Protectionism and Structural Reforms

The assignment analyzes the economic consequences of protectionism, exploring its short-term benefits for domestic jobs and industries while considering its potential drawbacks like higher prices and international market disruptions. It also delves into structural reforms as a long-term solution to address persistent economic issues, highlighting examples like tax system revisions and property rights improvements. The paper emphasizes the need for countries to carefully evaluate their strategies based on specific economic circumstances, distinguishing between temporary emergency measures and sustainable structural changes.

Running head: GOVERNMENT BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
Government Business Leadership
Student Name
University name
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1) The article is about the problem that economic rationalism is losing its strength. The
article argued that Australian believed that globalization is no longer brings economic
benefit. All business policies are experiencing inequalities. The government is struggling
to manage their budget and maintain their financial excellence. The issues related to
climate and energy changes have to be controlled by the government as well. The
‘Economics and Social outlook conference’ termed this time as uncertain time (Fenna
and Tapper 2015). The country is in dire need of structural reform. Compare to other
countries a large number of the nation’s population is old people so the demographic
force is getting reduced every day and above that the advancement of modern
technologies are affecting the lower skilled jobs’. The worldwide living standard is not
getting improved due to the lack of global trade. The country has been experiencing
failure in various aspects of the economy. The GST was a strong initiative economic
reform which started off great but eventually dropped. The government had to
compromise heavily with the corporate tax reform. Personal income tax or distortionary
tax is failing to serve their purposes (Potter 2016). The government needs to reevaluate
and justify the plans in otherwise the author claims that the country’s living standard will
greatly get affected. The environment is not in favor for a change so the government
might have to face difficulties to incorporate those transformational strategies. The post
war era has created great expectations in the business world. However some leaders are
following trade strategies that will encourage ‘anti trade measure’ and deteriorate the
living standard even more. The open approach of trade is getting affected and this
protectionism and this will result in damage of investment and growth. The developed

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countries are moiré likely to get affected by it if they implement this approach
successfully.
2) The article is written by the economics editor of The Australian Mr. David Uren.
However it is not just him who voice and perspectives have been reflected on the article.
He collected various views and reflected upon them in the present economic and political
scenario. It is undeniable that the article speaks for the government, specially the
Australian government. The changes that the globalization brought have been losing its
impact on the citizens of the nation (Coleman 2016). The nation has had performed in the
global business market, but the quotient of financial excellence is not equal everywhere.
The citizens are losing faith over government initiatives to improve the financial
condition. The government has been implementing various progressive tax policies that
are failing as well. The powerful business organizations and decision makers are also
been suffering for various reasons. The article talks for them as well. The article
addresses the politicians as they are not succeeding to promote populism in the right way.
The politicians are not being able to communicate the reform benefits the ordinary
citizens of the nations (Rose-Ackerman and Palifka 2016). The article is written for other
nation leaders and politicians who are implementing some strategies are potentially
harmful. The politicians are not engaging in extensive preparation and consultation prior
to the implementation. The policies are often proved to be underprepared and not well
planned and those are being imposed upon a population that is not ready. Politician like
Donald Trump is applying protectionism to secure his country’s financial condition in the
global trade. However business councils and experts have suggested that this might affect
the country’s business negatively. The article refers to all the developed nations that are

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applying such strategies which potentially harmful for the future of the business in the
longer run.
3) The publisher of the article is published by The Australian, which is considered to be one
of the most influential business and political newspaper of the country. The newspaper is
the bridges the communication gap between the business world and the ordinary people,
the investors and the clients. The article identifies the various economic conditions and
potential threats that might decline the living standard of the citizens. It also refers to
various futile strategies that have a developed a difficult economic situation for Australia.
The ordinary citizens have lost their trust on the government and that reflects in the
government’s failing to implement any new progressive initiatives successfully, as
government and the business system is closely linked (Merriam 1933). The government
is also experiencing the budget deficit and the decline is ever progressive. The economic
state of the country was great in the past but there is serious doubt by the author that if it
will continue to be so. The population has no expectations from the political, elite class
that they will improve the economic condition (Watkins 2014). Above those strategies
like inward business policies by the Trump Government is capable of causing great
problem for the global business. The publisher wants the government to know about the
situation of crisis and evaluate their existing strategies and reform them. They also warm
them about their certain strategies that might appear to be beneficial temporarily but are
potentially harmful for the future. The negative use of populism by the politicians is
potential to create negative impact on the global trade (Constantinescu, Mattoo and Ruta
2015). The citizens are provided with the in depth analysis of the present economic and

