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Since Donald Trump got elected as president of the United States in november 2016 there has been uncertainties concerning which foreign policy Trump intends to implement. Trump has been accused of being a populist and has himself been clear with his patriotic and nationalistic interests. The study has focused on the classical IR theory, realism and the trade policy theory protectionism. The analysis is based upon two speeches held by Trump in which he makes foreign policy statements. The first of the two speeches was held to the UN and the second upon the situation in the northern Syria. The two speeches got analyzed using ideal types based on offensive realism, defensive realism and protectionism. In summary president Donald Trump shows tendencies of implementing offensive neorealism to his foreign policy, he is also using protectionism to control Americas trade policy.

I den här uppsatsen vill jag genom en idéanalys söka nå en djupare förståelse för EU:s syn på utveckling. Med utgångspunkt i EU:s bistånds- och jordbrukspolitik vill jag undersöka hur det kommer sig att EU, som ligger i framkant när det gäller handel med utvecklingsländer samt framlyfter frihandel och ekonomisk integration som nyckeln till global utveckling, samtidigt tillåter olika typer av ekonomiska subventioner i syfte att skydda det europeiska jordbruket från internationell konkurrens. Hur kan dessa motsättningar inkorporeras i EU:s syn på global utveckling? Med hjälp av en idealtypsanalys, där neo-liberalism, merkantilism och postkolonialism används som teoretiskt ramverk, spåras de bakomliggande idéerna i EU:s bistånds- respektive jordbrukspolitik. Genom att karakterisera vilket teoretiskt ideal som ligger till grund för EU:s politiska mål kan dessa sedan kopplas till en viss typ av idé. I analysens resultat konstateras att samtliga av de tre teoretiska idealtyperna kan spåras inom de båda politikområdena, men förekomsten varierar i grad och utsträckning. Avslutningsvis diskuteras om, och i så fall hur, vi kan tolka EU:s syn på utveckling utifrån analysens resultat. / In this essay I seek a deeper understanding of the EU's vision of development. Based on the EU aid and agricultural policies, I want to examine how it is possible that the EU, which is the major trading partner for many developing countries and also stresses free trade and economic integration as the key to global development, on the other hand allows different types of financial subsidies in order to protect the EU agricultural market from international competition. How can these contradictions be incorporated in the EU's approach to global development? With the help of an ideal type analysis, where neo-liberalism, mercantilism and postcolonialism are used as a theoretical framework, the underlying ideas of the EU's development and agricultural policies are going to be characterized. By characterizing which theoretical ideal that is the basis for the political objectives of the EU policies, these can then be associated with a certain type of idea. The result of the analysis shows that all three theoretical ideal types can be detected in the two policies, but the incidence varies in degree and extent. In my concluding discussion, we will see if, and how, we can interpret the EU's vision of development based on the result of the analysis.

A basic assumption in the thesis is that every economic as well as political and ethical doctrine contains a conception of man, and, thus, that this conception needs to be scrutinised in order to achieve deeper understanding of the doctrine. The purposes of the thesis is (1) to account for conceptions of man within the rarely studied Swedish seventeenth-century economic thought, (2) to examine how conceptions of man and of society influence and shape this thought, and (3) to do this from a synchronous approach, by which emphasis is laid on economic thought as an integral part of the intellectual culture of the epoch. In chapter 2 is explored the conception of man as expressed in economic thought. Man is conceived as selfish and irrational. In chapter 3, this conception is explained as it is placed within a wider context, the most common psychological theory of the epoch, the theory of the passions, which is thoroughly examined. Chapter 4 consists of an analysis of the theory of householding, as it was expressed in the literature of the epoch. It is shown that this theory, not focused on by earlier research, to a large extent is a part of ethics and a prolongation of the theory of passions. The householder or “house-father” is obliged to control his own as well as the other household-member’s passions, and to maintain the hierarchical order within the household. Chapters 5 to 8 deal with the central areas within economic thought. These areas are domestic production and trade (ch. 5), the sumptuary laws and attitudes towards luxury (ch. 6), the use of the concept of free trade (ch. 7) and the issues of idleness and employment (ch. 8). It is shown that the king or government is viewed as the “house-father” of the realm, and that the core of the theory of the passions, the taming of the passions through reason and virtue, is vital also within economic thought, in which four virtues were central: justice, diligence, temperance and frugality; the same virtues as in the theory of householding.

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In the field of international trade there is an intriguing tension between the ideological allure of free trade and the political reality of protectionism. Typically, the former is favored by scholars while the latter has been more historically prevalent. Protectionism in the form of tariffs and other obstacles trade was generally a preferred trade policy around the globe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Sweden was no exception and has been seen as highly protectionist and mercantilist during this period. This thesis has sought to shed new light on Swedish trade policy between 1780 and 1830. It has done so by quantifying and homogenizing tariffs and import bans in order to be able to analyze the structure of tariffs. The thesis stands on a theoretical ground which takes into account the different plausible reasons for setting tariffs. It has placed some emphasis on the possible tension between the desire to shelter one’s own industry from foreign competition and the need to use tariffs for fiscal purposes, as an important source of government revenue. It is therefore argued that tariffs need to be separated theoretically and empirically. A simple model is presented which aims to discern three types of tariffs. The model takes into account the tariff rate itself, and also the structure of trade and the presence of domestic substitution. The thesis has found that Swedish tariffs were generally high over the period and that protectionism was prevalent in a large number of economic sectors. There is tentative evidence that protectionist tariffs also distorted trade in certain types of goods, even if they didn’t have an impact on total import levels. Tariffs were also set so as to separate between raw materials and more processed goods, what is called mercantilist differentiation. Substantial empirical support is given to the claim that certain tariffs on inelastic consumption goods were of great fiscal importance, and increasingly so as the period progressed. The fiscal pressure maintained or even increased the import tariffs, which made it possible to decrease tariffs on exports.

Uppsatsen syfte är att ta reda på ifall den Europeiska Unionens (EU) handelspolicy för den interna respektive den externa marknaden följer den liberala retoriken som förs av unionen. Det är en komparativ fallstudie som använder sig av idealtyper för att ge en nyanserad bild av unionens handelspolicy. Det teoretiska ramverket som används för att framställa dessa idealtyper är merkantilism samt liberalism. Idealtyperna appliceras sedan på de två fallen. Fokus för studien ligger på tiden mellan Lissabonfördraget och 2012 innan den senaste utvidgningen till 28 medlemsstater ägde rum. I analysen kan man se delar av båda teorierna i varierande grad. Avslutningsvis diskuteras i vilken grad de båda teorierna influerar EU:s handelspolicy för den inre samt yttre marknaden. I resultatet kan man se att liberalismen genomsyrar stora delar av EU:s handelspolicy, men att det finns merkantilistiska undertoner i ett flertal olika områden. / The aim with this thesis is to find out whether the European Union (EU) trade policy for the internal and the external market comply with the liberal rhetoric that is conducted by the Union. It is a comparative case study based on ideal types to give the reader a nuanced view of EU:s trade policy. The theoretical framework that is being used to produce the ideal types is mercantilism and liberalism. Consequently, the ideal types are being applied on the two cases. The focus of the study is the time between the Lisbon Treaty and 2012, before the recent enlargement to 28 member states took place. In the analysis, one can see portions of both theories in varying degrees. Finally, the extent of how liberalism and mercantilism influences EU:s trade policy for the internal and the external market is being discussed. The result of the thesis show that liberalism influence most parts of the trade policy, but there are also some mercantilist undertones in several areas.