About

Judith L. Goldstein is the Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication and the Kaye University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. Her research focuses on international political economy, with a particular emphasis on trade politics. She has authored and edited six books, including 'Ideas, Interests and American Trade Policy' and 'The Evolution of the Trade Regime: Politics, Law and Economics of the GATT and the WTO.' Her scholarly articles have been published in numerous journals. Her current research investigates the political requisites for trade liberalization, examining tariff bargaining and public preferences. Additionally, she is engaged in analyzing a large survey panel that explores how economic hardships influence public opinion.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Information Retrieval
• Law
• Economics
• Computer network
• Business
• Mathematics
• Psychology
• Anthropology
• Aesthetics
• Political economy
• World Wide Web
• Art
• History
• Internet privacy

Selected publications

• Did Globalization Undermine Governance and Spur a Backlash?

  Annual Review of Political Science · 2025-12-08

  article1st authorCorresponding

  A substantial literature on the decline in support for liberal trade policies and globalization has emerged. Most of these accounts, however, do not adequately address the puzzling issue of why it took so long for governments to respond to rising discontent stemming from trade globalization's economic effects. The literature we review suggests that government actions during this era were shaped by neoliberal principles that established powerful ideological and institutional constraints. To promote trade and growth, political leaders and policymakers were committed to reducing government's footprint in the economy. That commitment inhibited both their interest in and ability to respond to globalization's impact, fostering an environment ripe for antiglobalist political entrepreneurs. We argue that the neoliberal cast of the contemporary era of trade globalization, together with the associated rules-based multilateral regime that restricted member states’ flexibility, may have sown the seeds of the backlash against it.

  PublisherDOI

• Trade as Villain: Belief in the American Dream and Declining Support for Globalization

  UNC Libraries · 2025-04-02

  articleOpen access

  Why has US commercial policy become increasingly politicized in the twenty-first century?We argue that this politicization reflects an interaction between elite rhetoric on unfair trade practices and American meritocratic values. As the twenty-first century progressed, elites increasingly argued that economic malaise was a result of predatory practices by US trading partners. This “trade is unfair” rhetoric resonated most strongly with meritocratic Americans: individuals who believed in principles of market fairness but also worried about future economic prospects. To evaluate the argument that trade policy frames resonate differently among Americans, we draw on data from several survey experiments as well as a large, original panel data set with repeat observations of the same individuals. Individuals who are most tied to the myth of the classic American Dream are the most likely to respond to a frame blaming unfair trade for America’s economic problems, and this contributes to rising antiglobalization sentiment.

  PublisherDOI

• Trade as Villain: Belief in the American Dream and Declining Support for Globalization

  The Journal of Politics · 2023 · 8 citations

  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  Why has US commercial policy become increasingly politicized in the twenty-first century? We argue that this politicization reflects an interaction between elite rhetoric on unfair trade practices and American meritocratic values. As the twenty-first century progressed, elites increasingly argued that economic malaise was a result of predatory practices by US trading partners. This “trade is unfair” rhetoric resonated most strongly with meritocratic Americans: individuals who believed in principles of market fairness but also worried about future economic prospects. To evaluate the argument that trade policy frames resonate differently among Americans, we draw on data from several survey experiments as well as a large, original panel data set with repeat observations of the same individuals. Individuals who are most tied to the myth of the classic American Dream are the most likely to respond to a frame blaming unfair trade for America’s economic problems, and this contributes to rising antiglobalization sentiment.

