does globalisation undermine our welfare institutions?

Answer 1

This is a good question and hopefully better qualified anwers than mine will come. I think getting our goods from socialist and communist countries helps our institutions because these countries identify with this kind of thinking (that the government takes care of its people more rather than them being independent). I think globalization is currently undermining our manufacturing sector, which has negative impact on the economy and our ability to pay for welfare.

Answer 2

No, but welfare institutions undermine globalization.

Welfare provides a country with a backup net to catch us when we mess up as well as to insure our investments in times of crisis. Unfortunately, welfare tends to become more convoluted and more confusing the larger the program becomes (I support state and local welfare systems, but not federal systems such as social security and medicaid).

Globalization requires the countries involved to be willing to work for multinational purposes. This is why in IR, MNCs are viewed as the next step into modern civics while nationstates (or just states in general) are viewed as becoming more and more obsolete. Welfare systems allow governments to reel in their citizenry by making them economically dependent while depriving the power a citizenry has over its government which is politically dependent of its people. This is why MNCs have such success in weak totalitarian countries; the governments need the support since the people have become so much of a burden and are willing to let outsiders take charge of their state industries in exchange for (what is essentially) relief.