Supporting the City: economic patriotism in financial markets

This contribution argues that economic patriotism constitutes a specific form of managing the relationship between open borders and the political pressures of specific territorial units in an era of neo-liberal globalization. It focuses on the case of the City of London and shows how, in the period from 1997 to 2007, the state pursued specific strategies that would support the international position of the City in ways which were firstly within global and EU rules and secondly gave credibility to the claim that this support was beneficial to the whole of British society. The financial crisis undermined this credibility. Although the City has re-established its centrality to the UK economy and there is no obvious alternative, support for it can no longer be justified as an act of economic patriotism given the strength of criticism it has endured.