraging economic globalization they have been engaged in prescribing a set of social policies which they regard as appropriate in a globalizing context. This is not to say that all international organizations have been speaking with one voice. There has been and continues to be a significant international controversy taking place within and between these organizations as to how far the neo-liberal form of globalization should be allowed to continue and what might be appropriate social policies in the context of globalization. The case for a socially responsible globalization has also been articulated within this global discourse. This seeks to reinvent at a global level those mechanisms of redistribution, regulation and empowerment that national states have traditionally used to ensure the meeting of social objectives.