Globalization and West European Welfare States: a Critical Review of Recent Debates

West European political economies are cur rently experiencing a tumultuous process of change. Although it is still unclear exactly how far and in what ways this will affect welfare states, it is increasingly evident that they will not emerge unscathed. Understanding what is happening is far from easy, given the inability of much analysis to grasp the multifaceted nature of contemporary developments. Gradually we are beginning to get a clearer idea of the challenges and contradictions internal to the operation of west European welfare states. At the same time, innovations in the expanding discipline of international political economy are providing new insights into the changing nature of the world econ omy. Thus far, however, attempts to explore the relationship between the national and the global in the welfare arena have been partial, incompletely theorized, empirically limited and fragmented by discipline. As argued by Garrett and Lange (1995) the solution is to span the divide between international relations and the study of comparative politics and social policy.