40043 - Politics of The World Economy

Learning outcomes

This graduate course provides the student with key elements to intepret and understand the interaction between political and economic processes at the international level. At the end of the course the student will have acquired an advanced knowledge of the main themes and issues at stake in global political-economic relations (development, trade and security issues, financial crises and the management of power asymmetries in the international system, global governance issues). She/He will also have developed abilities to understand and critically assess the main causal links, interest constellations and power relationships that are at the core of most political-economy processes at the international level.

Course contents

The first part of the course covers the most relevant theoretical approaches to the study of IPE. In addition to the three orthodox approaches (Mercantilism, Liberalism, Marxism), the course will  focus on the role of domestic and international political determinants in the explanations of different economic outcomes, as well as on the complex relation between security and economic interdependence.

The second part of the course will be devoted to the study of international monetary, trade and financial systems. Against their historical and institutional backgrounds, classes will cover, respectively, the role of international insitutions in systemic crises and in managing power asymmetries, main development issues in North-South relations and the debate on globalization.

Erasmus, Overseas and Visiting students are offered the opportunity to attend a separate module, entirely taught in English, covering the same topics of the main course, and held with the same modalities (taught classes and class discussion). Italian speaking students who wish to attend the integrative module in English may choose to do so. However, participation to the integrative module for Italian speaking students is not compulsory and does not count as a requirement towards the completion of credits.

Preparation will be assessed based on class participation as well as on a written and oral final exam on the readings that are indicated below.

Students who choose to not attend classess will be asssessed based on a written and oral final exam, on the readings indicated below. They shall add to such material the reading of John Ravenhill's (ed), Global Political Economy, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011.

Additional non-required readings on covered topics may be indicated during the course.

First Part

1. Introduction to the study of International political economy

-J. Frieden e R. Lake, "Introduction", in J. Frieden and D. Lake, International Political Economy, London and New York, Routledge, 1995, pp.1-15;

Cohen, B.J., International Political Economy, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2008, Introduction and Chapters 1-2.

- R. Rogowski, “Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade”, American Political Science Review, 81, 4, 1987, pp. 1121-1137;

-S. Strange, “States, Firms, and Diplomacy”, International Affairs, 68, 1, 1992, pp.1-15;

 

2. The Mercantilist Tradition

- D. Irwin, Against The Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1996, pp.116-137 (The Infant Industry Argument);

- A.O. Hirschman, National Power and The Structure of Foreign Trade, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1945, trad. it. Potenza nazionale e commercio estero , Bologna, Il Mulino, 1987, pp. 63-74 e pp. 75-124;

-R. Findlay e K. H. O'Rourke, ‘World Trade 1650-1780: The Age of Mercantilism', in Power and Plenty, Oxford and Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008, Capitolo 5, solo pp. 227-294 e 304-310 (pagine scelte)

 

3. The Liberal Tradition  

- I. Kant, Per la pace perpetua, [1795], traduzione di Roberto Bordiga, prefazione di Salvatore Veca, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2002, 8° edizione, pp.53-68 (Primo, Secondo e Terzo Articolo);

- D. Irwin, Against The Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade, op. cit., pp.75-86 (Adam Smith's Case for Free Trade), e pp.87-98 (Free trade in classical economics);

-R. Keohane, After Hegemony, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1984, pp.49-64, pp. 85-109 e pp.243-259;

-J. R. Oneal, e B. Russett, “The Kantian Peace: The Pacific Benefits of Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations, 1885-1992”, World Politics, 52, 1, 1999, 22, pp. 1-36;

-R.Stone, “Institutions, Power and Interdependence”, in H. Milner e A.Moravcsik (eds), Power, Interdependence and Nonstate Actors in World Politics, Princeton Unversity Press Princeton, 2009, pp. 31-49.

