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POLITICAL SCIENCE 222LECTURE 1.2: GPE AS A DISCIPLINE
INTRODUCTION
- International Political Economy (IPE) emerged as a discipline in the mid-1970s
o Interdisciplinary approach (not purely economic)
o Focuses heavily on the state, unit of analysis
- Global Political Economy (GPE) 1980s (obsession with globalisation)
o Fall of the Berlin wall (1989) meant a new Interconnect world with new actors can to the
rise
o New actors became more important than states
o Transnational companies exceed the wealth of small nation states
o Don’t only look at states, also look at other market actors (non-gov organisation &
transnational organisations)
o State not only actor we study
- Distinct subfield of International Relations
- IPE vs. GPE
o IPE academic field of study. Examines the interaction of economic and political
phenomena across state borders
o GPE live in globalised world, many actors are of importance. Not just state
WHY?
- Arab Oil Embargo (1973-1974)
o A war in middle east.US & Netherlands support Israel in the war
o Large oil reserve state. Put an oil embargo on US & Netherlands
o Oil embargo refused to provide oil to US & Netherlands
o Both countries were very reliant on oil (industrial revolution)
o Netherlands biggest port for Europe to bring in oil
o Shortage of oil in Europe & US
o Scare resource, (supply low), prices increased
o Increase oil, all prices go up
o Inflation US & western Europe
- ‘Nixon Shock’ (1971)
o Richard Nixon was president at the time
o Needed to curb inflation
o Instituted various economic measures
o Seized the direct convertibility of US dollar to gold
o The dollar was no longer pegged to the value to the value of gold
o Other currencies were no longer pegged to the dollar
o Break down of the Bretton Woods system
- Interdependence became a growing concern
o Focus on domestic and international level
- Wide variety of actors (esp. non-state actors ) became relevant
o Transnational corporations
o Transcend boarders
o Climate change, migration, COVID-19 governed on a global level
o Cant solely rely on states themselves
o Non-governmental organisations
- Efforts to include ‘economics’ alongside traditional security concerns of i.r
o Military, power
o Realised there were other economic issues they needed to study
, o The state didn’t have exclusive control over the economy
o Discipline had to be widened to include transnational and economic issues
STUDYING GPE
- Just politics or just economics insufficient
- GPE demands an interdisciplinary approach
o Combine economics, politics & sociology
- Allows for greater complexity – therefore greater explanatory power?
o Have more explanatory power
o E.g. example trade war & effect of COVID-19 on markets in the world
o Predict & analyse the future
o Solve certain problems by combining disciplinaries
- “The whole point of studying IPE rather than IR is to extend more widely the conventional limits of
the study of politics…” - Susan Strange
WEALTH VS. POWER
- IR / Politics: Power as the ability to produce intended effects (tends to ignore wealth as power)
o Power Ability to produce intended effects
o How does A get B to do something, that B otherwise would not have done
o Politics ignores wealth/ economics as power
o UN, G20, WTO intention of providing some international order
Wealth matters, control international organisations.
More decision making power and soft power
Not just about demographics/ military
- Economics: scarcity, distribution, consumption (tends to ignore power as determining economic
decisions)
o Studying scarcity
o How much do we pay for this scare resource? How do we get hold of this scare resource
o Ignores power
o Power played a large role in Trump putting tariffs on China
o States can interfere with the market & have consequences
- GPE: Wealth as power (disparities in wealth between nations)
o Combine economics & politics
o Wealth is power
o Disparities of power (North vs South)
o Marxism economic theory & political theory
- Political structures ⟺ economic interactions
o Political structures lead to or determine economic interactions
o Economic interactions change political structures
- “[IPE is] the set of international and global problems that cannot usefully be understood or
analysed as just international politics or just international economics.” – Michael Veseth
- “Since most economic questions are notoriously political, and almost all political questions involve
some economic considerations, one cannot describe issues any more as ‘purely economic’ or as
‘purely political’. Both are both.” – Susan Strange
- Interplay between the state, market and society
- The State: IPE challenges IR notions of states and power by suggesting that states can lose power
to, for example, market actors ( to transnational corporations)
o States want to lure transnational corporations for their economies (increase revenue & tax)
o However these transnational corporations gain power and can be disruptive. Power for
policies and tax evasion
- The Market: efficiency vs. power
, o No purely about efficiency
o State can interfere to achieve certain aims (power)
- Society: what role does society and its values and beliefs play?
o Communist norms and beliefs influence the state’s role
WHY DO WE STUDY?
- Impact of transnational corporations (production, global division of labour, gender, the
environment)
- International finance (Global Financial Crisis 2007-2009)
- International trade (trade wars between the U.S. and China)
- Development & North-South relations
- Interdependence & globalisation?? (Brexit, election of Donald Trump, xenophobic violence in SA)
- COVID 19
O’BRIEN & WILLIAMS’ (2016) APPROACH
- Historical approach
o When did GPE begin?
o 1400s now
- Theoretical perspectives
o Realism
o Liberalism
o Critical theory Marxism
- Material & ideational aspects (Constructivism)
- Globalisation
TIPS FOR QUIZ 1
- Know definition of globalisation and what it includes/ excludes
- Know approach of the book
- Only 4 questions from Chapter 1
- Don’t need to read constructivism
- Divide became fluid
- Know Nixon Shock
- Similarities between the theories
, POLITICAL SCIENCE 222
LECTURE 2.1: THEORIES (MERCANTILISM)
THEORY
- The same subject can be examined in different disciplines from a variety of perspectives
- Theories explain, describe and predict (glasses with different lenses)
- Different theories have different basic assumptions about
a) the units of analysis
b) the nature of the system
c) The motivations of the actors (they are thus incompatible)
- We choose theories for their specific utility – “Theory is always for someone and some purpose.” –
Robert Cox
- Social location of observer is important
o In a rich suburb in USA, township in SA (perception of world is different)
o Global south critical theories
o Global North positivity theories like realism and liberalism
- Use theory to explain certain events, why they are happening, why they take the shape they do, to
describe them, by predicting what will happen in the future
- Utility of theory: Predict how states/ actors will behave, what will happen in the future
o Describe, explain, analyse the world
o Change the world, critique the system, social justice
- Incompatible so different, not really overlap between them
- Never allow a theory to own you. See them for their utility. Some more useful in specific events
- Use theory, instead of theory using you
- Tool to use to make sense of the world (variety of tools)
- Main Theories
o Economic nationalism / mercantilism
role of the state and the importance of power in shaping outcomes in i.p.e.
main actor: state
motivations of actors: acquire power & maximise power in an anarchic system
(chaos, no central authority above that of the state)
o Liberalism
emphasis on the individual & non state actors
Why cooperation → peace
importance of economy, non-interference in market
Main actor: individual & non-state actors
Motivations: cooperate to achieve peace
States that work together, will never go to war
State is problem, not solution
o Constructivism
values, norms, ideas, language
reality is socially constructed
intersubjective understanding
o Critical theories
question the way the world is organised
challenge structures of power
Propose how the world could and should change to make it more equitable
Purpose: question the way the world is organised
Challenge structures of power & organisation
Pose a way the world can be changed to be more equitable
Social justice
A. Marxism (class)
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