International Class Conflict and Social Policy

The history of welfare states is marked by divisions between capital and labour and these divisions are replicated at the international level. At the heart of these divisions is enduring class interests which accord different priorities to social and economic factors. That these divisions exist is n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social policy and society : a journal of the Social Policy Association 2005-04, Vol.4 (2), p.217-226
Main Author: Farnsworth, Kevin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business
Capital
Class conflict
Class interest
Decision making
Global economy
Hegemony
International
Labor unions
Labour
Nation states
Neoliberalism
Power
Social policy
Society
Themed Section on Political Economy and Social Policy
Welfare state
World economy
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Summary:The history of welfare states is marked by divisions between capital and labour and these divisions are replicated at the international level. At the heart of these divisions is enduring class interests which accord different priorities to social and economic factors. That these divisions exist is neither surprising, nor necessarily a problem; the problem, this paper argues, is the increasingly high priority given to business interests by ever more powerful international governmental organisations. This paper presents an analysis of power in the global economy before investigating the social policy preferences of key international capital and labour organisations. It argues that international class mobilisation has failed to produce very much of a compromise on the part of capital, and that, if anything, international social policy discourse is today even closer to business than it has ever been.
ISSN:1474-7464
1475-3073
DOI:10.1017/S1474746404002301