The Global Trap

Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schumann, then journalists at Der Spiegel, argue in The Global Trap that economic globalization is advancing faster than the political systems meant to govern it. Originally published in German in 1996 as Die Globalisierungsfalle, the book became an international bestseller and helped popularize the idea of a "20:80 society", in which only a fifth of the working-age population is needed to keep the global economy running.

The authors look at multinational companies that move production to wherever labor and environmental rules are weakest, at financial speculation, at the widening distance between rich and poor nations, and at the pressure this places on welfare states. Their central worry is that democracy and shared prosperity are being eroded, and they set out what they think governments and citizens could do in response. It is a readable piece of reported political and economic journalism for general readers, with a European focus.