AGENDA Intended learning outcomes
Global Political Economy 1. Global political economy as way of seeing world economy • Restate the aims of global political economy, this course
Perspectives on the origins of the contemporary world market
2. Theoretical traditions reflect assumption, normative stances • Summarize major theoretical traditions in GPE
Jonathan D. London 3. World capitalism on trial – Trade in historical perspective • Compare four key focuses of global political economy
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world at Leiden University Discover the on
• Explain GPE perspectives world at Leiden
trade Universitycapitalism
in historical
How can we understand origins of the present world economy?
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Global Political Economy, An Overview Complimentary insights and counterpoints
Part 1 – International Economics Part 2 – Global Political Economy • Economics useful but alone inadequate, at times misleading
• International Trade • Introduction to Global Political Economy
1. Introducing Global Political Economy – World trade: Absolute/comparative advantage – Historical capitalism • Economy not independent of politics, social/power relations
– Trade policy and regulation – From national development to neoliberalism
• International Production • Transnationalization and state effectiveness
– FDI, theory of the firm, regulation – Global commodity chains, financialization • Study of economy always context specific context matters
• International Financial Systems • Contemporary debates
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– Introduction to international finance the world at
– Leiden
Welfare &University
inequality/social reproduction & policy Discover
• GPE also concerns the world atprinciples
mechanisms, Leiden University
but not abstractions
– Exchange rates and the IMF – Democracy, the world market, inclusive growth
– Monetary unions and monetary crises – Debating a more secure and sustainable future
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What is global political economy? Focuses of contemporary global political economy Global Political Economy
• Addresses world economy, its development, dynamics, effects • Economic growth or Capital Accumulation – key, not privileged • Affirms social, political foundations of the world economy
– Assumes politics & economy may not be understood independently – Historically grounded, attention to path dependence, agency
• Welfare, fulfillment of needs, capabilities dev, ‘real freedom’
• Draws on multiple, sometimes rival theoretical traditions • Recognizes states’ unique roles, limits of state-centered analysis
– Rejects key assumptions of economics, draws on certain insights – Emphasizes increasingly transnational features of world market
• Inequality, i.e. uneven distributions of valued resources
• A multidisciplinary and in respects post-disciplinary field of study • Views world from different standpoints, perspectives
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• Environment, the the world
ecosystem as at Leiden
the basisUniversity
of social life Discover the world at Leiden University
– Old, recent, and changing – Does not embrace any particular view of how world is, ought to be
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, New global political economy differs AGENDA Intended learning outcomes
• Rejection of notion an “apolitical” world economy 1. Global political economy as way of seeing world economy • Summarise major theoretical traditions in GPE
– Economy Social, political, cultural, historical, geography.
2. Theoretical traditions reflect assumption, normative stances • Compare four key focuses of global political economy
• Embrace of multi-disciplinary approaches
– Economics, sociology, politics, anthropology, humanities
3. Trade in historical perspective • Explain GPE perspectives on trade in historical capitalism
• Attention to dynamics not top-down processes of change
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– World economy constituted of linked local processes
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Theoretical traditions Analytical focuses and perspectives
I. Liberal, neo-classical (economics) political economy 1. Broadening performance analytics
– Not only/mainly growth welfare, inequality, environment
1. Theoretical Traditions in
II. Critical political economy
Global Political Economy 2. Globalizing global political economy
III. ‘State centered’ | Nationalist | ‘developmentalist’ – Diversity, world history, area studies, interdependence
Discover the world at Leiden University Discover the world at Leiden University 3. Multi-dimensional awareness
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E.g., Location, time, status/class,gender, ethnicity, racism
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Neoclassical Economics & GPE Diversity with Neo-classical political economy Critical Political Economy
• Markets based on voluntary exchanges • Exploitive nature of capitalist social relations
– Human beings are rational, markets are efficient
• Champions of capitalism, “free-trade” and markets
– E.g. Baghwati and Neoliberals – World economy founded on unequal exchange
• Free trade produces mutual benefits
– Efficient and equitable • Countries’ structural modes of integration
– e.g. comparative advantage, factor-price equalization • Keynesian and post-Keynesian
– Difficult to overcome, limited mobility
• A world defined by market “frictions” – E.g. J. Stiglitz and Dani Rodrik
– Constraints on trade, Gov’t policy, ‘distortions’ • ‘Combined and uneven development’
• Recent ‘discovery’ ofDiscover the world at Leiden University
politics, institutions • New Institutionalism
Discover the world at Leiden University – Internal processes of exploitation
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– Liberal institutionalist theory (e.g. Keohane) – E.g. Douglas North, Robinson and Acemoglu – External processes of dependence
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, Critical Political Economy Diversity in critical political economy State-centered perspectives
• Exploitive nature of capitalist social relations • Marx • States in the world economy
– World economy founded on unequal exchange – Assumes inseparability of politics & economy but….
