Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents the phenomenon of economic nationalism in interwar East-Central Europe and defines its role in the region's development. Historians, economists, and political scientists often use the term "economic nationalism" to indicate a variety of phenomena, predominantly in the economic policy sphere, and without going into details. By "economic nationalism" they usually mean protectionism, or, even more narrowly, a policy of foreign trade. Only very few scholars in the interwar and immediate postwar periods showed intent interest in the phenomenon, and they all used the tools of neoclassical and liberal economics and hence were critical of economic nationalism. Students of underdeveloped Third World economies have shown greater interest in the issue, but only some works from the 1960s and later years contributed any interesting results. The book presents the sources and causes of the phenomenon's spread in East-Central Europe.