A Cautious Case for Economic Nationalism

It is sometimes asked why we should assume that national politics will be more favorable to the left—why can’t social democracy be advanced through an international framework? Whatever arrangements we can imagine in principle, the systems of social security, labor regulation, envi-ronmental protection, and redistribution of income and wealth that in fact exist are national in scope and are operated by national governments. By definition, any struggle to preserve social democracy as it exists today, is a struggle to defend national institutions.