International Political Economy began to develop as an academic discipline in the early 1980s. Since then it has developed rapidly (in Anglo-American academia). IPE is above all a reaction to the incapacity of conventional international relations theory (and economics) to deal adequately with the increasing importance of economic relations, the growing significance of non-state actors, and the related changes in what states can control and influence both domestically and internationally. It is essentially a discipline which attempts to make "globalisation" part of both the theoretical debates and applied studies.
The introductory course will concentrate on the study of globalisation as the core of the discipline. It will begin with a theoretical section which explains the origin of the subject, introduces the key approaches to the subject, and clarifies the choice of focus of the course. IPE is a very diverse and "eclectic" field which it would be impossible to cover completely. The bulk of time will then be spent on looking at globalisation in different areas (trade, production, money and finance) and at how different IPE theories explain it and what implications they draw.
The course will reflect the mixture of theory and applied
studies characteristic of the subject. It correspondingly has two aims:
The first is to give the students a concrete understanding of globalisation,
i.e. a comprehension of the international economy, its institutions, how
they affect states as well as the livelihood of citizens within them. The
second is to provide students with the theoretical background necessary
for orienting themselves within the academic international political economy
debates as well as for seeing the origin and context of political arguments
on the subject.
Course Requirements:
The course evaluation will be based on an in class presentation
and participation (30%), on three 20 min. in class openbook tests on the
reading (30%) and on a final essay of 3000 words on a selected topic (40%).
Textbooks (can be consulted for all sessions)
John Baylis and Steve Smith, The Globalization of
World Politics (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997).
Ian Clark, Globalization and Fragmentation (Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1997).
George T. Crane and Abla Amawi, The Theoretical Evolution
of International Political Economy, (New York: Oxford UP, 1991),
Jeffrey Frieden and David Lake (eds), International
Political Economy. Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth. (New York:
Routledge, 1995).
Steven Gill and David Law, The Global Political Economy
(Hemel Hempstead; Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1988).
Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International
Relations (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987).
Susan Strange, States and Markets (London: Pinter
1994, second edition).
Richard Stubbs and Geoffry Underhill (eds), Political
Economy and the Changing Global Order (London: Macmillan, 1994).
Robert Tooze and Craig Murphy (eds), The New International
Political Economy (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1991).
Journals and Newspapers (to be followed regularly)
International Organization; Review of International Political
Economy; World Development; World Politics.
The Economist; The Financial Times; Le Monde Diplomatique.
COURSE OUTLINE
INTRODUCTORY SESSIONS:
week. 0
1. General Introduction
2. The origin, issues, and approaches to IPE
I. THE EXPANSION OF TRADE
week 1: The Traditional Debate: Mercantilism versus
Liberalism
Albert O. Hirschman, National Power and the Structure
of Foreign Trade (Berkeley et al.: University of California Press:
1945), pp. v-xii; and 3-81.
week 2: The Shape of the Post-War Trading System
Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International
Relations (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987), pp. 190-221.
Robert O. Keohane, "The Theory of Hegemonic Stability
and Changes in International Economic Regimes, 1967-1977," in Crane and
Amawi, pp. 245-262.
week 3: The New Debate: Domestic Structures and Foreign
Trade
Phedon Nicholaides, "The Changing GATT System and the
Uruguay Negotiations", in Richard Stubbs and Geoffry Underhill (eds), Political
Economy and the Changing Global Order (London: Macmillan, 1994).
John G. Ruggie, At Home Abroad, Abroad at Home: International
Liberalisation and Domestic Stability in the New World Economy", Millennium
vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 507-527.
II. THE EMERGENCE OF GLOBAL PRODUCTION
week 4: The Conventional Perspective: Host-country,
home country and the firms
Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International
Relations (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987), pp. 231-263.
Joseph M. Grieco, "Between Dependency and Autonomy: India's
experience with the international computer industry (Toronto: Lexington
Books, 1985), pp. 55-83.
week 5: Driving Forces of Globalisation: Strategic
alliances and technological control
Lynn Krieger Mytelka, "Crisis, technological change,
and the strategic alliance", in Lynn Krieger Mytelka (ed.), Strategic
Partnerships. States Firms and International Competition (London: Pinter
Publishers, 1991)
Raphael Kaplinsky, "Technological Revolution and the
International Division of Labour in Manufacturing: A Place for the Third
World?" The European Journal of Development Research, vol.1, no.
1 (1989), pp. 5-38.
week 6: Driving Forces of Globalisation: Firm's efforts
to internalise
Oliver E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis
and antitrust implications (London: Macmillan, 1975), chap. 2, 3 and
conclusion.
John H. Dunning, Explaining International Production
(London: Harper Collins Academic, 1988), pp. 13-40.
week 7: The Blurring of Local and Global
Robert Reich, The Work of Nations. Preparing ourselves
for 21st Century capitalism (London et al.: Simon and Schuster, 1993),
pp. 81-168.
III. MONEY AND FINANCE
week 8 and 9: The Rise and Fall of Bretton Woods
Andrew Walter, World Power and World Money: The role
of hegemony and international monetary order (London et al: Harvester,
Wheatsheaf), pp. 150-249.
or
Eric Helleiner, States and the Reemergence of Global
Finance: From Bretton Woods to the 1990s (Ithaca and London: Cornell
UP, 1994), pp. 81-211.
week 10: International Debt and the rules of the market
Irving S. Friedman, "Private Bank Conditionality: Comparison
with the IMF and the World Bank," in John Williamson (ed.) IMF Conditionality
(Washington DC: Institute for International Economics), pp. 109-124.
