America First: Nations and Nationalism
Nationalism and global populism have been in the news over the past couple of years. Right-wing, nationalist movements have taken office throughout the Western world. This sort of tribalism was dead in the water for many thinkers and theorists. There was, at one time, a sense that the world was moving toward a multicultural, pluralistic, diverse, interconnected world. But that’s not quite what happened. As it turns out, a sense of national pride and a sense of having a place in the world tied to both ethnic groups and geography is still an essential part of personal identity for many.
The Beginnings of the Nation-State
The nation-state as we know it began in 1646. The Treaty of Westphalia established that all nations could decide their own religion, government, and policies within their borders. This was an essential change after over 100 years of religious wars following the Protestant Reformation and the constant fighting between Protestant kingdoms and Catholic kingdoms. This would also begin a transfer of power from the landed aristocracy of feudalism to the general populace. That trend of empowering regular people for self-governance would continue well into the 21st century.
Obviously, this did not preclude the creation of empires, nor did it stop the war, but it did give each kingdom certain agreed-upon rights that outside powers like the Catholic Church could not supersede. A country is an area of land controlled by a government recognized and validated by its people and preferably by the international community. A common language or language is also an essential part of national identity. A country can pass enforceable laws within its boundaries and conduct business and diplomacy with other nations. An ethnic group creates most nations. These are called nation-states because a government of people has made a state for themselves. France is always held up as the textbook example of the nation-state in political science circles. However, other types, like the United States, have also formed. The United States was not founded by a specific ethnicity but was founded on an idea and a particular set of rules. Other nations can even be created simply due to geographic boundaries. This is common in the Middle East and Africa. Generally speaking, countries work for their benefit by creating policies through their government to benefit their people. This includes trade, foreign policy, and domestic policy.
Until after World War II, there weren’t very many nations. This was primarily due to colonization. Nations in Europe tended to be small in geographic area and relatively limited populations. Large countries like Russia (and later the USSR), the United States, Canada were rare and tend to be rare now. After World War II, as the European colonial powers faced independence movements in their colonies, international borders changed rapidly as new nations were created regularly through the 1950s and 1960s.
Nations have narratives and stories. They have complex histories. Nations have changes in government, periods of violence, and wars, and can suffer moments of terrible upheaval. National histories can be fascinating as the past was nearly as stable as the present for national boundaries. Nations are the stories of people, and some nations, like the United States, have unique and even special national stories and national heroes.
America: A Nation?
No one wants their nation to falter or fail. Failed states are hellish places where suffering is high, and those with weapons exercise power with impunity. Somalia, Libya, and Yemen are all examples of what awful places a failed nation can be. Most people want their nation to be prosperous. A nation is an extension of the local community and in the modern world, being part of a larger community is essential as the world grows ever smaller.
In America, nationalism and racial politics often intersect. In the parlance, nationalism in America often pits white, European descended Americans against everyone else. Who is American? Who is a real American? This also delves into class as well as urban versus rural. This debate has gone on since the founding of the nation. This story is found in the extension of voting rights and the economic rights of different people, especially immigrant groups.
America is a unique nation. America is one of the few places anyone from anywhere can come to live, work and find success. Due to their strong ethnic identity, many nations don’t always welcome outsiders with open arms. Although not perfect, the US has been a place where the world’s displaced people with nowhere to go can come find a home.
Unlike other nations with more central controls and a strong sense of helping everyone, regardless of background, the federal government has been slow to create policies that benefit everyone outside of economic policy. America is a nation of loosely affiliated republics under one flag. America was founded by a group of men suspicious of government and government involvement in everyday life. Historically, America has taken a light touch in society. That makes America different from many other nations that lack a federal system prioritizing local control over central policy-making. America is changing with more direct policies that help people. The 20th century has seen the federal government slowly create policies to help people where they were. For other nations, national parliaments spend their time-solving problems for people. From housing to education, that is the primary concern. America has taken often taken a different approach, one that is only beginning to change. America is trying to become a real nation that prioritizes everyone over just a few and takes an active role in people’s everyday lives rather than the “light touch” policy of the past. One of the central tensions around healthcare is that many people are unsure if they are comfortable with the government being involved in their lives at that level.
Uniting All Nations
The national conflict has been a constant in world history, especially in the last 300 years. Because of these bloody and expensive conflicts, philosophers and policymakers sought to find ways to unite people across national and ethnic boundaries and to find common ground as a species. The idea that people from all over the globe can live, work, and have productive lives without unnecessary conflict became an attractive option following two bloody world wars in the first 45 years of the 20th century.
Trade and economic progress were seen as a way to unite all nations together in a common goal. French philosopher Frederic Bastiat stated this philosophy in the 18th century, “Soldiers do not often travel over borders where goods also do.” Global economic progress was seen as a way for nations to compete without killing millions, displacing millions more, and destroying each other.
After World War I, the League of Nations was the first international organization to be formed with the express idea of creating a forum where nations could solve problems through diplomacy in peace. The assembly even outlawed war in 1925. The League of Nations would be unable to stop World War II and had few powers of its own. Its follow-up organization, the United Nations, would take a more active role in collective security and work with member nations to stop conflict worldwide before it broke out into violent conflict. The UN has had some success but has been plagued by failures of its own and has been often neutered the international politics of its member states, especially the five permanent members of the Security Council: The United States, The Russian Federation (USSR before 1991), the United Kingdom, China (Taiwan/ Republic of China before 1971) and France. The UN and its sister organizations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice, would create the modern framework for what has been called globalization. Globalization is used chiefly as an economic term. Still, it is also denoted by the large inter-governmental organizations that have created the basis of the modern global economy. Without that framework, the global economy would not be possible.
