Pole A: Protectionism score 0
Protection of local output and jobs. Common argument for it: infant industries need protection until they can compete, and relying on foreign suppliers is a risk.
POLITICAL POSITION · DIMENSION 9 OF 12
Foreign trade: protectionism or globalism
Foreign trade is the dimension that records how a person prefers the country to relate economically to the rest of the world.
What it is
Foreign trade is the dimension that records how a person prefers the country to relate economically to the rest of the world. At the Protectionism pole, tariffs, quotas and preference for domestic producers protect local jobs and sectors; at the Globalism pole, open trade, foreign investment, integration into global value chains and multilateral agreements are the rule.
What the dimension covers
- import tariffs and quotas
- preference for domestic producers in public procurement
- foreign investment
- trade agreements and multilateral bodies
The two poles
0 · ProtectionismGlobalism · 100
Pole B: Globalism score 100
Openness and integration. Common argument for it: specialization and exchange lower prices and widen what each country can consume and sell.
How the instrument measures it
The Evidence instrument (schema evidence-pol-1) records this dimension as a number from 0 to 100: 0 is the Protectionism pole, 100 is the Globalism pole. The number comes from your answers to the questionnaire or from a result imported from another instrument by URL; either way it is a self-assessment, computed in your browser, and nothing reaches the server without an explicit action from you. With no answer for this dimension, it stays unknown (UNKNOWN), never 50.
| No. | Statement | Agreeing points to |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Free trade agreements with other countries help consumers more than they hurt producers. | Globalism |
| 21 | Imported goods should face higher tariffs to protect the country's industry and jobs. | Protectionism |
| 33 | Foreign companies should be able to invest and compete in the country on the same terms as domestic ones. | Globalism |
| 45 | In public procurement, the government should favor domestic suppliers, even if it pays more. | Protectionism |
Formula p = (resposta - 1) / 4 if agreeing points to Globalism; p = 1 - (resposta - 1) / 4 if it points to Protectionism; placar = 100 * media(p)
There are 4 original statements, with opposite directions to reduce the effect of agreeing with everything. Answers run from 1 to 5 (1 Strongly disagree, 2 Disagree, 3 Neither agree nor disagree, 4 Agree, 5 Strongly agree); "Don't know" does not score. Each answer becomes a position between 0 and 1, the score is the mean position times 100, and confidence combines coverage (how many of the 4 statements scored) and consistency (how far answers point the same way): high from 0.75, medium from 0.50.
In the Evidence portable format, this dimension is the trade parameter of the profile URL. Scale, evidence states and limitations are in the instrument method; the terms are in the glossary.
Why it is a separate dimension
It differs from Economic coordination, which is about decisions within the country; this is the economic border. It differs from Foreign intervention, which is about political and military action, not exchange.
Compare with Economic coordination and Foreign intervention.
Frequently asked questions
Is globalism here a conspiracy theory?
No. In the instrument, Globalism is only the name of the pole of trade openness and international economic integration, with no other connotation.
Where can I see trade openness data by country?
The KOF Globalisation Index, from ETH Zurich, publishes economic, social and political globalization indices by country and year, and the World Trade Organization publishes trade and tariff statistics. Those are country measures; the dimension records a person's preference.
What does a score of 50 on Foreign trade mean?
That the answers ended halfway between Protectionism and Globalism, through balance or through a mix of answers in both directions. It is not the same as moderation or the political center, and it says nothing about the other 11 dimensions.
Is my result sent or published?
No. The computation runs in your browser, nothing reaches the server without an explicit action from you, and the result page is not indexed by search engines. Political opinion is sensitive personal data under Brazil's LGPD (art. 5, II, and art. 11).
Literature and references
- GlobalizationStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: the concept of globalization and its normative debates.
- KOF Globalisation Index (ETH Zurich)Globalization indices by country and year, with published method.
- World Trade Organization statisticsTrade in goods and services and tariff profiles by country.
Reference readings on the topic. None of them validates the Evidence instrument, and no text, question or weight was copied from them.
Conceptual sources of the instrument
Openness to foreign trade and investment: protecting domestic production (protectionism) or integrating into global markets (globalism).
Other dimensions
- Related dimensionEconomic coordinationPlanning · Free market
- Related dimensionForeign interventionNon-interventionist · Nationalist
- PreviousEconomic coordinationPlanning · Free market
- NextReligionIrreligious · Religious