There is, however, no universal definition of globalisation. Instead, globalisation means different things to different people. During the last decade, globalisation has become the focus of serious research as well as discussions among academics, business people, bureaucrats and politicians, but it became the focus of almost daily discussions among people of different sphere of the society as well. There is a vast literature on the subject and almost anybody has a very determined opinion about what globalisation means and what kind of changes globalisation will bring about. As one would expect, academics cannot agree on globalisation either.
Globalisation is seen as a new engine for producing prosperity and higher income in many countries.
But globalisation is creating a new problem concerning income distribution within countries as well as among countries. It is very well known, that losers will fight hard to stop this process that makes them losers, whereas winners will take what they get without actively supporting globalisation. This is the fundamental challenge for democracies that is being created by globalisation. And because trade policy is seen as a major tool for pushing globalisation, groups in societies and countries opposing globalisation are also resisting a further liberalisation of world trade. In this paper I will focus on three questions.