Business nationalism

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Business nationalism" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Business nationalism is an economic nationalist ideology primarily held by a sector of the political right in the United States.^[1]

Business nationalists are conservative business and industrial leaders who favor a protectionist trade policy and an isolationist foreign policy. They are often locked in a power struggle with corporate international interests. To build a broader base of support in the middle class and working class, business nationalists frequently employ populist rhetoric and anti-elitist rhetoric.^[1]

Historically, this movement has been a primary source in the U.S. for the emergence of radical anti-communism and union busting. In a broader context, certain sectors of business nationalism, most notably the leadership of the Nazi Party in Germany and Fascism in general, have promoted the Red Scares, nativism, and allegations of Jewish banking conspiracies.^[1]

Ultraconservative business and industrial leaders who viewed the New Deal implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936 as proof of a sinister alliance between international finance capital and communist-controlled labor unions seeking to destroy free enterprise became known as "business nationalists".^[2][3]

During the mid-1930s, Gerald L. K. Smith became a prominent advocate for these business nationalists, many of whom were isolationists who would later oppose the entry of the United States into World War II. Smith successfully garnered public and financial support from wealthy businessmen concentrated in "nationalist-oriented industries".

This base included the heads of national oil companies like Quaker State, Pennzoil, and Kendall Refining, alongside automakers such as Henry Ford, John Francis Dodge, and Horace Elgin Dodge. Business nationalists who actively networked with other ultra-conservatives included J. Howard Pew, president of Sun Oil, and William B. Bell, president of the chemical company American Cyanamid.^[4]

Pew and Bell both served on the executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers. Pew further distinguished himself by funding the American Liberty League (1934–1940), Sentinels of the Republic, and other groups that exhibited sympathies with fascism prior to World War II. After the war, Pew shifted his support to fund conservative Christian evangelicals, including Reverend Billy Graham.^[4]

The John Birch Society, founded in 1959, incorporated many themes from the pre-World War II right-wing groups that opposed the New Deal, establishing its base within business nationalist circles. The society was a major force in disseminating an ultraconservative business nationalist critique of corporate internationalists who were perceived as being networked through organisations such as the Council on Foreign Relations.^[1][5]

As of 2007^[update], business nationalism was represented by ultraconservative political figures such as Pat Buchanan.^[4]

• Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (1981-present)^[6]
• Patrick Buchanan, White House Communications Director (1985-1987) and Reform Party nominee for the 2000 U.S. presidential election^[1]
• Pat Choate, economist and Reform Party vice presidential nominee for the 1996 U.S. presidential election^[1]
• Charles Coughlin, priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica (1923-1966), and National Union for Social Justice (1934-1936)^[1]
• Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (1923-1929)^[7]
• Samuel Crowther, journalist and writer^[1]
• Hugh Roy Cullen, president of the Western Production Company (1915-1954)^[1]
• Horace Dodge, co-founder of the Dodge Brothers Company^[1]
• Henry Ford, president of Ford Motor Company (1906–1919, 1943–1945)^[1]
• Helen Chenoweth-Hage, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho’s 1st District (1995-2001)^[1]
• Taalat Harb, founder of Banque Misr^[8]
• Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (1921-1923)^[7]
• H.L. Hunt, founder and head of Hunt Oil Company (1936-1974)^[1]
• Jay Catherwood Hormel, president of George A. Hormel & Company (1929-1954)^[1]
• Koji Kobayashi Koji, chairman of Nippon Electronics Corporation (1976-1988)^[9]
• Geraldo Machado, 5th President of Cuba (1925-1933)^[10]
• Marion Maréchal, member of the European Parliament for France (2024-present)^[11]
• Kōnosuke Matsushita, president of Panasonic Holdings Corporation (1917-1961)^[9]
• Enrico Letta, prime minister of Italy (2013-2014)^[12]
• Roger Milliken, CEO of Milliken & Company (1947-2005)^[1]
• Robert McCormick, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Tribune (1910-1955)^[1]
• Akio Morita, chairman of Sony Group Corporation (1976-1994)^[9]
• Clint Murchinson Sr., founder and head of the Southern Union Gas Company and Delhi Oil Company (1929-1969)^[1]
• Viktor Orban, 56th and 60th Prime Minister of Hungary (1998-2002, 2010-present), president of Fidesz (1993-2000, 2003-present)^[13]
• J. Howard Pew, president of Sun Oil Company (1912-1971)^[1]
• Ross Perot, CEO of Electronic Data Systems (1962-1985), Perot Systems (1988-2009), Reform Party presidential nominee for the 1996 U.S. Presidential election^[14]
• Lammot du Pont II, chair of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (1926-1940)^[1]
• Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali Ayurved and Patanjali Yogpeeth^[15]
• William Regenery, founder and head of the Western Shade Cloth Company^[1]
• Henry Salvatori, founder of The Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World at Claremont McKenna College^[16]
• Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm (2010-present)^[15]
• Thaksin Shinawatra, 23rd Prime Minister of Thailand (2001-2006)^[17]
• Alan Tonelson, research fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation^[1]
• Donald Trump, president of The Trump Organization, Inc. (1971-2017), and 45th and 47th President of the United States (2017-2021, 2025-present)^[18][7]
• Ernest Weir, chairman of the National Steel Corporation (1929-1956)^[1]
• Robert Welch Jr., director of sales and advertising of the James O. Welch Company (1926-1956), founder and president of the John Birch Society (1958-1985)^[1]
• Charles M. White, chairman and CEO of Republic Steel (1945-1960)^[1]
• Robert E. Wood, chairman of the America First Committee (1940-1941), and chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co., (1939-1954)^[1]

