Global Social Policy Today

Abstract

One of the most important insights which gathered support in the 1990s was that markets need states and states need markets, that unless capitalism is regulated, supported and civilized by public policies it will not survive. This was first accepted at the national level and more recently has begun to be asserted and accepted at the international level — a striking contrast to the dominance of neo liberal ideology in the 1980s. Deacon, for example, writes of ‘the socialisation of global politics’ (Deacon, 1995, p. 56). Shaw argues that ‘The development of global society requires a new politics of global responsibility’ (Shaw, 1994, p. 187). The Human Development Report 1999 warns that ‘Globalization offers great opportunities for human advances — but only with stronger governance’ (UNDP, 1999, p. 1). The World Bank view is that ‘Actions at the global level are…crucial complements to country level action’ (World Bank, 2000, p. 179). Globalization, it is being realised, is too important to be left to the play of market forces. To achieve the universal economic gains which it promises, to avoid the damaging emergence of ‘core’ and ‘marginalized’ states and to ensure the social and political stability on which its success depends, it needs to be ‘managed’.