International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2017

De-globalization and the search for economic security

(Abstract)

Jim Tomlinson

Alongside trends towards globalization in post-war Britain have been powerful trends towards de-globalization. De-globalization has arisen both from structural change in the economy - broadly the transition to a “service economy” - as well as from deliberate state action. Alongside the long-term trend to increase welfare spending nationally, that state action is most strikingly evident in the growth of public sector employment in the old industrial areas of Northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: of course, that growth is now going into reverse following the Coalition's expenditure cuts. We now have a powerful but largely unspoken policy of what can helpfully be described as “regional Keynesianism”, with the state playing a major direct, as well as indirect, role in offsetting the failings of the private sector in providing employment. While these forces of de-globalization have no single source, insofar as they are matters of deliberate design， they are best seen as reflecting a strong impulse to search for economic security to counteract the insecurities generated by globalization.