Economic neurosis is an avenue that leads to self-sufficiency. Not even the United States or China is in a position to do well without markets getting supplied with inputs of the rest of the world. Kennedy School of government, Harvard. Rodrik opposes unlimited globalization and supports industrial policy to drive economic growth. In 2025, rising U.S. tariffs raised fears of a trade war, reflecting tensions between Tech Nationalism and Economic Growth.
Imports by President Donald Trump. In an interview with Radio Davos at the Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum, Rodrik discussed the death of hyperglobalization, strengths and weaknesses of economic nationalism as well as the importance of the middle class welfare in preserving democracy. According to Rodrik, one of the principal reasons behind the political polarization that has been witnessed in many developed nations in the past couple of decades was the thoughtless prioritizing of the world that happened in early 1990s through the process of globalization.
What is causing techno-nationalism?
Rodrik says that the more integrated the economies were to each other the more disintegrated they were within people, inequalities in the income, the social and cultural perceptions and a feeling that there was a mismatch between the ordinary people and the political elites. One such player who was able to take advantage.
Just as it can be seen through the success of China, industrial policies happen to be a significant instrument that governments can employ to organize and diversify their economies, to augment their productivity, to establish the foundation of long-term economic prosperity, and to generate opportunities.
How does techno-nationalism affect the economy?
Even in the US, which by this point was seen to be intellectually outdated in many ways as it pertained to industrial policy there were different types of policies backing small businesses, research, and innovation, and in the background this was discreetly happening and this became all the more relevant in achieving competition with China and green transition. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 approved by the Biden administration, the U.S. federal grant program to stimulate investment in green technology and decarbonization is one of the industrial policies that Rodrik supports.
With a major decline in renewable energies costs– due in large part to the Chinese subsidies of green technologies and a cry against carbon pricing, the important factor of the success of the IRA was their resolve to mimic the Chinese industry policy to realize technological advances through the new green and renewable energy industries in a manner that produced political favor. And the further we tread along this way, the greener are the industries or renewable energies and the areas of the country that benefit and there is a political impetus lending us allowance to head along the road of decarbonization.
Techno nationalism and data sovereignty
In the form of incentives as opposed to penalties according to Rodrik. This is in fact why Rodrik is optimistic that Trump, the critic of the IRA will not reverse his decision on the measure as he threatened to do when in the presidential campaign.
There is also the reflection by Rodrik about economic nationalism where he defines it as one of the scaring words.
Nonetheless, economic nationalism comes in different flavors. A single type could be very helpful not only to an economy but also to the world at large. I refer to that variation, to use a poor term, developmentalism, i.e. countries doing their development agenda. But he cautions that other forms of economic nationalism other than mercantilism or in the extreme case, economic imperialism, can be quite pernicious. Economic decline is a way of self-sufficiency sounds Rodrik.
Conclusion
Accessing technology where they do not lead, or accessing markets to sell their products, etc. As far as economic nationalism promotes national economic interests, it is impossible to do this without the use of global markets. I, therefore, do not believe that isolationism is a route that intelligent economic nationalists would take. Now then, what about those tariffs of Trump and his threat of world trade war? Few days later after his inauguration, the U.S. president imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and many are to come. China has subsequently slapped retaliatory tariffs.
Rodrik says that in his view “tariffs can be useful”. That is why at times you can use them in order to shield what you are doing on the national front. However, it is not a magic bullet, which means that it will resolve most of the issues, adds Rodrik I think the way to think about Trump vis-a-vis such a tariff policy is that he sees them as, in a sense, a kind of Swiss army knife policy that will address the problem of competitiveness of the United States and restore the middle class and to create many jobs.
