Tribalism and Economic Nationalism Are Cut from the Same Cloth: New at Reason

Pacific Press/Sipa USA/NewscomPacific Press/Sipa USA/Newscom

Antiglobalism and anticosmopolitanism might flow purely from economic ignorance, but it is hard to believe that’s all it is for many people, argues Sheldon Richman. Too often these attitudes suggest what Bryan Caplan calls “anti-foreign bias” combined with “antimarket bias.”

While one need not embrace racism or tribalism to be an economic nationalist, an affinity exists between the two dispositions: “I can’t trust those people? Why would I want to trade with them?”

Moreover, Richman argues, the distrust of foreigners and markets could readily carry over to subgroups in the domestic population that seem foreign—that is, groups which don’t quite seem to embrace the “nation’s culture” with sufficient enthusiasm.