When Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th President of the United States the competition between nation states was defined along the political terms of communism, democracy, and fascism. But Reagan sought to redefine nation state competition in terms of the market. This capitalist worldview was powered by Reagan’s own American experience of upward mobility of the middle class. As President, Reagan pursued policies that reflected his personal belief in individual freedom, economic independence, and reduction of people’s reliance upon government. Reagan’s “market states” competition is broken down into America as the laissez-faire state, Europe as the managerial state, Japan as the mercantile state, and China a combination of the three. The Obama Administration sought to move America to embrace a post-Reagan managerial state. But with the U.S. credit downgrade and Europe facing financial collapse; the U.S. has no option other than a hard turn back to the laissez-faire market state.

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