THE TRUTH ABOUT ECONOMIC PATRIOTISM

Economic patriotism aims to implement a regulatory and encouragement system of economic activity that allows a nation positive benefits from the development of enterprises in terms of growth and jobs as well as keeping on its national soil major decision making centers in order to guarantee the control of activities and of strategic enterprises that are indispensable for preserving the decision making capacity of the State.

Economic patriotism cannot be reduced to a defensive posture. Economic patriotism aims first and foremost for a public/private cooperation to win markets and innovating SMEs are the spearhead of economic patriotism. This implies the necessity of developing a solid public policy in economic intelligence.

Economic patriotism has nothing to do with economic nationalism and a refusal of globalization. It is based on the notion that it must benefit as many as possible and not just a privileged hyper class, protected from its most negative consequences, for example unemployment caused by delocalization and the complex dynamic of Western deindustrialization. It also means that nations have a right to claim a sort of industrial sovereignty which in no way means protectionism but rather the capacity of States to promote the economic development of their territory and the preservation of a strategic economic perimeter that is indispensable for national security.

Many people wrongly associate economic patriotism with nationalism and warmongering.  They don’t understand that no social cohesion can be implemented without a national strategy based on an intelligent economic patriotism concerned with the reciprocity of commercial and financial behavior.

At this time when it is becoming urgent to integrate the idea of national economic patriotism, it is also necessary to promote European patriotism that is complementary to our attachment to our respective countries.

In order to satisfy the legitimate demand for national sovereignty and the Europe Union, we must think in terms of real influence and understood power as the capacity to influence. Knowing how too really influence another major actor or making one’s views and interests prevail during the collective decision making is more important than focusing on a particular mechanism (institutional or informal): What is essential is to reach one’s strategic objective. What are the objectives that we can really reach? That’s the only question that counts. And today we cannot be influent if we don’t rely on a strategy of economic power irrigated by a dynamic patriotism open, structured by innovation and the will of constructive cooperation far from any protectionism caricature (but promoting the reciprocity of commercial and financial behavior).

It is important to stress that economic patriotism makes only sense if it is based on competitiveness, the innovating power of national enterprises and universities.

Economic patriotism must be interpreted as the will to reinforce the strategic autonomy of a country, to multiply the synergies between national actors to enhance their development, to give a country through its actors (enterprises, state institutions, financial sector, universities) the capacity to take advantage of opportunities and to resist threats ( by anticipating them and producing adapted responses) as a result of the new dynamics generated by globalization.

Economic patriotism allows us to build a common culture of power and national success. A shared vision of challenges and issues, a precise perception of threats and opportunities. Within this perspective the mission of the State is to anticipate the future and to create the conditions for the achievement of national power. The protection of strategic enterprises is the first objective of economic patriotism.

Yes it is possible to speak of the national interest. Modern economies are not just based on large enterprises but also on SMEs that represent the industrial network of a country and a considerable potential for innovation. Economic patriotism means helping SMEs develop within a competitive environment so they can reach a critical size necessary to go and hunt up external markets.

Last but no least let’s make a clear distinction between economic patriotism and protectionism. Economic patriotism calls for defense of national productions but also for an offensive and strategic conquest of markets but protectionism tends to restrict trade. Economic patriotism can reconcile the objectives of free trade. It encourages competitiveness of national productions on both the domestic and foreign market. But if it privileges national productions to the detriment of similar foreign productions, then it can collide with international trade rules that call for  non-discrimination and an equal treatment between national products and similar imported products.