Autarky – a system of closed reproduction of an isolated community of a certain type, with minimal connection and dependence on exchange with the external environment.
What is autarky?
Autarky (Greek Autarkeia means “self-sufficiency,”) is a political-economic system aimed at creating a closed, self-sustaining economy that develops without links to other countries. In essence, autarky is a closed economy that implies absolute sovereignty.
The idea of autarky as an economic system is that the state tries to become completely independent of other countries and to establish within itself the production of all goods and services necessary for the inhabitants. In autarky, the external turnover of the country is minimized.
Ideally, a country that has achieved complete autarchy should be a completely isolated economy. But in practice, none of the modern states has been able to definitively abandon trade relations with other countries. For example, North Korea, which for decades has been under sanctions and consistently pursues a policy of isolationism, since 1994 has taken a course towards participation in world trade and is developing trade relations with China, Russia and a number of other countries.
The fact is that none of the countries has absolutely all the natural resources and climatic conditions for the production of all the products needed in modern life. In addition to this, technology and scientific research are developing thanks to the constant exchange of information between scientists around the world. As soon as these connections are cut off, scientific and technological progress in the country begins to lag behind the world.
