Globalisms

In this newly revised edition, Steger examines the relatively rapid rise of national-populism and its anti-globalization rhetoric. Anti-globalist populism is emerging as the latest ideological force to counter the hegemony of neoliberal market globalism. While it is too early to predict its cumulative impact, Steger proposes possible scenarios of the populist backlash. This is an important and timely analysis of an increasingly hostile ideological global battle—a disturbing but essential read. -- Eve Darian-Smith, University of California Irvine
Manfred Steger offers a thoughtful and well-written analysis of globalization, focused on a frequently overlooked side of the process—the role of ideas. He shows how advocates of the contemporary `market globalism’ use language that makes it appear, falsely, as the only possible option. He points out the contradictions of that form of globalization, which proclaims the ideal of individual freedom while relying on state coercion and newly footloose financial capital to impose cutbacks in wages and social programs on unwilling populations around the world. Steger provides insight into the prospects of the alternatives to market globalism coming from the political left and from the religious and the nationalist right. -- David M. Kotz, University of Massachusetts Amherst; author of The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism