8. Exportism as an Ideology in World Politics

Exportism is one of the most powerful ideologies governing the contemporary international political economy, since it has supported the stabilisation of export-driven growth models. The latter pursue a rather unbalanced combination of export-led growth with very little contribution of domestic demand. Core elements of this idea are wage restraint, undervaluation, low inflation guaranteed by independent central banks and low public expenditures. Exportism serves as an ideological glue that holds together the dominant social bloc in export-led economies, consisting of parts of unions, large parts of companies in the production sector as well their corresponding banks, political parties and independent central banks. Exportism, however, comes as a cost, because the pursuit of an unbalanced export-led model leads to economies that are very sensitive to changes in the global economy and can become easy victims of protectionist developments. At the same time, they are unstable because they lack a healthy dose of domestic demand that is typical for more balanced economic models. In recent times, exportism has also become a core ideology with regard to international institutions, given the German success of inscribing exportist ideas into the institutions governing the stabilisation of the Eurozone. Exportism, however, is not a purely European phenomenon but is also to be found in East Asia. In general, the radical pursuit of exportism leads to a rather unstable global economy, because it depends on the ability and willingness of other economies to run permanent deficits—factors that were available for many decades but increasingly look fragile since the establishment of the Trump administration in the US.