Economic nationalism, as another major approach to IPE, refers, in a generic sense, to an ideology that favors state interventionism in the economic sphere. The nationalists also believe that closing off an economy to external influences can be beneficial to growth and economic progress. Thus, economic nationalism can be defined as a mixture of trade protectionism and economic planning, with an aim to preserve national interests in the context of world markets.

The main theorists of economic nationalism are Alexander Hamilton (1780-1804), the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, who wrote The Report on the Subject of Manufactures (1791) and Friedrich List (1789-1846), a Prussian economist, who wrote The National System of Political Economy (1841). According to them, the simple formula is that industrial power equals national power and national power equals independence (Hamilton, 2001; List, 1991).

The rise of economic nationalism in recent history occurred particularly in the first part of the 20th century and it was essentially a response to the economic crises, nationalist movements, and enlarged states. In this respect, economic nationalism emerged as a criticism of economic liberalism as well. It is argued that states compete economically. This is very different from liberalism. The liberals believe that companies compete economically, but states do not. However, the nationalists see companies as elements of state power. So from this point of view, while Ford and McDonald’s, for example, contribute to United States power, Honda and Fuji contribute to Japanese power. The nationalists also believe that free trade only benefits the wealthiest, most advanced nations. In headto-head competition, the advanced or “mature” industries can easily defeat the less advanced or “infant” industries.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. The arguments in the option III “Closing off an economy to external influences can be beneficial to growth and economic progress.”, in the option IV “The simple formula is that industrial power equals national power and national power equals independence.” and in the option V “In headto-head competition, the advanced or “mature” industries can easily defeat the less advanced or “infant” industries.” can be used by a debater who advocates economic nationalism. The arguments in the option I “Political leaders should allow trade among nations to expand and keep government intervention in that trade down to a minimum.” and  “The government should be out of foreign trade, as well as domestic economy, as much as possible.” are the arguments in favor of economic liberalism.