Free Trade is a basic freedom in a democracy and not a political issue.
Hmmm... not true Rarebird.
Go back and review the history of England and the US during the 1800's and early 1900's and you'll see how these two sole "democracies" were strong advocates for protectionism.
The Americans wanted it in order to protest their fledgling industrial base, while the Brits wanted to unify their empire by encouraging internal trade between the colonies to the exclusion of external trade partners.
A good source of information regarding the disagreement between protectionism and free-traders can be found in the biography of Winston Churchill, "The Last Lion". Churchill was a RABID free-trader, yet also a great social reformer, who found himself flipping between the Liberals and conservative Tories in search for a home for his often unpopular views.
However, Churchill also was an advocate of returning to the gold standard during the years prior to the Great Depression of 1929, only to later come to regret that policy and how it prevented the world from taking the actions necessary to restart their economies.
Thus, given the history of the two major democracies of the past 200 years, I think your argument is proven wrong. Free-trade IS politico-economic policy and NOT inherent to the foundation of democracy.
However, I can see how many could hold such a belief since the US has been vigorously free-trade oriented since WWII, in hopes that we'll never see a reoccurence of the policies that led to that conflict.
Regards,
Ron |
