The Impact of Globalisation on the Provision of Social Welfare

Abstract

It has been argued that the problems associated with the contemporary Globalisation process in relation to Social Welfare provision since the second half of the 20^th Century can be traced to its Neo-liberal ideological dominance since Neo-liberalism privileges market provision that has limited redistributive effect. Indeed, the application of Neo-liberal policy approaches to the development process was modified since the latter part of the 1990s due to the realisation that markets need states and states need markets, and unless Neo-liberalism is regulated and supported by public policy, it cannot make a desired impact on development. This paper explores the impact of Globalisation on Social Welfare provision globally. The paper benefits from an extensive literature review data was conducted for the Authors Doctoral Thesis from 2006 to 2010 (Achanso 2014). The analysis suggests that Globalisation has a long history and has been driven by different ideological underpinnings at various points in history with the contemporary Globalisation process being driven by the neo-liberal ideology, which has been blamed for the negative consequences of Globlisation on social welfare provision. The paper concludes that there is a need for mutual collaboration between global institutions or market forces and nation-states to limit the negative consequences of Globlisation on social welfare provision in order to ensure desirable development outcomes globally.

Keywords: Globlisation, Social Welfare, Neo-liberalism, IMF, World Bank, TNCs/MNCs