POLITICAL ECONOMY: Understanding the Backlash Against Globalization; Professor Jeffry Frieden (Harvard University)

Abstract

Over the past fifteen years, hostility to international economic and political integration has increased notably. In the OECD, this has largely taken the form of populism, of both the right and the left. There are important socio-economic sources of this backlash against globalization. The loss of well-paying low-skilled jobs in manufacturing has hit important regions of OECD countries hard, and the upsurge in populist sentiment is largely concentrated in such affected regions. Government policy has sometimes mitigated, but often exacerbated, the problems of distressed populations and areas. While economic distress is not the only cause of disenchantment with globalization, it is an important one.