• America First Committee^[1]
• American Liberty League^[1]
• The Chemical Foundation, Inc.^[1]
• John Birch Society^[1]
• National Association of Manufacturers^[1]
• United States Business and Industry Council^[1]
• United States Chamber of Commerce^[1]

• Chicago Tribune^[1]

• Cuba - Liberal Party of Cuba (1878-1959)^[10]
• France - National Rally ^[11]
• Hungary - Fidesz^[13]
• Italy - Democratic Party (360 Association)^[12]
• Thailand - Thai Rak Thai Party (1998-2007)^[17]
• United States - National Union for Social Justice (1934-1936), Reform Party, Union Party (1935-1936)^[1]

According to progressive scholar Mark Rupert, the critique of globalisation offered by business nationalists is fundamentally flawed and carried significant social risks. Rupert argues that the right-wing anti-globalists worldview "envisions a world in which Americans are uniquely privileged, inheritors of a divinely inspired socio-political order which must at all costs be defended against external intrusions and internal subversion.”

Rupert further argues that this reactionary analysis attempts to challenge corporate power but ultimately fails to understand the underlying economic structure, specifically the nature of "capital concentration and the transnational socialization of production." This lack of comprehension in the reactionary analysis then contributes to societal issues: It fosters social alienation (a feeling of being disconnected or isolated), and it intensifies "scapegoating and hostility toward those seen as outside of, different or dissenting from its vision of national identity."

Rupert concludes that as alienation grows, more overtly fascistic forces will try to draw these angry individuals into a framework that justifies the demonization (making someone loos evil) of the chosen "Other."^[1]

Investigative reporter Chip Berlet argues:

When populist consumer groups, such as those led by Ralph Nader, forge uncritical alliances with business nationalists to rally against GATT and NAFTA, an opportunity emerges for the anti-elite rhetoric of right-wing populism to piggyback onto a legitimate progressive critique. Why is this a problem? Business nationalism carries with it its right-wing baggage. Pat Buchanan’s rhetoric is an example of this baggage. His racist, antisemitic and xenophobic inclinations reflect business nationalism's right-wing national chauvinism. At the core of the right wing, populism is the "producerist narrative" where the main scapegoats are people of color, especially Blacks. This narrative diverts attention from the White supremacist subtext. It uses coded language to mobilize resentment against people of color through attacks on issues immediately relevant to them, such as welfare, immigration, tax, or education policies. Women, gay men and lesbians, abortion providers, youth, students, and environmentalists are also frequently scapegoated in this manner.^[1]