Economic Nationalism: Conceptual and Empirical Development

Abstract

To the extent that economic security is seen as a more salient concern than military security in the post-Cold War era, economic nationalism becomes an increasingly critical component of nationalistic sentiment. The potential for zero-sum orientations regarding international economic relations to constrain and disrupt the flow of goods, services, capital, and information across national borders is quite evident. Through measurement of economic nationalism at the individual level, this study links support for nationalistic economic policies with other measures of national and international orientation. The readiness to support nationalist economic policy is a function of the perceived economic threat posed by foreign competition. Economic nationalism is linked with personal job insecurity, authoritarianism, and intolerance ofambiguity. Economic nationalism is alsofound to be negatively related to individual cosmopolitanism.