In any case it would be overly simplistic to attribute developments in Northern welfare states entirely to globalization. Quite apart from increased global relations, other demographic, economic and political conditions were already putting substantial strains on social programmes in most OECD countries by the last quarter of the twentieth century. Circumstances like ageing populations, altered family patterns, transformations in labour markets, government budget deficits, increased costs of health care, and the rise of neoliberal ideology all presented challenges to social welfare policies built up through Northern states during the so-called ‘golden age’ of 1945-75. Hence, although pressures from globally mobile capital for lower taxation and regulation created additional problems for Northern welfare states in the late twentieth century, substantial difficulties existed anyhow.