You are on page 1of 11

Fall 2017 / T & R 11:15am - 12:30pm / Swain East 105

Political Science 376: International


Political Economy

William Kindred Winecoff

Indiana University at Bloomington


Office: Woodburn 403
Office Hours: T & R 1:00-2:15 oba
Online Hours: TBD
wkwineco@indiana.edu

course description
No truly free market has ever existed or ever can exist. Production, in-
vestment, and exchange in the world economy is governed by politics, the
process of determining how a society’s resources are distributed. This
process of rule-setting occurs at the subnational, national, and interna-
tional levels and political power exists within and across each level. As
these rules benefit some groups and harm others, bargaining occurs both
within and between governments. Private sector agents – such as firms,
workers, farmers, and advocacy organizations – both influence this pro-
cess and respond to it. International political economy (IPE) is the subfield
of political science that studies this system.
Our broad objective is to apply central analytical tools that IPE schol-
ars have developed to better understand how the interaction between pol-
itics and markets drives outcomes in the global economic system. We will
focus our study on three interlocking systems: the global trading subsys-
tem, the global financial subsystem, and the global development subsys-
tem. We will consider how the global political economy has changed over
time, and consider what future changes may be possible. In so doing, we

1
2

will emphasize three forces that shape the politics of the global economy
– hierarchies, institutions, and interconnectedness – and consider how in-
terests, ideas, and history influence each of them.
The basic structure of the course is as follows. First, we will explore
the politics of the global trading system, including comparative and histor-
ical developments related to trade openness, labor rights, environmental
standards, and the influence of the World Trade Organization. We then
examine the ways in which the international monetary and financial sub-
system has developed to facilitate trade and investment, and which peri-
odically triggers economic instability and crisis. We will discuss the role
of central banks in the global financial system, the changing role and ori-
entation of the International Monetary Fund, and efforts to regulate the
global financial system. Finally, we turn to the politics of economic de-
velopment, including such topics as foreign aid, immigration, inequality,
structural adjustment, and the role of the World Bank.

requirements
Students are expected to attend all lectures having read the assigned
material in advance. This class requires approximately 80-100 pages of
reading per week, and it is essential that you keep up. I will not take at-
tendance but may periodically quiz the class on material from the day’s
readings. Quiz grades will be combined with the exam grades for that
section of the course. There will be three examinations that will draw
from the readings and lectures. As of now these will primarily be multiple
choice but there may be an additional essay component. This may change
as the course progresses.
Additionally, there will be timed weekly quizzes that ask you to respond
to that week’s readings and lectures. These will be a mix of multiple choice
and short answer, and can be taken with open notes. The quizzes will be
taken on the course website. Each student’s lowest quiz score will be
dropped. These quizzes will be available on the course website. These
quizzes are designed to reward students who read the material diligently
and also to help you study for the exams.
The overall course grade breaks down as follows:

· Midterm 1: 25%.
· Midterm 2: 25%.
3

· Final Exam: 30%

· Quizzes 20%.

In my experience, students who attend class, do the readings, and


come to office hours when they are confused do well in my classes. Stu-
dents who do not do these things often suffer.

grading policy
I will not accept late papers or give make-up examinations except in the
case of a documented medical emergency. Grade appeals must be made
in writing, with an explanation of why additional points are deserved, no
sooner than one week after a graded assignment is returned – to allow
for appropriate reflection – and no later than two weeks after a graded
assignment is returned.

current events
We will spend the beginning of each class session discussing current events
related to the course. It’s a very interesting time to be studying the pol-
itics of the global economy, so there’s plenty to talk about. In order for
this to be worthwhile, you need to know what’s going on. So pick a rep-
utable news source – I don’t care which one – and follow along. If you’d
like recommendations let me know.

academic honesty
“The Indiana University Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Con-
duct defines academic misconduct [as]:

any activity that tends to undermine the academic integrity of


the institution . . . Academic misconduct may involve human,
hard-copy, or electronic resources . . . Academic misconduct
includes, but is not limited to . . . cheating, fabrication, pla-
giarism, interference, violation of course rules, and facilitating
academic misconduct. (II. G.1-6).”
4

More here:
http://teaching.iub.edu/policies_misconduct.php?nav=policies.
And here:
http://www.iu.edu/~code/index.shtml.
Please note that if you are unsure whether some conduct is a violation
of the Code, it is fine to ask. There is no penalty involved with seeking a
clarification on policies, or advice on how to stay within them, and I am
happy to help. The goal of these policies is to help you, not hurt you. That
said, I take violation of these rules very seriously and will take appropriate
action if I find that you are not living up to them.

