Description
Book SynopsisThis book analyzes how increases in international trade, finance, and production have altered voter decisions, political party positions, and the types of public issues that parties focus on in postindustrial democracies. Although many studies interrogate whether internationalization matters in regard to policy outcomes and how globalization relates to mass protest, few examine globalization and mass politics more generally. This book argues that by reducing the room in which to maneuver in policy making, globalization reduces the importance of economic-based issues while increasing the electoral importance of non-economic issues. The argument is tested on original and existing data sources.
Trade Review'Timothy Hellwig draws several new and fascinating implications from his pioneering argument that globalization reduces the propensity of an electorate to reward and punish incumbent politicians for the state of the domestic economy. Here, we have a convincing explanation for the reorientation of domestic political competition around noneconomic issues in Western democracies: globalization crowds out contestation over economic policy. This is the rare work that will attract interest from both voting behavior scholars and political economists.' Andy Baker, University of Colorado, Boulder
'Economic globalization doesn't so much constrain democracy as transform it, shifting the locus of politics from economic to more noneconomic issues of voter and policy maker contestation. This is the central, controversial message of Hellwig's important book, which promises to be seminal in debates on the future of democratic politics in our globalization age.' Brian Burgoon, University of Amsterdam
Table of Contents1. Globalization and democracy in advanced industrial societies; 2. Theoretical framework: political demand and supply in globalized economies; 3. The world economy and the composition of policy demands; 4. Globalization and the attribution of responsibility; 5. Globalization and the shifting bases of retrospective voting; 6. Position issues and voter choice in open economies; 7. Representational linkages and the room to maneuver; 8. Credible responses: globalization, parties, and the supply side; 9. Conclusion.