Tim Sinclair, "Passing Judgement: Credit rating processes
as regulatory mechanisms of governance in the emerging world order", RIPE,
vol. 1, no. 1 (1994).
week 11: Globalisation and Self-Regulation
William D. Coleman, "Keeping the Shotgun Behind the Door,"
in Hollingsworth, Streeck, Schmitter (eds) Governing Capitalist Economies
(New York, Oxford UP, 1994).
Geoffry Underhill, "Keeping Governments out of Politics:
transnational securities markets, regulatory cooperation, and political
legitimacy," Review of International Studies vol. 25, 1995, pp.
251-278.
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This seminar aims at introducing different types of comparative research which make up the bulk of empirical studies in the social sciences. It starts out with a discussion of the general problems of doing comparative research. It then proceeds to look at how these issues have been dealt with in the classical literature. In a last section it then picks up the general debate about what status theory and scientific method has in comparative politics.
The seminar combines the
use of theoretical literature and examples. It uses seminal theoretical
texts to render students familiar with research designs and techniques.
It also shows how these have been applied in actual studies. In addition
to this, it encourages learning by doing. Students will be asked to choose
a research focus, and to devise a research design on this basis. These
will be presented and discussed in the seminar.
Requirements
Students are expected to participate actively in the seminar. We expect participants to read the required readings (marked * and reproduced in the reader; the other references are recommended readings), to make one presentation, and to act as discussants on one occasion (45%). We also expect a short discussion paper on any one of the course topics (usually that of the student's presentation) (25%). Finally, we expect students to hand in a research design on their own research topics to be discussed in the last sessions of the course (30%).
The course is largely based
on independent reading and interest and students are expected to follow
the journals in their own field with particular attention to theoretical
and methodological questions and the general journals central to comparative
politics such as, among others, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales,
American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics,
Political Studies, Politics & Society, Politische
Vierteljahresschrift, Revue Française de Science Politique,
World Politics, World Development.
Section I: Introductory
Concerns
Week 1
The place of comparison in political sciences
*David Collier, "The comparative
method: two decades of change", in Rustow and Erickson eds. Comparative
Political Dynamics (Harper Collins, 1991).
Theda Skocpol, "Emerging
Agendas and Recurring Strategies in Historical Sociology" in Skocpol (ed.)
Vision and Method in Historical Sociology (New York: Cambridge UP,
1984), pp. 356-391.
Mackie and Marsh, "The Comparative
Method", in Marsh and Stocker (eds) Theory and Method in Political Science
(London: Macmillan, 1995).
Charles Tilly, Big Structures,
Large processes, Huge Comparisons (New York: Russel Sage Foundation,
1984).
Week 2
The problem of conceptualizing
in comparative studies
*Giovanni Sartori, "Concept
Misformation in Comparative Politics", APSR vol. 64 (December 1970),
pp. 1033-1053.
*David Collier and James
Mahon, "Conceptual 'Stretching' Revisited: Adapting Categories in Comparative
Politics", American Political Science Reiview, vol. 87 (December
1993), pp. 845-855.
*David Collier and Steven
Levitsky, "Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative
Research", World Politics 49 (April 1997), pp. 430-451.
Week 3
The problem of meaning
in comparative studies
*Bertrand Badie, "Comparative
Analysis in Political Science: Requiem or Resurrection?", Political
Studies, 1989.
*Richard Lock and Kathleen
Theelen, "Apples and Oranges Revisited: Contextualised Comparisons and
the Study of Labour Politics", Politics & Society, vol. 23 (1995),
pp. 337-367.
Alisdair MacIntyre, "The
idea of a social science" and "Is a science of comparative politics possible?",
both in Against the self-images of the age (London: Duckworth, 1971).
Week 4
The problem of case selection
*King, Gary, Robert Keohane
and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in
Qualitative Research (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994), chaps 4-6.
*David Collier and James
Mahoney, "Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias in Qualitative Research",
World Politics vol. 49 (October 1996), pp. 56-91.
David Collier, "Translating
Quantitative Methods for Qualitative Researchers: The case of Selection
Bias", American Political Science Review, vol. 89, no. 2 (June 1995).
Section II: Looking at Research Designs
week 5
Quantitative analysis
in comparative politics
*Robert Putnam, Making
Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
UP, 1993), pp. 63-120, 148-162.
week 6
Small N comparative studies
in historical sociology
*Barrington Moore, jr, The
social origins of dictatorship and democracy (Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1966), pp. 413-508.
week 7
Small N comparative studies
in political economy
*Peter B. Evans, Embedded
Autonomy (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1995), chaps 1, 2, 10.
week 8
Single case study in
foreign policy analysis
*Graham T. Allison, Essence
of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Boston: Little Brown,
1971), pp. 245-264.
*Graham T. Allison, "Conceptual
Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis", American Political Science Review,
vol. LXIII, no. 3 (September 1969).
Section III: One or More Comparative Methods?
Week 9
Qualitative and Quantitative
Comparisons
*Charles C. Ragin, The
Comparative Method. Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987). chaps 1-5 and 9.
Week 10
The case for a single
scientific method
*King, Gary, Robert Keohane
and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in
Qualitative Research (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994), chaps 1-3.
Week 11
Discussion of KKV
*American Political Science
Review, vol. 89, no. 2 (June 1995), in particular Laitini, Rogowski,
Tarrow and reply by KKV.
Week 12
Discussion of Research
Designs and Conclusion