After Globalization

After Globalization Paolo Gerbaudo (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution President Joe Biden speaks about the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act at Port of Baltimore on November 10, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) [End Page 20] In The Great Transformation, published in 1944 as Second World War was still raging, Austro-Hungarian economic historian Karl Polanyi analyzed how states responded to implosion international system Belle Époque. aftermath 1929 Wall Street crash, societies world over frantically attempted overcome chaos caused by skyrocketing unemployment monetary instability. famously described this a "double movement"—;a push social rebalancing equilibrium, away from laissez-faire economics highly internationalized capitalism toward state interventionism. Bolshevism, fascism, Nazism, Roosevelt's Leon Blum's democracy were different responses same dilemma: protect society disruptive force unfettered capitalism. For some time, economists have been speaking new "Polanyi moment": crisis globalization has led rise all sorts protectionist sentiments. growing limits mobility concerns supply chains that accompanied pandemic only accelerated political realignment began during 2010s. Economic stagnation since 2008 financial crash sapped credibility free-market recipes. Commercial rivalries geopolitical tension arisen between United States China, Kingdom European Union. Populist movements left right now question number aspects neoliberal consensus. Global trade no longer enjoys popularity it once did. States, shift became clearest Trump's war with but isn't one-sided partisan affair. Biden's policy is also protectionist: his White House issued Buy American procurement rules directing spending U.S. firms engaged competition secure semiconductors rare earth minerals. belief free pillar shaking. Figures across spectrum are beginning abandon reservations interventionism aid, restraint 21] public policy, commitment low taxation rich corporations. Heavy intervention become widely accepted, level quantitative easing large bond-buying programs fiscal deficit massive investments. strategy green transition many countries subscribed to, which involves planning meet targets emissions, electric vehicles, renewable energy, revives one forms most reviled neoliberals. these areas, there call protection against risks created globalization. Protection invoked far wide—;not just sense protectionism, everything discussions adapt climate change debates industrial need welfare provisions. populist seems come terms postneoliberal affairs (and places actively contributed ushering in). It developed focuses identity property fashioned coalition spans upper-middle class small business marginalized workers. left, contrast, either denial current turn or undecided respond it. To move forward, leftists must grips declining bound ever more important. other words, progressives develop their own politics protection. Externalization logic can be summed up imperative: externalize. entails making production distribution systems agile flexible order connect poor producers consumers. visible practices outsourcing, offshoring, export-focused required getting rid structural impediments...