ABSTRACT
Economic theory is not an obvious place to look for insights into the relationship between globalization and nation-statehood. Yet economic processes play out the relationship daily; and economic policies and ideas forcefully guide the regulation of that relationship. This chapter looks at the way in which financial markets contribute to configuring the relationship between nation-states and globalization, and at the way economic theory defines the nation-state. Superficially, there is a direct conflict between the reality of global finance and the ontological primacy of national units presumed in economic theory. However, the chapter argues that they are mutually constitutive. Moreover, a failure to engage this mutual constitution has seen much economic nationalism become economically conservative and politically reactionary.