  PublisherDOI

• 20th Anniversary Issue – CORRIGENDUM

  World Trade Review · 2022-07-01

  erratumOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Iranian Ethnicity in Israel: The Performance of Identity

  Routledge eBooks · 2022 · 5 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Anthropology

  This chapter describes how Iranians are consolidating their identity through “definitional ceremonies” in which they present themselves to themselves in a variety of cultural performances. The Iranian community in Israel, since the 1978 revolution, is composed of old immigrants, the bulk of whom came during 1950-1951; young adults who were born in Iran or Israel, but were raised in Israel; and new immigrants who have come within the last three years. Iranian Jews have not been subsumed in the Oriental Jewish stereotype. Oriental negative characteristics catalogued by Patai, for example, include “instability, emotionalism, impulsiveness, unreliability, incompetence, habitual lying, cheating, laziness, boastfulness, inclination to violence, uncontrolled temper, superstitiousness, childishness and lack of cleanliness”. The Jews of the Iranian cities were relatively isolated before the changes that occurred within the past generation brought them together in Teheran and Israel.

  PublisherDOI

• 20th Anniversary Issue

  World Trade Review · 2022 · 3 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Information Retrieval
  • Computer Science

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• Antisemitism, Sexism, and the Death of the Goddess: Some Problems with New Readings of Old Texts

  2021-11-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter presents a number of insights shared by critics of New Testament antisemitism and sexism. Jews as well as women have been the victims of the dualities, and often have been derogated for similar qualities. Feminists insist that the language of the text be taken seriously. Using male terms for God is meaningful and changes the relation of women to the divine. Male terms do not constitute a general reference but specifically exclude women. Changing the reading of texts is related to changing everyday speech as far as a program of education is concerned. This is hard. As we know from the progress of feminism, there is a continuum between pasting a sign reading "This ad insults women" on offending billboards and the reinterpretation of great literature. Looking for the origins of inequality or discrimination is a problematic task, for women and for Jews.

  PublisherDOI

• Iranian Ethnicity in Israel: The Performance of Identity

  2017-09-04 · 6 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter discusses Ashkenazi, Moroccan and Israeli ethnic models. Ashkenazim are by no means the only source of emulation; "becoming Israeli" is not the only cultural fate which Oriental Jews have in store for them. The young people illustrate the emergence of ethnic group consciousness among Iranians in Israel. The chapter describes how Iranians are consolidating their identity through definitional ceremonies in which they present themselves to themselves in a variety of cultural performances. It argues that Jews of Iranian origin are doing this through the medium of definitional ceremonies, which try to unite Iranians with varying definitions of self and different interests. The Iranian community in Israel, since the 1978 revolution, is composed of old immigrants, the bulk of whom came during 1950-1951; young adults who were bom in Iran or Israel, but were raised in Israel; and new immigrants.

  PublisherDOI

• Negotiating in the Early GATT

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2017-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Lifestyles of the Rich and Tyrannical

  2016-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  This misremembering or misreading of Thoreau has two consequences. First, by juxtaposing the principle that he derives to Thoreau's rhetorical question (How many men there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one.) Mr. Barzun ignores the symmetry of Thoreau's parallelism. Second, and more importantly, by referring to hero rather than to the man that Thoreau had in mind, Mr. Barzun overlooks the distinction Thoreau makes between the disinterestedly virtuous (such as the blindly patriotic, who support the broadest and more prevalent error) and the truly virtuous (who live intelligently and manifest a cheerful self-reliance). An essential point of Thoreau that Mr. Barzun seems to miss is that mere patrons of virtue not entirely, nor necessarily consciously, bad; they do see that the alms-houses in good repair . . . [and] collect a fund for the support of the widow and orphans. The simplistic good/bad distinction on the basis of which Mr. Barzun criticizes Thoreau for contradictory statements (the one and the many, he charges, are by turns the good and the bad) is inapplicable to the passages of Civil Disobedience that he cites and obscures the fact that Thoreau's insights into human character were often as shrewdly discerning and cogently articulated as his acute perceptions of the natural world.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Cameron Ballard-Rosa

  Stanford University

  9 shared

• Nita Rudra

  Georgetown University

  9 shared

• Richard H. Steinberg

  7 shared

• John H. Barton

  4 shared

• T. Swain

  4 shared

• Timothy E. Josling

  4 shared

• Douglas Rivers

  Stanford University

  3 shared

• Michael Tomz

  3 shared