Description
This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the United States’ loss of systemic power leadership by testing the historical evidence for hegemonic stability theory treatment of the UK’s case (Krasner 1976). Drawing on local archival records, it shows how free traders in key positions of power across the political spectrum (Liberals, Conservatives and Labour) shaped protection not as a mere response to pressing macroeconomic challenges (balance of payments, currency float, unemployment), but also as an imperial and international trade liberalisation strategy. The new empirical evidence and a different level of analysis (individual agency) justify this novel interpretation of this case, which can be reframed as Britain’s lead forward from a failed attempt to reconstruct the pre-WWI international liberal economic order in the 1920s. In the aftermath of Brexit and foreshadowing the possibility of the second Trump election, this paper offers important policy lessons about reversing the slide to protectionism and restoring economic openness in times of hegemonic decline.