disability
If any student will require assistance or academic accommodations for a
disability, please contact me after class, during my office hours, or by indi-
vidual appointment. You must have established your eligibility for disabil-
ity support services through the Office of Disability Services for Students
in Wells Library W302, 812-855-7578.

student privacy
It is expected that the privacy of the class will be respected. Personal in-
formation disclosed in course should not be repeated or discussed outside
of the course, especially with students not enrolled in the course.

technology policy
The use of laptops and tablets is permitted for class-related activities (i.e.
note-taking) only. The use of cellphones is not permitted at all. Note: it’s
pretty obvious (to me) when you’re text messaging, instant messaging, or
otherwise using technology for purposes unrelated to the course. This is
disrupting to your classmates, and to me. I reserve the right to deduct
points from your final grade if I observe you failing to observe by these
rules.
5

extra help
Do not hesitate to come to my office during office hours or by appointment
to discuss course materials, examination results, paper projects, or any
aspect of the course. I will post to the course website several articles
that provide good advice for writing research papers in political science.
You also may want to consider the tutoring services offered by Indiana
University, in particular the reading and writing tutoring (which is free).
Information is available at:
http://studentaffairs.iub.edu/academic-resources-and-support/.

readings and schedule


There are two required books:

· Thomas Oatley. International Political Economy. Longman, 5th edi-


tion, 2011.

· Jeffry A. Frieden. Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twenti-
eth Century. W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY and London,
2006.

All other readings will be provided on the course website.

i: introduction (aug. 22)


No readings.

ii: a crash course in pre-war economic history (aug. 24)


Frieden, chs.: Prologue, 1, 5, 8. Foreword and Preface not required but are short
and recommended. Other non-assigned chapters might be interesting for
some of you, and I encourage reading them, but are also not required.

iii: all the king’s horses and all the king’s men? (aug.
29)
Frieden, ch.: 9.
Benn Steil. Red white. Foreign Affairs, 92(2), 2013.
6

iv: (aug. 31)


NO CLASS - CONFERENCE TRAVEL

v: the economic case for trade (sept. 5)


Oatley, ch.: 3.
Daniel W. Drezner. The outsourcing bogeyman. Foreign Affairs, May/June, 2004.
Dany Bahar. The case for open markets. The Cairo Review, 26:41–45, 2017.

vi: the domestic politics of trade (sept. 7)


Oatley, chs.: 4-5.

vii: the international politics of trade (sept. 12)


Helen V. Milner. The political economy of international trade. Annual Review of
Political Science, 2:91–114, 1999.
William H. Cooper. The future of u.s. trade policy: An analysis of issues and
options for the 112th congress. Congressional Research Service Report
for Congress, 7(5700), 2011.

viii: (sept. 14)


NO CLASS - CONFERENCE TRAVEL

ix: the world trade organization (sept. 19)


Oatley, ch.: 2.
Randy Schnepf. Brazil’s wto case against the u.s. cotton program. Congressional
Research Service Report for Congress, 7(5700), 2010.

x: the doha round (sept. 21)


David S. Christy. ‘round and ‘round we go... World Policy Journal, Summer:19–27,
2008.
Paul Blustein. The nine-day misadventure of the most favored nations. Brookings
Global Economy and Development, 2008.
7

Surupa Gupta and Sumit Ganguly. Modi bets the farm. Foreign Affairs, August
12, 2014.

xi: ptas, mncs, and opposition to trade (sept. 26)


Oatley, chs.: 9.
Paul Krugman. In praise of cheap labor. Slate, March 21, March 21 1997.
Sarah Bauerle Danzman and W. Kindred Winecoff. The strange politics of u.s.-eu
free trade. The National Interest, February 14, 2013.

xii: (sept. 28)


Exam One.

xiii: the pre-wwii monetary system (oct. 3)


Frieden, ch.: 12.
Charles Kindleberger. The World in Depression, 1929-1939. University of Cali-
fornia Press, Berkeley, CA, 1973.

xiv: politics of the ‘unholy trinity’ (oct. 5)


Frieden, pp. 459-464.
Oatley, pp. 255-257.
Oatley, chs.: 12-13.

xv: bretton woods (oct. 10)


Frieden, ch.: 15.
G. John Ikenberry. The political origins of bretton woods. In Michael D. Bordo and
Barry Eichengreen, editors, A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System:
Lessons for International Monetary Reform, pages 155–198. University of
Chicago Press, 1993.

xvi: bretton woods ii (oct. 12)


