This new international context is the most obvious cause of the destabilization of the social state, even if it is not the only one. The term ‘globalization’, however, promotes a confusion between two types of phenomena that are combined in practice but different in kind. On the one hand, there are structural phenomena, such as the abolition of physical distance through electronic communication, or common exposure to the health or environmental risks generated by technological development. These are irreversible and must be recognized as such in their impact on labour and the social bond. On the other, there are conjunctural phenomena, such as the deregulated circulation of capital and commodities, which proceeds from reversible political choices and goes hand in hand with the temporary over-exploitation of non-renewable physical resources. It is the confusion between these two phenomena that leads some people to see globalization as the expression of an immanent law not susceptible to any political or legal control.