Nationhood and Post-Keynesianism

This study argues that nationalism is an integral part of post-Keynesian economics, and specifically examines the concept of nationhood in the post-Keynesian theories of money. First, it demonstrates the close relationship between the modern state and nationhood, drawing on Siniša Malešević’s modernist theory of the nation-state. Second, it articulates that nationhood plays a tacit but essential role in post-Keynesian monetary theories, particularly, neo-chartalism and circuitism. Then, it combines Malešević’s modernist model of the nation-state with post-Keynesian monetary theories, referring to it as “post-Keynesian nationalism.” Third, it examines Anthony Giddens’s historical and sociological analysis of modernity in order to support post-Keynesian nationalism, demonstrating how the nation-state and modern money have shaped each other within the historical process of modernity. Fourth, it argues that the nation-state can create what post-Keynesians regard as true modern money by examining post-Keynesian critiques of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Finally, it concludes that the framework of post-Keynesian nationalism helps us to make macroeconomic theory and policies more realistic.