Re-interpretation of the Nationalism-Economy Nexus: Nation-State Building via Neoliberal Reforms During Post-Socialist Transformations in the Baltic States

Abstract

Building on the latest scholarship in the nationalism-economy nexus studies, the article examines how nationalism inhabits other ideologies in the economic realm. Firstly, the article presents the latest strands in the nationalism-economy nexus research, namely compatibility between economy and nationalism understood as ideology. Then, using Foucault’s concept of governmentality, the article shows how the two phenomena are compatible on the theoretical level. Going further, the article connects the latest nationalism-economy nexus scholarship with existing literature on national neoliberalism in the post-socialist Baltic states. The article argues that national neoliberalism in the Baltics provides an example of what the compatibility of nationalism and economy may look like in practice. The Baltic states’ Soviet experience encouraged their elites to undertake radical neoliberal reforms, in which the processes of nation-state and market economy building overlapped. The states were built to create the markets which would in turn guarantee the prosperity of their respective nations. The article juxtaposes different, yet related scholarships and provides a basic theoretical toolkit that could facilitate potential inquiries into the nationalism-economy nexus in Lithuania and abroad.