The effects of social and political openness on the welfare state in 18 OECD countries, 1970-2000

Studies examining the relationship between globalization and the welfare state tend to focus on the effects of economic dimensions of globalization; the extent to which a country is part of the world market. Globalization also has a social and political dimension and their effects on welfare states - in terms of welfare state effort and generosity - are studied in this paper. Data from the KOF Index of Globalization and the OECD are used to analyze the effects of social and political openness on the welfare states of 18 OECD countries between 1970 and 2000. The analyses show that welfare state effort is not affected by social and political openness and that the level of generosity turns out to be negatively affected by an increase of a country’s social and political openness.