Roubini, N. (2014) “The Great Backlash“, Project Syndicate, 31 May.
NEW YORK – In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, policymakers’ success in preventing the Great Recession from turning into Great Depression II held in check demands for protectionist and inward-looking measures. But now the backlash against globalization – and the freer movement of goods, services, capital, labor, and technology that came with it – has arrived.
This new nationalism takes different economic forms: trade barriers, asset protection, reaction against foreign direct investment, policies favoring domestic workers and firms, anti-immigration measures, state capitalism, and resource nationalism. In the political realm, populist, anti-globalization, anti-immigration, and in some cases outright racist and anti-Semitic parties are on the rise.
These forces loath the alphabet soup of supra-national governance institutions – the EU, the UN, the WTO, and the IMF, among others – that globalization requires. Even the Internet, the epitome of globalization for the past two decades, is at risk of being balkanized as more authoritarian countries – including China, Iran, Turkey, and Russia – seek to restrict access to social media and crack down on free expression.
Relevant posts:
- Matsaganis, M. & Leventi, C. (2014) “Poverty and Inequality during the Great Recession in Greece“. Political Studies Review, 12: 209–223.
- Goldstein, J., Kreyenfeld, M., Jasilioniene, A., Karaman Örsal, D. (2013) “Fertility Reactions to the “Great Recession” in Europe: Recent Evidence from Order-Specific Data“, Demographic Research¸Vol. 29, Art. 4, pp 85-104.
- Zimmermann, Kl., (2013) “Labor Market Reforms and the Great Recession“, IZA Policy Paper, N. 75.