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political scenario of the country so that they can reconsider their views regarding certain
policies and be prepared for the future.
4) The emergence of populism has resulted in various crises for the business world and the
government. The globalization has increased the complexity for the political parties. The
populism has caused great threats for a progressive socio economic condition of the
nation. The emergence of population needs to be investigated properly in order to
understand its existence as a result of political dissatisfaction. The crisis leads the
government and the democracy to various failures (Torgerson 2017). Australia is a
country that experienced great economic success in the past; however the environment
started to change as the electorate started to lose their trust upon the political power. The
government failed implemented certain policies that failed miserably. The ordinary
citizen does not trust the politicians and the elite groups anymore and that reflected in
their rejection of much government initiated progressive policies (DeBruhl 2006). The
populists utilized this trend. They claimed that the power will no longer be in the hands
of corrupt elites, but in the hands of ordinary people who possess practical knowledge
rather than some snobbish theoretical approach. This is causing more complexities within
the governmental structure. The globalization resulted in an integration process where the
most developed nations placed the governance in multiple stages from local, regional,
national to global. This finally leads to the complexity over the authoritative power and
its use. The government has to reform their multiple strategies to make them work in

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favor of economic growth. Certain political leaders are applying approaches like
protectionism, where exporting countries do not get any comparative advantages. The
country’s import of has negative impact on the global trade as a whole.
5) Various conceptions like populism, protectionism, structural reform have been explored
in the article.
After the cold war, the socio political dimension gave birth to the right wing
movement named populism. However since its birth there has been an inherent conflict
between the populism and democracy (Wejnert 2014). In a literal sense populism can be
defined as the government of the people and by the people. In the western country, the
promise of the globalization has failed to fulfill the citizens’ expectations, so did the elite
politicians with their big promises. However in reality the populism proves to be a threat
for democracy as populism is based on ‘illiberal’ notion (Roth 2016). The political
leaders are implementing populist theories to fulfill their missions. This movement has
proved to be conservative and not protective enough (Gaus, Courtland and Schmidtz
1996). They promise to build a homogeneous citizenship and in order to execute that
they are trying to eliminate every signs of diversity.
The concept of protectionism works just opposite of how the free trade works.
Free trade is based on an open global market where the protectionism only focuses on the
improvement of domestic economy (Kee, Neagu and Nicita 2013). In the domestic
market protectionism can be effective to create sustainable jobs for the domestic citizens.

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However their penalizing foreign services providers will result in higher prices. The
subsidies on the export will affect the world market and the developing countries will be
affected greatly as they depend on the developed countries for exporting many
manufacturing products in those countries. The protectionism fails to protect any
products that have been produced outside the country as they have to go through various
taxes.
If the country has been suffering from issues in economy or controlling the
governance as a whole, it must evaluate its strategies are temporary reforms that a
country adapt during any emergency like recession; however if the country is about to
suffer from great economic loss in the longer run, it must adapt the structural reform. In
Australia the government is experiencing rejection from the electorate regarding many of
its progressive initiatives. In such cases the structural reform it will consider may include
tax system, legal aspects, and property rights. The structural reform will enable the
country to develop a condition which is effective and powerful enough to overcome
certain upcoming circumstances.

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Reference
Coleman, W.D., 2016. Financial services, globalization and domestic policy change. Springer.
Constantinescu, C., Mattoo, A. and Ruta, M., 2015. Explaining the global trade
slowdown. VoxEU. org, 18.
DeBruhl, A.D., 2006. The Ultimate Truth. Cydonia Group LLC.
Fenna, A. and Tapper, A., 2015. Economic inequality in Australia: A reassessment. Australian
Journal of Political Science, 50(3), pp.393-411.
Gaus, G., Courtland, S.D. and Schmidtz, D., 1996. Liberalism.
Kee, H.L., Neagu, C. and Nicita, A., 2013. Is protectionism on the rise? Assessing national trade
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Roth, K. (2016). World Report: The Dangerous Rise of Populism | Global Attacks on Human
Rights Values. [online] Human Rights Watch. Available at:

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https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/dangerous-rise-of-populism [Accessed
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Watkins, T., 2014. The Economic System of Corporatism. Retrieved January, 10, p.2014.
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