5AAYEU14 International Political Economy
Credit value: 30 credits
Module tutor: Professor Alex Callinicos
Assessment: One 3000 word assessed essay (50%); One 3 hour examination (50%)
Teaching arrangements: Two hours per week
This module will provide students with an introduction to International Political Economy (IPE) as a basis for understanding Europe’s place within it. Students will be introduced to the main subject matter of IPE as a discipline; they will receive grounding in political economy as a distinctive intellectual approach within the social sciences; they will cover the main competing theoretical and methodological approaches to IPE; and they will also study a selection of issues that throw light on the development of the global political economy and of Europe’s place within it.
International Political Economy (IPE) is one of the most intellectually exciting and stimulating disciplines in the social sciences today. It has developed over the past few decades as it has become clear that more specialized disciplines such as Economics, Politics, and Sociology are inadequate to understand the complex shifts in power that have developed thanks to the processes normally described as globalization. IPE is a key intellectual tool in understanding where Europe – and indeed the world – are heading.
Module aims
The aim of the module will be to provide students with an introduction to International Political Economy as a basis for understanding Europe’s place in the contemporary global political economy. More specifically: Students will be introduced to the main subject matter of IPE as a discipline;
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They will receive grounding in political economy as a distinctive intellectual approach within the social sciences;
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They will cover the main competing theoretical and methodological approaches to IPE; and
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They will also study a selection of issues that throw light on the development of the global political economy and of Europe’s place within it.
Introductory reading
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J. Baylis and S. Smith, ed., The Globalization of World Politics (Oxford: OUP, 2005)
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A. Glyn, Capitalism Unleashed (Oxford: OUP, 2006)
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J. Ravenhill, ed., Global Political Economy (Oxford: OUP, 2005)
Module outline
1. Introduction: What is International Political Economy?
Perspectives on Political Economy
2. Adam Smith: The Invention of the Market Economy
3. Karl Marx: The Critique of Political Economy
4. Maynard Keynes: The Limits of the Market
5. Karl Polanyi: Market vs. Society
Understanding the International
6. Realism: The State System as Anarchy
7. Liberal Internationalism: The Promise of International Order
8. Cosmopolitanism: The World as a Moral Community
9. Marxism: Exploitation, Imperialism, and Revolution
Issues in International Political Economy10. Globalization, I: What is Globalization?
11. Globalization, II: Globalization and the State
12. Globalization, III: Critics of Globalization
13. Patterns of Production and Investment
14. The Political Economy of Trade
15. Financial Markets and Economic Crises
16. Development, Poverty, and Inequality
17. Empire and Imperialism
18. The European Union in the Global Political Economy
19. Global Justice?
20. Revision Class