Globalization is a multi-sided process, but the most intense debates over it have stressed its connections to a new global political economic regime with a distinct ‘American template’ – neoliberalism (e.g. Barber 1996; Gray 1998). Neoliberals champion free-market policy, deregulation and tax cuts. They seek to minimize health, education, welfare and other social spending, and they contend that limited government, free trade and global capitalism offer the only road to reduced poverty and increased prosperity.