Economic nationalism has returned to the fore of scholarly & policy debates, taking on renewed significance in the wake of the global financial crisis as countries sought to respond to the domestic effects of the economic disaster. Nationalist responses were initially praised by some who saw them as logical mechanisms to protect domestic economies & condemned by others fearing the shadow of the Great Depression & the rise of fascism that kindled inter-state rivalries & led to World War II. The latter concern has become more prescient in the last five years as the rise of right-wing authoritarian nationalism - in both the Global North, in the US, Europe as well as in the Global South, in Brazil & India - has become a feature of the global political economy.
ECONOMIC NATIONALISM
Governing through Markets: Multinational Firms in the Bazaar Economy
Regulation and Governance, 2022
Amy Cohen & Jason Jackson
This article highlights a counterintuitive dynamic of neoliberal globalization. India has controversially liberalized foreign investment rules in the politically sensitive food retail sector. Critics argue that India bowed to pressure from multinational corporations, consistent with a common view that under neoliberalism markets eclipse state power. We suggest by contrast that policymakers seek multinational firms to strengthen their capacity to govern food markets that for centuries have been dominated by networks of local traders. These traders use informal conventions of market governance that have long proven resistant to centralized state control. Global retailers promise to transform these opaque, “traditional” systems into transparent, “modern,” supply chains that comply with liberal rule of law principles. Thus we argue the turn to multinational capital should neither be understood simply through the logics of state capture or welfare economics, but rather also as a political governance project that illustrates how different kinds of markets produce different conceptions of the state.
Paradoxes of Neoliberal Governance: How Markets Make States
Law and Political Economy (LPE) Blog, April 2021
Amy Cohen & Jason Jackson
Constructing Economic Nationalisms in Brazil and India
Cambridge University Press, 2026
Jason Jackson
This book argues that while the concept of economic nationalism is frequently deployed it is often poorly defined, posited as the cause of protectionism in some cases while providing a rationale for liberalization in others. This book provides a more rigorous articulation by analyzing variation in foreign investment regulation in postwar Brazil and India. Conventional approaches cite India's leftist “socialism” and Brazil's right-wing authoritarianism to explain why India resisted foreign direct investment (FDI) while Brazil welcomed foreign firms. However, this ignores puzzling industry-level variation: India restricted FDI in auto manufacturing but allowed multinationals in oil, while Brazil welcomed foreign auto companies but prohibited FDI in oil. This variation is inadequately explained by pluralist theories, structural-material approaches, or constructivist ideas. The book argues that FDI policies were shaped by contrasting colonial experiences that generated distinct economic nationalisms and patterns of industrialization in both countries. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core via the link above.
Harvard University Press, 2025
Jason Jackson
This book identifies the moral underpinnings of contemporary capitalism through the case of foreign investment policy in India. It shows how perspectives on domestic and foreign capital have long been shaped by moral beliefs about capitalist legitimacy, from the late colonial period to the present. The book is animated by the following tensions and questions: Is foreign capital an agent of economic growth in developing countries or a vehicle of extraction? And crucially, is domestic capital always seen as viable alternative? It examines how Indian elites wrestled with this question in the late colonial and postcolonial periods, arguing that it reflects a false binary. Rather than choosing between domestic and foreign capital, Indian policymakers have long considered the business ethics of individual capitalists and firms. Indian economic nationalism has never been characterized by a straightforward preference for domestic over foreign capital. There are deep and longstanding anxieties about the nature and orientation of Indian business actors.
The book argues that Indian policy elites distinguish between categories of “traditional” and “modern” business actors and practices. These categories constitute a moral order of capitalist legitimacy that has shaped industrial policymaking from the demise of the East India Company and the rise of new Indian biz groups such as Tata and Wadia in the late 19th century to clashes between with multinational companies throughout the 20th century, including between iconic brands like Coca-Cola & Thums Up, especially during the post 1991 economic liberalization period, on to the present moment.