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THE MERCANTILIST SCHOOL

2 November, 2015 - 17:37

Whereas the main actor in both the Sovereignty at Bay school and the Dependencia school is the MNC—the hero in the former and the villain in the latter—the protagonist in the mercantilists' play is the nation-state.

In a sense the Mercantilist school stands at exactly the opposite end of the spectrum from the Sovereignty at Bay school. Its essential idea is the priority of national economic and political objectives over considerations of global economic efficiency. Thus, according to this school of thought, a nation-state will pursue economic policies designed to satisfy domestic economic needs and external political ambitions, which in turn depend on its governing party's political ideologies and economic and societal aspirations. 1