THE CHANGING POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PROTECTIONISM

The paper aims to identify the peculiarities and some of the implications of global protectionism associated with the financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009, from both a quantitative and a qualitative point of view. The approach is based on a political economy perspective rather than an econometric one, and starts from the assumption that globalization and specifically the global production networks are responsible for a moderate increase of protectionism in correlation with new forms of protectionism (such as financial protectionism or protectionism related to the utilization of natural resources). The analysis brings the authors to the conclusion that due to the continuing process of globalization as well as the more explicit presence of regional and world governance in the short and medium-term perspective, traditional trade protectionism is not going to increase. Nevertheless, other forms of protectionism initiated by transnational corporations might become manifest.