increases politically unacceptable, there seems considerable likelihood of
continued crisis in this policy domain.
Welfarism
Welfarism is a vague, and often pejorative, political reference to the principles
behind thewelfare state. It does no more than indicate that the beliefs so
characterized hold that the state should take responsibility for the financial
security of those in society unable to manage on their own resources. As a
result it is perhaps more often used by conservative politicians, especially in the
USA, who themselves adopt a much morelaissez-faireapproach, to attack
others who they feel are over-solicitous to the poor. Alternatively it is a general
statement that society should take such responsibility, and a denial of the
reactionary‘let them stand on their own feet’ position.
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) was set up by the meeting in
Marrakesh of its predecessor organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT), and came into existence in 1995. GATT itself had been
created in 1947 as part of the post-war attempt to build institutions to control
and develop world economic activity. The other two institutions founded in
1947, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Fund for
Reconstruction and Development (better known as the World Bank) have
been remarkably successful. GATT, however, had always been much weaker,
because its general aim, the abolition of all barriers to free trade and the
creation of a world with no local tariffs protecting national economies, was
much more difficult to achieve. Much progress had been made by regular
rounds of negotiations in lowering trade barriers, but inevitably these reduc-
tions had largely been in the interest of the more powerful economies, as
GATT had no enforcement mechanisms, and only a very weak conflict
resolution system.
The WTO was created in the hope that as a result of increasingglobaliza-
tionin the latter half of the 20th century, the ultimate goal of complete
freedom of trade would now be more attainable. Nothing could be, or was
done, about the fundamental problem, the lack of an enforcement system. The
IMF and the World Bank can enforce their policy preferences by financial
coercion—any country which wants a loan or other international aid has no
choice but to agree to their analyses of its economy. The WTO however, like
GATT, lacks any powerful central policy-making directorate, ultimately it is a
mechanism for multilateral negotiations. Whatever enforcement comes about
is enforcement by the general drift of international self-interests. Where the
World Trade Organization