Michael P. Dooley, David Folkerts-Landau, and Peter Garber. The revived bret-
ton woods system: The effects of periphery intervention and reserve man-
8

agement on interest rates and exchange rates in center countries. NBER


Working Paper No. 10332, 2004.
Jeffry A. Frieden. Global imbalances, national rebalancing, and the political
economy of recovery. Council on Foreign Relations Center for Geoeco-
nomic Studies and International Institutinos and Global Governance Pro-
gram working paper, 2009.

xvii: the (im)balance of payments (oct. 17)


Lorenzo Bini Smaghi. The triffin dilemma revisited. Speech by Lorenzo Bini
Smaghi, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Conference on
the International Monetary System: sustainability and reform proposals,
marking the 100th anniversary of Robert Triffin (1911-1993), at the Triffin
International Foundation, Brussels, 3 October 2011., 2011.
Ben S. Bernanke, Carol Bertaut, Laurie Pounder DeMarco, and Steven Kamin. In-
ternational capital flows and the returns to safe assets in the united states,
2003-2007. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Interna-
tional Finance Discussion Papers Number 1014, February 2011.

xviii: the international monetary fund (oct. 19)


Paul Blustein. A flop and a debacle: Inside the imf’s global rebalancing acts.
Center for International Governance Innovation Papers No. 4, 2012.

xix: developing world crises (oct. 24)


Oatley, chs.: 14-15.
Joseph Stiglitz. The insider: What i learned at the world economic crisis. The
New Republic, 222(16/17), 2000.
Kenneth Rogoff. An open letter to joe stiglitz, July 2 2002.
Kenneth Rogoff. The imf strikes back. Foreign Policy, January 2003.

xx: the global financial crisis (oct. 26)


Maurice Obstfeld and Kenneth Rogoff. Global Imbalances and the Financial Cri-
sis: Products of Common Causes. Proceedings of the Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco, October:131–172, 2009.
Daniel W. Drezner. The irony of global economic governance: The system worked.
World Politics, 66(1):123–164, 2014.
9

xxi: the eurozone crisis (oct. 31)


Fernanda Nechio. Long-run impact of the crisis in europe: Reforms and austerity
measures. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter, March
7 2011.
Vivien A. Schmidt. The european union’s eurozone crisis and what (not) to do
about it. Brown Journal of World Affairs, 17(1):199–213, 2010.
Mark Blyth. The austerity delusion: why a bad idea won over the west. Foreign
Affairs, 92(3), 2013.

xxii: (nov. 2)
Exam Two.

xxiii: the problem of poverty (nov. 7)


William Easterly. The failure of economic development. Challenge, 45(1):88–103,
2002.
Jeffrey D. Sachs. The development challenge. Foreign Affairs, 84(2):78–90, 2005.
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. More than 1 billion people are hungry in the
world. Foreign Policy, May/June, 2011.

xxiv: economics or politics? (nov. 9)


Antonio D’Agata and Guiseppe Freni. The structure of growth models: A compar-
ative survey. Working Paper, 2012.
Jeffrey D. Sachs. Government, geography, and growth. Foreign Affairs, Septem-
ber/October, 2012.

xxv: political economies of development (nov. 14)


David N. Balaam and Bradford Dillman. Introduction to International Political
Economy. Longman, 2010.
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Response to jeffrey sachs. Blog post:
http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2012/11/21/response-to-jeffrey-sachs.html, Novem-
ber 21 2012.
10

xxvi: import-substitution industrialization (nov. 16)


Oatley, ch.: 6.
Frieden, ch.: 13.

xxvii: (nov. 21)


No Class - Thanksgiving Break.

xxviii: (nov. 23)


No Class - Thanksgiving Break.

xxix: export-oriented industrialization (nov. 28)


Oatley, ch.:7
Frieden, ch.: 18
James Fallows. How the world works. The Atlantic, December 1993.

xxx: uneven development & the world bank (nov. 30)


Frieden, ch.: 19.
Robert Zoellick. Why we still need the world bank. Foreign Affairs, March/April,
2012.

xxxi: rising china (dec. 5)


Arvind Subramanian. The inevitable superpower. Foreign Affairs, 90(5):66–78,
2011.
Michael Pettis. A brief history of china’s growth model. Blog post, 2013.
Scott Kennedy. The myth of the beijing consensus. Journal of Contemporary
China, 19:461–477, 2010.

xxxii: the politics of inequality (dec. 7)


Branko Milanovic. The return of “patrimonial capitalism”: A review of thomas
piketty’s capital in the twenty-first century. Journal of Economic Literature,
52(2):519–534, 2014.
James K. Galbraith. Kapital for the twenty-first century? Dissent, (Spring), 2014.
11

xxxiii: fin. (dec. 14)


Final Exam - 12:30 - 2:30.

You might also like