Perspectives on the International Political Economy

2 ways to look at the IPE
    • As a system

        – International markets vs. international governance
        – The role of the US in the system
        – Relational vs. structural power
    • As foreign economic policy
        – IPE as a tool of state power, or
        – Politics and economics as separate domains

Government Policy and the International Economy
    • What kind of policies can affect the international political economy?

        – Trade policy
        – Monetary policy (Interest rates and the money supply)
        – Fiscal policy (taxation and spending)
        – Regulation (e.g. labor, environment, industrial)
    • Both  international cooperation and international competition are possible on all four.

Absolute and Relative Gains
    • Relative gains:  getting more than others
    • Absolute gains:  getting more than you had before
    • Relative gains, mercantilism, and power
    • Absolute gains, liberalism, and markets

Classical Mercantilism
    • Wealth is power
    • The IPE has winners and losers, therefore relative gains matter
    • Mercantilism and the seventeenth century context

Nationalist Mercantilism
    • Hamilton and Liszt
        – In reality, power interferes with markets
        – Industrialization requires government support.
        – Industrialization and military potential

Neomercantilism
    • Economic policy, security policy, and the Cold War
    • Mercantilism and transnational corporations
    • Is Japan a successful neomercantilist state?
    • The long, storied history of bananas in international politics.
    • The North, the South, and mercantilism

Classical Liberalism
    • The pursuit of wealth and the pursuit of power should be kept separate
        – IPE is a positive-sum game
    • Liberalism as economic theory versus liberalism as political ideology
        – Adam Smith vs. the Manchester School
    • Nineteenth century liberalism
        – Fiscal orthodoxy and domestic adjustment

Neoliberalism
    • Keynes and state intervention
    • Neoclassical liberalism and libertarianism
    • Neoconservatism
    • Keynesianism, neoconservatism, and the Washington Consensus
        – The debate continues

The IPE as a System
    • What kind of system is the IPE?
        – Self-organizing systems vs. managed systems
    • Multilateralism vs. hegemonic stability
    • Public goods vs. malevolent hegemony
    • Market system vs. planned system

Marxism/Structuralism
    • Marx, materialism, and class
    • Lenin, finance, and imperialism
    • Marxism and the Soviet state

Contemporary Marxist IPE
    • Dependency theory
        – The terms of trade
        – Autarchy
    • World systems theory
        – The core, the periphery, and domestic politics
    • Both approaches see contemporary globalization as a form of neocolonialism

The Rational Choice Critique
    • There is no state or class interest
        – There is only individual interest
    • Political economy is about rent-seeking
    • The rational choice critique and:
        – Bananas
        – Enron

Critical Theory
    • Anything that questions the assumption that growth is always good
    • Postmodern critical theory
        – The idea of a ‘system’ is misguided
        – Look for the agenda behind any analysis

Other Critical Approaches
    • The feminist critique
    • The environmental critique
    • The critique from the South
- All of these can come from a variety of perspectives, from the liberal to the postmodern