Democracy and Clustered Models of Global Economic Engagement.

The article analyzes how states structure their global economic relations by identifying five distinct strategies of global economic engagement through dynamic clustering of trade policies, foreign investment, exchange rates, capital flows, and international treaties. These clusters range from highly open and orderly developed economies to estranged autarkies with protectionist policies, reflecting multidimensional policy bundles rather than a single openness spectrum. The study finds that democratic institutions influence cluster membership: democracies tend to adopt either highly open or cautious globalization strategies, while nondemocracies split between autarkic disengagement and deep integration as production hubs. Additionally, country size moderates democracies' choices, with smaller democracies favoring openness and larger ones more cautious, and autocratic regime type shapes nondemocratic strategies, with party-based autocracies more likely to pursue global production integration than personalistic regimes.