Europe's Cautious Globalization

Given the often-heated rhetoric of politicians and the street protest sometimes organized against symbols of American capitalism and culture, a casual observer could be forgiven for concluding that Europeans are deeply opposed to globalization. That impression, however, would be wrong. Many Europeans do worry about the effects of globalization on jobs, economic equality, and culture, but the European anti-globalization movement is actually a small if vocal minority. Most Europeans, in fact, recognize that increasing global economic, political, and cultural exchange is good for them. What they want is not to stop globalization but to manage it, and for this they turn mostly to the European Union (EU). Most Europeans believe that the EU can help to protect them from the downsides of globalization, and this paper argues that they are correct.