Socialist industrialization and infant industry argument

Abstract

Insofar as the issue of reindustrialization, or "reshoring", becomes more and more relevant for advanced economies, Bulgaria is not only unable to devise a serious long-term national economic model, but it also appears unable to find domestic consensus even on its evaluation of certain questions relating to its own recent economic history. However, time is running out, and the country needs to prepare itself for this possible next phase in its development and its reindustrialization alongside other European countries. First, however, it might be better to start from national economic interests i.e. from the reconciliation of issues, such as those of the Socialist industrialization, and from the subsequent transition to a market economy, with a special focus on how this transition has taken place in pure economic terms. Indeed, one might ask if it would have been better to "consult" an economist such as Friedrich List, rather than leave everything to the "mercy" of democratic euphoria, the "invisible hands" and political divisions. Perhaps, a golden opportunity to deploy the different assets of the country's actual industrial sector has been lost. That being said, this paper does not aim to enter into issues of evaluation or defense, nor even less to evoke nostalgia for the Communist regime. Forcing a connection between Socialist industrialization and the "infant industry argument" would be stretching things theoretically, and perhaps even "politically incorrect", too. That being said, maybe such an economic doctrine could have been at least "been asked for" when engaging the "heavy" industrial legacy of the Communist regime in Bulgaria.