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Riza Noer Arfani 2007 Global Political Economy Graduate Program in International Relations (GPIR) Gadjah Mada University

Emergence of international political economy (IPE) as a major subfield of the study of international relations (IR) in the early 1970s
As a response both to global economic changes

IPEs central focus on the interrelationship between public & private power in the allocation of scarce resources
Study on the distribution of power among states

(long boom stable economic growth in the early post-war years through to 1970) and to trends in theorizing within & outside the discipline (threefold approaches: liberalism, nationalism/mercantilism, marxism)

and the problem of cooperation under anarchy

The nature of the crisis: close interrelationship between the trade & financial spheres
Recall: cases from Thailand, Korea and

Indonesia where:

The emergence of the crisis: combination of domestic inflation, a fixed exchange rate, the depreciation of the currencies of the competitors, and massive inflows of shortterm capital The aftermath of the crisis: controversial IMF

Their economic successes are owed much to the relocation of manufacturing industry from Northeast Asian countries) during the 1970s-80s Substantial inflows of FDIs and portfolio investment were abundant in the first half of the 1990s

Speed of development transmission among countries Increased significance of private actors in contemporary global economy Needs to regulate internationa market (both at regional and global levels) Vulnerability of contemporary global financial systems to periodic crisis Increased severity of financial crisis Accelerated natural resources depletion as a environmental regulations were set aside & people opted for less expensive & environmentally damaging production & harvesting methods Growing significance of civic groups in articulating alternative approaches on many

The pre-1914 world economy


The inter-war world economy


Modern world economy came into existence in the 15th & 16th centuries Unchanged fundamental composition & direction of international trade No significant international financial & trade institution constructed Advances in technology as the driving force of market integration, investment growth & migration in the 19th century The gold standard as mechanism which removed the risk of foreign exchange losses Misalignment of exchange rates Recession of world economy No significant negotiation among states to construct international economic institution Multilateralism as a principle in constructing international economic institutions, both at regional and global levels High growth rates of the world economy (the long boom period) as trade & foreign investment grew more rapidly than production TNCs & FDIs emerged as key agents in the process of internationalization The composition and direction of international trade changed dramatically (recall: intra-firm trade in industrialized economies) Number of countries in the international system rose substantially

The post-1945 world economy


Whats

Global

in a name? International vs.

International is rather misleading

Abandonment

of the study of international economic institutions by economics profession/economic discipline


Political scientists discovered a vacuum

adjective as it fails to acknowledge the significance of private actors in global politics Global provides more accurate subject matter in the study of contemporary global economy and politics

The

field of IPE emerged in the early 1970s in response to developments in world economy, international security, and in the study of economics and international relations IPE is a field of enquiry rather than a particular theory or method IPE is best defined by its subject matter rather than a particular

Robert Gilpins (1987, 2001) thrichotomy:


Liberalism Nationalism (mercantilism, statism, realism, economic

The trichotomy is viewed as ideologies (world-views, belief systems) rather than theories in a scientific sense important for their presciptive/normative elements Contemporary approaches in IPE:
Many concern less with prescription Seeks to explain, e.g., how differences in political institutions

nationalism) Marxism (radical, critical, structuralist, dependency, underdevelopment, world system)

shape policy decisions, why sectors of the economy are more successful than others in seeking protection, why it is easier for states to collaborate on some issues rather than others, why states have increasingly pursued trade agreements at the regional instead of the global level, why states have been unable to agree to an efefctive regime for dealing with international debt, why some global environments regimes are effective while others are not, etc...

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