 

4. Security and economic interdependence (I). Systemic change: Hegemonic Stability Theory and its critics

-S. Krasner, “State Power and the Structure of International Trade”, World Politics, 28, 3, 1976, pp. 317-347;

-C. Kindleberger, “Dominance and Leadership in The World Economy: Exploitation, Public Goods, and Free Riders”, International Studies Quarterly, 25, 1981, pp.242-254;

-J. Conybeare, “Public Goods, Prisoners' Dilemma and The International Political Economy”, International Studies Quarterly, 28, 1984, pp.5-22;

- D. Snidal, “The Limits of Hegemonic Stability Theory”, International Organization, 39, 1985, pp.579-614;

 

5. Security and economic interdependence (II). Balance of power Theories: Relative gains, alliances and trade policies

- J. M. Grieco, “Anarchy and the limits of cooperation: a realist critique to the newest liberal institutionalism”, International Organization, 43, 2, Estate 1988, pp.485-507;

- J. Gowa, e E.D. Mansfield, “Power Politics And International Trade”, American Political Science Review, 87, No.2, June 1993, pp.408-420;

-E. Baroncelli, “Il dividendo della pace tramite il commercio: il caso del SAFTA”, in E. Baroncelli, Alle radici della globalizzazione, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2010. pp. 225-267.

On the India-Pakistan case study, students may alternatively prepare selected pages from the following book (in English), which will count as a substitution  for the chapter above (“Il dividendo della pace tramite il commercio: il caso del SAFTA”):

-E.Baroncelli, Conflict and regional integration between Pakistan and India. An inquiry into the economic gains and the "peace dividend" from Safta, Giorgio Pozzi Editore, Ravenna, 2012, selected pages.

 

6. Domestic determinants: preferences and institutions

- D. Putnam, “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two Level Games”, International Organization, 42, 3, Estate 1988, pp.427-460;

-M. Olson e M. McGuire, “The economics of autocracy and majority rule: the invisible hand and the use of force”, Journal of Economic Literature, 34, Marzo 1996, pp.72-96;

- E.D. Mansfield, H.V. Milner e  P.B. Rosendorff,  “Free to Trade: Democracies, Autocracies and International Trade”, Americal Political Science Review, 94, 2000, pp.305-321;

-J. Gerring, P. Bond, W.T.Barndt, e C. Moreno, “Democracy and Economic Growth: A Historical Perspective”, in World Politics, 57, pp-323-364.

-E. Baroncelli, “Mercato e res publicae: una legge aurea?”, in E.Baroncelli, Alle radici della globalizzazione, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2010, pp.175-224.

 

Second Part

 

7. The International Monetary System

-J. Ruggie, "International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order", International Organization, 36, 2, Primavera 1982, pp.379-415;

-B. Cohen, “The Triad and The Unholy Trinity: Problems of International Monetary Cooperation”, J. Frieden and D.Lake, eds., 1995, op.cit., pp.255-266;

-M. Obstfeld, “The Global Capital Market: Benefactor or Menace?”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12, 4, Autunno 1998, pp.9-30;

-B. Eichengreen (2011) ‘International Policy Coordination: The Long View', NBER Working Paper No. 17665, available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17665

 

8. The International Trade System

-R. Findlay e K. H. O'Rourke, ‘Reglobalization: The Late Twentieth Century in Historical Perspective', in Power and Plenty, Oxford and Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008, Capitolo 9, pp.473-526.

-J.Barton, J.Goldstein, T.E. Josling e R.H. Steinberg, The Evolution of the Trade Regime, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2006, Chapters 2 and 5.

 - J. Whalley, “Why Do Countries Seek Regional Trade Agreements?”, in Jeffrey Frankel, (ed.), The regionalization of the world economy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998, pp.63-87;

-A. Mattoo e  A. Subramanian, “From Doha to the Next Bretton Woods. A New Multilateral Trade Agenda”, in Foreign Affairs, 88, 1, 2009.

 

9. The political economy of North-South relations 

- J. Grieco e J. Ikenberrry, State Power and World Markets, W. W. Norton, New York & London, 2003, pp.244-287.

- C. Burnside, e D. Dollar, “Aid, Policies and Growth”, American Economic Review, 90:4, 2000, September, pp.847-868.

-Easterly, W. , The White Man's Burden, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 2006, pp.33-49 ‘The Legend of the Big Push', e pp.99-138, ‘Planners and Gangsters'.

