The Politics of Economic Nationalism in Postrevolutionary Mexico

Abstract

AbstractEconomic nationalism in Mexico has typically been linked to mid‐twentieth‐century experiments with state‐led industrial protectionism. This article argues that the origins of this association lay in postrevolutionary conflicts between economic liberals and protectionists over state consolidation and industrial centralization. Within these struggles, promoters of state economic intervention as well as defenders of free trade and private enterprise justifiably proclaimed the nationalist merits of their divergent industrial projects. This article, by focusing on the political facets of industrialist conflicts amid rising post‐World War II concerns over United States influence, sheds light both on how the post‐World War II period became a turning point in the maturation of industrial protectionism, as well as on the contingent nature of its mid‐twentieth‐century association with economic nationalism.