– Class struggle, exploitation, consciousness, revolution
– Influence of neoclassical economics
– State centrism
• Countries’ structural modes of integration • Weber
– Difficult to overcome, limited mobility • Theories of state behavior – what they do and why
– Class status and party as shaping opportunity, life chances
– Two-level games (domestic/international concerns)
– E.g. states motivated by a singular ‘national interest’
• ‘Combined and uneven development’
• Polanyi
– Internal processes of exploitation
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• Mix of “markets” and politicalthe world at Leiden University
institutions
– External processes of dependence
– Origins of market-pattern across time as an elite project
– Democratic, authoritarian regimes, etc.
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Gendered (e.g. feminist) perspectives A Conceptual and Theoretical Tool box
• Why a feminist perspective?
– Sex ≠ gender ≠ gender relations
• Varieties of critical political economy
– Gender is about power relations, differences, conflicts
– e.g. Care: for love or money--or both? (Folbre) 3. Historical Capitalism and Trade
• Varieties of state-centered political Economy
• But is there one or many feminist perspectives? 1431-2020
– Intersectionality
– Third World Women ≅ Underdeveloped • Varieties of neo-classical political economy
• Racial and economic dominance
– Concrete manifestations (e.g.the
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diversethe world at Leiden University
methods Discover the world at Leiden University
– Ways of thinking (e.g. colonial legacy, modernity)
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Theorizing the historical development of capitalism Development of the world economy or world market A plurality of perspectives, normative orientations
• Neoclassical economics, orthodox/heterodox etc.
• One world economy • Trade • Interstate system, political aspects
– Keynesianism, ‘New Institutional Economics’
• Competing narratives, competing theoretical traditions • Finance • Hegemonic cycles, world economic orders • Old and new varieties of state theory, social science institutionalism
– ‘Effective states’
• Multi-dimensional focuses within these stories • Production • 500–, 70–, 40 year views
• Critical political economy, including Marx, Weber, Polanyi, Harvey
– Critical because developed through critique
• Labor flows/limits • Phases of the world market
• Advantages and Discover
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of theoretical pluralism Discover the world at Leiden University Discover the world at Leiden University
• Perspectives on issues: growth, welfare, inequality, ecology
• Intersectionality: place, sex/gender, ethnicity, racism, other…
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, ‘Economic globalization’ – Realization of world market When did globalization start? Phases of Historical Capitalism up to 20th C
• Expansion, intensification of cross-border ties • 1990s? • Markets trace to antiquity • ‘Imperialism’ and its meanings
• Increased integration and interdependence o • 1930s, 1945? • Capitalism’s origins • Industrial capitalism
– First in Europe, Europe-centered – Massive uptick in productivity
• Facilitated by politics and institutional change • 1870s-1914
• Long distance merchant trade • Post WWII Development project
• Facilitated by advances in transport, ICT, financial instruments • 1431, 1492 – Mercantilism – National development/ISI
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• Limits on scope of national economic management • Conquest, colonialism, capitalism formation of world market • Colonial expansion • Accelerated globalization
– Conquest, exploitation – Neoliberal marketizing phase
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Thinking about Trade Three divergent perspectives on trade Geopolitics and historical capitalism
• ‘Interdependent master processes’ or ‘logics of power’
• Think comparatively, historically about experiences • Trade benefits all force for prosperity
– Europe, North America – Smith, Ricardo arguments about efficiency – Creation of international system of states, Westphalia (1648)
– East Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa – Recognizing states and sovereignty – territorial logic of power
– Commodity-centered perspectives are useful • Potentially beneficial to national, general interests
– Formation, motion of world capitalist market – ‘logic of capital’
– List protections to avoid subjugation
• Trade, national and particular interests, hegemony – Problem of late development Gerschenkron
– From past to present – who writes, enforces the rules? – Trade can but has not always (or even mostly) promoted benefits • Role of hegemonic leadership
– Rules of game governing world economy
• Drawing on insights of multiple perspectives • Trade as unequal exchange – Concept of ‘general interest’
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– Motivations, politics, classes, effects on groups – Social relations, organization of activity
– ‘Underdevelopment’ result of social relations – Where do these rules come from?
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Arrighi’s Argument From the Big Bang ‘til Now
• Money is most fluid form of capital • World Economy has grown exponentially since 1900
– Commodities and production are cumbersome
• World hegemonic powers become financiers • Periods of crisis, immense wealth, important gains
– Hegemonic powers dominate, money goes to production
– Aspiring hegemons can dominate trade, production via institutions
• The current pandemic, geopolitics introduces uncertainty
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• Power of finance has massively transformed capitalism
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– Where has capital gone? China. • Effects will be felt globally, across and within countries
– Most spectacular and rapid industrialization every 2020
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