Can Welfare States Survive in the Global Economy?

The welfare state was designed for a more insular world, a time when national policies were effective because the nation was the relevant unit. But that is now a subject for history classes. We have all been drawn into a global economy that threatens to swamp national policies and institutions. Even the United States, with its $4 trillion economy and gigantic domestic market, has been battered by international economic tides that have eroded portions of its rudimentary welfare programs for ch...