Economic nationalism is an ideology that prioritizes state intervention in the economy, advocating for policies like tariffs and restrictions on the movement of labor, goods, and capital to serve nationalist goals. It opposes globalization and unrestricted free trade, viewing international commerce as a zero-sum game, and emphasizes protectionism and self-sufficiency, often through state-supported industrialization to build military power and political autonomy.
The concept of "economic patriotism" was used by William Safire in 1985 to describe national defense efforts. Historically, in the mid-to-late 1800s, Italian thinkers like Alessandro Rossi, influenced by Friedrich List, championed nationalist protectionism and industrialization, which inadvertently led to an economic crisis in 1887. Furthermore, the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was exacerbated by a lack of economic integration between its diverse ethnic groups, leading to boycotts, price discrimination, and the eventual failure of intra-empire trade before World War I.