ABSTRACT
During the past two decades, neoliberal globalization has been the dominant approach, not in the sense that it is all there is to globalization but in the sense that it became a global regime. Most protest against globalization concerns neoliberal globalization and this is the actual problem, rather than globalization per se. Contemporary globalization can be described as a package deal that includes informatization (applications of information technology), flexibilization (de-standardization in the organization of production and labor), and various changes such as regionalization and the reconfiguration of states. Since the 1980s, the growing impact of neoliberal policies adds to the globalization package, deregulation (liberalization and privatization), marketization (unleashing market forces), financialization and securitization (conversion of assets into tradable financial instruments), and the ideology of lean government. This chapter considers how this has come about and focuses on the economic and political shift within the United States to the South, the connection between the cold war and neoliberalism, and the “Washington Consensus.”