The World Before Globalization
The modern globalized economy is unique. Never before have the world’s economies been so interlinked with each other. Global trade is not new. The Silk Road stretched across Asia to Europe, bringing silk and other exotic goods from China to Florence. Whole kingdoms were based on trade and the act of buying and selling goods to willing markets. In the 19th and 20th centuries, trade was essential but often restricted, with
a complicated system of tariffs and currency exchanges that erected trade barriers around nations. Capital was challenging to move, and nations often had restrictions on the movement of large amounts of wealth and often taxed that capital.
Imported goods were expensive, and nations often protected their domestic industries with trade barriers. These mercantilist policies existed until the Bretton Woods Agreement would create the first global rules for world trade. This expansion of trade allowed Europe to rebuild and Asia to begin its development cycle by exporting goods to the United States and reversing the sizeable American trade surplus. Bretton Woods ended in 1972 and was later replaced by the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, which then created the World Trade Organization. The WTO creates rules for trade and tariffs and settles disputes.
Before this modern trading system of low tariffs and abundant trade, companies spent considerable capital to create overseas operations. Due to the expense, capital was difficult to move, and importing and exporting products raised prices. This left most nations with domestic industries that dominated their local markets.
For workers, this was to their advantage. Businesses created jobs, and those workers then spent those wages in their community. Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton, calls this the virtuous cycle. However, globalized trade ended this cycle. The people that make the goods no longer live in the country where the goods are sold. For owners of capital, this is to their advantage. However, globalization has delivered cheap goods and less stable employment for the worker, who most likely was laid off after production moved overseas. For workers, globalization has not worked out.
Globalism Has Not Worked Out
Globalism has been a tremendous boon for the capitalist or a shareholder in a multinational corporation. However, globalism has been a loser for you if you are a worker in a developed country, particularly a low-skill worker. People throughout the western world have watched their jobs going overseas and their cities and towns drying up around them. Many jobs have still left, even in European countries where countries have taken more protectionist measures. Look at the United Kingdom; the midlands, once a manufacturing center, has watched those textile and other jobs move overseas as much as manufacturing jobs have left the United States for Mexico, China, and Southeast Asia. This has contributed to the rise of productivity but the lack of rising wages.
For developed nations, consumer goods are cheaper than ever, thanks to the low-wage environments of the developing world. The cost for these cheap consumer goods has decreased the number of manufacturing jobs in developed nations. This has left workers and their towns and cities behind.
Globalism has seen the international economy take precedence over the national. The national border has become porous for both capital and goods and services. This has been to the advantage of wealth, but the detriment of workers has dramatically changed politics within developed economies. Workers, left behind by 30 years of
increasing global economic interdependence have begun to push back, demanding that the jobs they once held return.
Nationalism is A Reflection of Globalization
For many working people, especially working Americans, the question starts to become apparent, “Why can’t those jobs stay here? Why can’t we have those jobs and make that money? Why does our money have to go overseas to support other countries?” By logic, the idea of “Make America Great Again” and “bringing the jobs back” starts to have a great deal of appeal. Building up your nation, your own space, and helping your people has much more appeal than supporting workers in a country you’ve hardly heard of and indeed never traveled to or visited.
There is also a racial element to this problem. Immigration from developing countries has increased, and to many Americans, it seems like all the jobs are going to them while they are left on the sidelines. Products aren’t made in America anymore, and more of the economy is interdependent on every longer supply line stretching from Asia to Europe and back to the United States. When the local economy is failing, and it seems like other countries are doing far better than the local economy, nationalists in Europe and America take advantage of that for political gain. These politicians can dial into that latent sentiment and stoke it into an extreme ideology that encourages people to vote in politicians promising to fix these problems.
How Do We Make A Global Economy Work for Everyone?
One of the keys to creating change toward globalism and away from the nationalist response is to make sure that globalism raises all boats, including those in Western countries. However, exacting tariffs and trying protectionist methods is bound not to work, and currently, the United States is proving this point through the current trade war. The economy is now global. All workers are competing with each other all over the world. Investments in education and giving tax benefits for production can attract companies to keep workers in certain countries.
However, this should not be a competition of wages. That would only be a race to the bottom of nearly zero wages, making the world economy impossible to sustain. However, countries can create workforces that will attract companies to produce goods with a robust and educated workforce. Another area where things can improve is how services are taxed. Services are an essential part of post-industrial economies. Still, service jobs can end up being low wages because of tax environments of the difficulties of providing services at the price the market will bear. Using remote work, automation, and tax incentives can make services more attractive. However, the key to this solution is to create opportunities for workers of all ages to take advantage of this new economic reality. Developing economies can provide a guide for how America should proceed.
South Korea has made investments in education and trades to create a developed economy with robust manufacturing and exports. China has invested in manufacturing and education, creating a miracle of economic progress. India’s increased investment in this area promises excellent progress for their country over the next 25 years. America need not retreat from the global economy or hope for the past. Rather than impose tariffs, America simply needs to catch up with the reality of the modern globalized economy.
Nationalism is Not the Answer
Nationalism has excellent appeal. Especially to people unhappy with increases in immigration and disappointed with seeing their formerly vibrant towns and cities emptied as their youth flee for better job opportunities. Stopping any problem that might seem to stem the tide of economic devastation can appeal to people who are desperate for any solution. An increase in nationalism is not the answer.
Everyone trying to retreat from the global economy will only cause lower growth and fewer jobs. It will not help any of the economic problems that we face and will hold humanity back from conquering various issues that affect everyone. If we can reform globalism to create prosperity for everyone, more people will be willing to participate in the global economy. The 20th century was a testament to what happens when Nations compete. It causes long and bloody wars. No one wants to see millions of people dead in a global conflict again. The only remedy is a robust, global economy that helps everyone, not more nationalism that fuels hate and doesn’t solve the problem.
