Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to analyze nationalism and populism as the driving forces of economic deglobalization processes and regionalism. The analysis departs from the assumption that the economic deglobalization processes respond to more complex dynamic forces created by the economic, financial, and the most recent sanitary crisis that blocks the continuity of economic globalization. Moreover, at the center of the analysis is the conceptualization that both globalization and deglobalization are two faces of the same coin, but with opposite driving forces. These driving forces of deglobalization lead to regional and more local solutions to economic growth and social and environmental problems.
TopNationalism And Populism
The growing phenomenon of nationalism is manifested in different versions with identity religions, including eurocentrism, Brexit, America First, etc., which tend to undermine multilateralism and paralyze the World Trade Organization. The health crisis reaffirms the doctrine of America First as the way for companies and thus jobs to return to the United States.
Until now, the manifestations of the deglobalization processes are nationalist dynamics that, under the allegation of the principle of sovereignty, oppose international agreements and treaties through the construction of physical and tariff barriers to their national borders. Both populism, nationalism and commercialism can be threats. The old and emerging middle classes are those who consume the most with objectives that are different and that serve as an argument for populism, despite that egalitarianism as well as excessive inequality are obstacles.
Populism slows down the processes of globalization rather than correcting it, with a return to the areas of influence of the great economic powers. Nationalist deglobalization is regressive and not progressive that tends to continue interactions and interrelations with the international community of nations in a creative way to achieve a balanced relationship between the different local and international levels of the economy.
Not only do nationalist and populist governments oppose the deepening of globalization processes, but also other more open governments that demand that globalization be controlled without control. Popular discontent has turned into pressure from social movements with nationalist sentiments, the rise of ultra-nationalist and xenophobic parties.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Populism: Political tendency that claims to defend the interests and aspirations of the people. Tendency or fondness for what is popular in all areas of the life of peoples and people.
Localism: Local quality as belonging to a place or a territory.
Economic Deglobalization: Is the process of decreasing economic interdependence and economic integration between certain units throughout the world, typically nation-states. This term is widely used to describe periods in history when economic trade and investment between countries declines.
Nationalism: Political doctrine and movement that claim the right of a nationality to reaffirm its own personality through political self-determination. Special attachment to one's own nation and how much it belongs to.
Regionalism: Doctrine or political tendency that defends that the government of a State must consider the way of being and the aspirations of each region.