The Rise and Stall of Labor Linkage in Globalization Politics

This article describes and explains the politics of labor linkage in international trade, central to setting the terms and form of globalization. It chronicles the rise and stall of such linkage, where sharp differences within and among the US, Europe and the developing world have brought linkage to the center of globalization politics, but have yielded more slowing than humanizing of liberalization. The explanation is that developing-country trade ties constitute important economic incentives to support or oppose labor linkage, but that learning through political experience, as ideational developments, explain demands for linkage among a range of countries and groups, the unwillingness to specify particular linkage policies among these supporters, and the intransigent opposition among developing-country governments. These arguments clarify policy developments central to globalization politics, and the crucial role of learning in study of those politics.