-F.Cleaver. The Inequality of Social Capital and the Reproduction of Chronic Poverty, in World Development, 33, 6, 2005, pp.893-906.

D. Craig e D. Porter, “Vietnam: Framing the community, clasping the people”, in Development beyond Neoliberalism?, Routledge 2006, pp. 125-154

 

10. The role of multilateral institutions

-N. Woods, The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, And Their Borrowers, Cornell University Press, 2006, 179-213.

-C. Murphy, The World Bank and Global Managerialism, Routledge. 2009, 53-73.

- D. Lombardi (2010) ‘Globalizzazione, sistema monetario e riforma del Fondo Monetario Internazionale', in P. Guerrieri e D. Lombardi (eds) L'architettura del mondo nuovo, Bologna, Il Mulino, pp.131-151.

- E. Truman (2011) ‘G-20 Reforms of the International Monetary System: An Evaluation', PB 11-19 Washington DC, Peterson Institute, available at. http://www.iie.com/publications/pb/pb11-19.pdf

 

11. The debate on globalization

 

-R.O. Keohane e J. S. Nye, “Globalization: What's New? What's Not? (And So What ?)”, Foreign Policy, 118, pp.104-119, 2000;

-R. Findlay e K. H. O'Rourke, ‘Globalization at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century', in Power and Plenty, Oxford and Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008, Capitolo 10, pp.527-546.

-M. Zürn, “From Interdependence to Globalization”, in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse e Beth A. Simmons, Handbook of International Relations, Sage, London, 2002, pp. 235-254;

-D. Rodrik, Has Globalization Gone Too Far?, Institute of International Economics, Washington, 1997, pp.1-10 e pp.69-85;

-J.E. Stiglitz, Globalization and its discontents, W.W. Norton, New York, 2002, pp. 214-252.

Teaching methods

Taught classes and class discussion, divided in two modules, with the help of visual tools (ppt and web resources).

Assessment methods

Assessing the acquisition of expected knowledge and abilities for the students who attend classes is based on the following three levels: 1.Contribution to class discussion (worth 20%  of the final grade); 2. Final written exam, multiple choice (worth 40%  of the final grade); 3. Final oral exam (worth 40%  of the final grade), on the whole program excluding the Ravenhill handbook (2011)

The written final exam is articulated through 10 multiple choice questions, with three answers, only one of which is correct. Each correct anwers is worth 3 points (10 correct answers corresponding to the maximum grade obtainable in the written exam, 30/30). No penalty is attributed for wrong answers. The student may sit the final oral exam as long as she/he has totaled at least 5 correct answers (i.e. a grade equal or above 15). The written exam is explicitly aimed at testing the student's acquired knowledge of the main IPE Schools, theories and models, as well as of the main empirical applications, as discussed in class. 

The oral exam lasts approximately 20 minutes, and  is articulated through three questions, suggested by the Professor, aimed at testing the student's ability to verbally articulate themes and methods discussed in class, offering the student the opportunity to show her/his ability to crtitically reassess such material.

Assessing the acquisition of expected knowledge and abilities for the students who choose not to attend classes is based on the following two levels: 1.Final written exam, multiple choice (worth 50% of the final grade) 2.Final oral exam (worth 50% of the final grade), on the whole program, including the Ravenhill handbook (2011).

For the students who choose not to attend classes the final written multiple choice exam is composed of 15 questions (2 pts for each correct answer, and no penalty for wrong answers) instead of 10, focusing on the readings indicated in the Syllabus and including the Ravenhill Handbook (2011). The final oral exam has the same format -and same evaluation criteria- adopted for the attending student (3 open questions), but focuses both on the Syllabus and the Handbook. Written and oral exams for non attending students exclude topcis discussed in class.

Foreign students (Erasmus, Overseas, Visiting) may choose to sit both the written and oral final exams entirely in English. They are also offered the opportunity to participate to class discussion through the English taught integrative module.

Teaching tools

ppt, web resources.

Office hours

See the website of Eugenia Baroncelli