Political Science and International Organization Licence 3

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Political Science and International
OrganizationLicence 3ème annéeThe Politics of
International Economic RelationsSession 1
Manfred ElsigWorld Trade Institute Berne
Graduate Institute of International Studies
Geneva
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Teaching Assistants

• Jérôme Bachelard, bachela8_at_hei.unige.ch, 022 908
  59 48 Rachelle Cloutier, cloutie3_at_hei.unige.ch,
  022 908 59 41 Lucile Eznack, eznack2_at_hei.unige.c
  h, 022 908 59 51 Jonas Hagmann,
  hagmann9_at_hei.unige.ch, 022 908 59 47
• Omar Serrano, serraoa5_at_hei.unige.ch, 022 908 59
  47 Thorsten Wetzling, wetzlin2_at_hei.unige.ch,
  022 908 59 51

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Course requirements

• Students are expected to write one short essay
  (take home exam) before the Christmas break and
  to take a two-hour exam at the end of the
  semester. The essay will count for 40 and the
  final exam for 60 of the overall grade.
• Students are expected to prepare for the
  lectures. A reader will be available for the
  mandatory texts. Further information on where to
  purchase it will be provided by the assistants
• For those who intend to take the exam at the end
  of semester, seminars and lectures are mandatory

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Course objectives

• Become accustomed to theories, perspectives, and
  approaches in global economic politics
• Improve analytical skills by applying
  theory-based arguments to real world politics

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What do we call the area of study?

• The Politics of International Economic Relations
• International political economy
• Global political economy

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What is it about?

• International political economy (IPE) developed
  as a subfield in the study of international
  relations
• IPE is about the interaction between the state
  (politics) and the market (economics) at various
  levels
• IPE studies the interrelationship between public
  and private power in the allocation of scarce
  resources
• Who gets what, when, and how (Harold Lasswell
  1936).

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General research questions

• How, when and why do states choose to open up
  themselves to transborder flows of goods,
  services, capital, people
• How does integration into the international
  economy affect interests of actors and eventually
  national policies
• What explains cooperation in GEMs or regional and
  bilateral economic agreements

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Origins

• IPE emerged as a heterodox approach to
  international studies during the 1970s as the
  1973 world oil crisis and the breakdown of the
  Bretton Woods system alerted academics,
  particularly in the U.S., of the importance,
  contingency, and weakness of the economic
  foundations of the world order. IPE scholars
  asserted that earlier studies of international
  relations had placed excessive emphasis on law,
  politics, and diplomatic history. Similarly,
  neoclassical economics was accused of abstraction
  and being ahistorical. Drawing heavily on
  historical sociology and economic history, IPE
  proposed a fusion of economic and political
  analysis. In this sense, both Marxist and liberal
  IPE scholars protested against the reliance of
  Western social science on the territorial state
  as a unit of analysis, and stressed the
  international system. (wikipedia free
  encyclopedia)

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Today

• IPE emerging true interdiscipline
• Multi-level governance
• Interest, Ideas
  Institutions
• --------------------------------------------------
  -------------------------
• Global economy /
• international politics
• (e.g. international bargains, IOs)
• --------------------------------------------------
  ---------------------------
• Interest, Ideas,
  Institutions (Policies)

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Example

• WTO in Crisis
• Affect domestic interests?
• Affect domestic institutions?
• Affect domestic ideas?
• Affect the global economy?
• Affect other global trade fora, regional and
  bilateral trade agreements?

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I Approaches and Concepts in
Global/International Political Economy

• 24 October 2006 Introduction What is IPE
• 31 October 2006 Different perspectives to
  study IPE
• 7 November 2006 On Hegemons and the
  development of regimes
• 14 November 2006 Cooperation and
  International Institutions
• 21 November 2006 Domestic sources of foreign
  economic policies

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II The Evolution of the International
Political Economy

• 28 November 2006 The Post-1945 International
  Economic Order
• (first paper questions)
• 5 December 2006 Evolution of Monetary and
  Trade Regimes
• (paper due)

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III Globalization and Contemporary Issues in
the International Political Economy

• 12 December 2006 Globalization and the State
• 19 December 2006 MNCs and non-state actors
  (private actors)
• 9 January 2007 Regionalism
• 16 January 2007 Developing countries and IPE
• 23 January 2007 Global Economic Institutions
  and Law

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• 30 January 2007 Exam
• Do you have any questions?