Local Culture, Globalization and Policy Outcomes

It is argued that the impact of globalization and global ideologies on social policy can depend on the ways that local cultures reinforce or combat global ideologies and pressures. The article discusses the importance of local policy factors in shaping responses to globalization, taking as an example the way in which global forces have affected outcomes for older people needing long-term care in one marginalized province of a rich country. Local political, economic and sociocultural factors can reinforce global pressures for neo-liberal policies and rising individualism and overwhelm the global ideologies of democracy and human rights (including gender rights and antiageism) that might lead to better outcomes for older people and their caregivers. In the New Brunswick province of Canada, traditional cultural values can be seen as one factor allowing politicians to make suboptimal social policy choices.