Autarky

Plan:

• What is autarky?• Etymology• Modern and historical examples• Opponents of Autarky

What is autarky

• Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic systems. The latter are called closedeconomies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance or international trade. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky would be a state that could defend itself without help from another country.

Etymology

• The word "autarky" is from the Greek: αὐτάρκεια, which means "self-sufficiency" (derived from αὐτο-, "self," and ἀρκέω, "to suffice"). The term is sometimes confused with autocracy or autarchy(Greek: αὐτoκρατία/αὐταρχία "government by single absolute ruler") .

Modern examples

• Today, complete economic autarkies are rare. A possible example of a current attempt at autarky is North Korea, based on the government ideology self-sufficiency, which is concerned with maintaining its domestic localized economy in the face of its isolation. However, even North Korea has extensive trade with the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, Syria,Iran, Vietnam, and many countries in Europe and Africa. Bhutan, seeking to preserve a manorialist economic and cultural system centered around the dzong, had until the 1960s maintained an effective economic embargo against the outside world, and has been described as an autarky. With the introduction of roads and electricity, however, the kingdom has entered trade relations as its citizens seek modern, manufactured goods. North Korea has also had to import food during the 1990s due to widespread famine.

Historical examples

• Afghanistan under the Taliban, from 1996 to 2001.• Classical Greece idealized economic self-sufficiency at the level of

oikos and city-state. This ideal broke down over time, and was redundant by the Hellenistic period.• India had a policy of near-autarky that began after its establishment

as an independent state, around 1950; it increased until 1980 and ended in 1991 due to imminent bankruptcy.

Opponents of Autarky:

• Economic liberalism• Neoclassical Economics• Privatization• Free Trade• Globalization

Economic liberalism

• Economic liberalism is the economic component of classical liberalism. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes laissez-faire economics and private property in the means of production. Proponents of economic liberalism believe political freedom and social freedom are inseparable with economic freedom, and use philosophical arguments promoting liberty to justify economic liberalism and the free market.

Neoclassical Economics

• Neoclassical economics is an economic theory that argues for markets to be free. This means governments should generally not make rules about types of businesses, businesses' behavior, who may make things, who may sell things, who may buy things, prices, quantities or types of things sold and bought. The theory argues that allowing individual actors (people or businesses) freedom creates better economic outcomes. These outcomes may be a higher average standard of living, higher wages, better average life-expectancies, and higher GDP.

Privatization

• Privatization is when a nationalized company or government agency is sold by the government to investors who want to buy it.

Free Trade

• Free trade is a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports) or quotas. According to the law of comparative advantage, the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services.

Globalization

• Globalization is the way that local or national ways of doing things become global, that is, done together around the world. It is about economics or trade, technology, politics, and culture. People feel differently about globalization: some think it helps everyone while others think it hurts some people.