171003 - Globalization and Populism: What is the Relationship?

 

SGCEE, Tuesday 3 October, 12.30 2.30 pm, Room Goguel, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris (Entrance through the 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris

Globalization has grown much since 1980s. What trends in politics have been associated with this growth? This paper presents the beginning of a project on the political consequences of globalization.  It focuses on the foreign policy implications of globalization. Economic globalization, according to some economic theories, might have adverse consequences for labor, especially less skilled labor, in the rich democracies. If these voters are the median, then we might expect parties to respond to this by turning against globalization and the openness to flows of goods, services, people and capital that it brings. Have parties turned against economic openness? And have parties that oppose openness advanced in terms of their electoral strength as a result?  Helen Milner examines two sets of issues here. First, updating and extending the research of Burgoon (2009), she asks whether political parties in the advanced industrial countries have adopted more anti-internationalist platforms as globalization has advanced. Second, updating and extending the research of Garrett (1998), she asks whether parties, especially extremist ones, have gained vote share as globalization has proceeded. The early evidence here does not support a strong claim that globalization is associated with a political turn to anti-internationalism or to extremist parties. There is some evidence that immigration and flows of people across borders have produced a political backlash.

Speaker

Helen Milner, Princeton University, Politics Department and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Visiting Research Scholar at Sciences Po, CEE
Helen Milner has written extensively on issues related to international and comparative political economy, such as the connections between domestic politics and foreign policy; democracy, globalization and regionalism; development, foreign aid and the “digital divide’’. Another strand of her recent research deals with American foreign policy and the so-called grand strategy of ‘‘Liberal Internationalism’’. She investigates the sources of public and elite preferences for international engagement and the role of the President (vs Congress) in setting foreign policy. Her newest book is Sailing the Water’s Edge: Domestic Politics and American Foreign Policy, coauthored with Dustin Tingley (Princeton University Press, 2015). It won the 2016 Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book published in the field of U.S. national policy.

Discussion

Andreas Eisl, Sciences Po, CEE & MaxPo
Cornelia Woll, Sciences Po, CEE