Political Science 372, Winter 2012
MWF 10:00-11:20—Humanities Building 108
Office: Arntzen Hall 440
Office Hours: 1:00-2:30 MW and by appointment
E-mail: Cynthia.Horne@wwu.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines the interaction between politics and economics in the international system.
We will examine how international economic activity is affected by the political decisions of states, and how states are in turn affected by the international financial and trading systems. We will use the theoretical lenses of mercantilism, liberalism, and Marxism to help understand the actors and interests involved in the international political economy.
We will examine the role of multinational corporations and domestic interest groups in the making of international economic policy. We will look at the rise of new forms of trade protection, such as non-tariff barriers and regional trading blocs, and examine their implications for the global trading system. We will look at development dilemmas facing less developed countries, and explore the economic and political trade-offs they are often forced to make.
Finally, we will look at the process of globalization and how this impacts the economic and political choices available to states.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Current events
You are expected to come to class prepared to talk about current events and how they fit with our course. I will start class with a discussion of current events, and may randomly call on you to discuss the latest news (related to IPE). I will count this toward your participation grade. The
New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the BBC, are examples of quality news reporting. You can access these for free from the WWU library page.
Response Paper
There will be 1 response paper. The paper should be 7 pages in length and should argue for one of the theoretical perspectives and against the other theoretical perspective presented in the film.
Additional instructions will be provided regarding the assignment when it is due. Late papers will be graded down 10 points per day, and will not be accepted after 4 late days.
Homework assignment
—one assignment on financial relationships will be given. Students are responsible for turning it in to professor on the next class day. Late homework will not be accepted.
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Midterm Exam and Final Exam:
The midterm exam will be in class. The final exam will be a take home exam. Make-up exams will only be given in the event of a death in the immediate family, or sickness accompanied by a doctor’s note. Flat tires, or sick pets or roommates, or alarm clocks that don’t work are not valid reasons to miss an exam, and a make up will not be given in those situations.
Late final exams will be graded down 20 points per day.
Participation:
This course requires your participation. I expect you to come to class each day having completed the readings and ready to engage in a discussion about the materials. I want you to think through the readings and ask yourself how the readings fit with the theories we have learned. Your participation grade is substantial. I expect you to have something constructive to say about the materials and if you do not volunteer, I will call on you . If you come to class and do not participate, or if you fail to intelligently engage with the materials during class discussion, your participation grade will suffer.
NOTE: If you miss more than four days of class, please come and talk to me. You will not be able to pass this class with six unexcused absences. This means you will have missed two weeks of class time, and this will result in failure to successfully complete the course.
The following is offered as a general set of guidelines regarding participation grades. Other things being equal, regular attendance and occasional questions/comments related to course reading will merit a grade in the range from C to B-. Participation characterized by regular attendance and specific questions about the reading that lead to clarification of concepts and arguments presented by the authors will generally merit a grade of B to a B+. Students who go beyond this level to extend particular ideas from the reading to grapple with broader issues in international political economy will merit grades in the A range. Participation on topics not related to international political economy does not count as constructive engagement with course ideas. Remember it is not just the quantity but the quality of participation that you are aiming for.
Grade Breakdown
Homework assignment due
Short paper
Midterm
Final Exam
10% January 30 th
, start of class
20% February 6 th
, start of class
25% February 22 nd in class
30% March 14 th
12pm turn in to my office—no late papers accepted after 5pm on Friday March 16 th
15% Participation
Reminders:
This syllabus is subject to change, although I will work to minimize changes. Changes will be announced in class. Students will be held responsible for all changes.
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I will uphold all aspects of Western’s Academic Honesty Policy and Procedure, and Student
Rights and Responsibilities Code. They are published in the Western catalog in Appendix C,
University Academic Policies.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this course. Please don’t plagiarize. If any part of your coursework is plagiarized you will automatically fail this course. No make ups, no excuses.
Special Needs: Reasonable accommodations for persons with document disabilities should be established within the first week of class and arranged through Disability Resource
Services, phone: 650-3083; drs@wwu.edu
. I will work with you and Western
Washington University to meet any documented needs.
REQUIRED READINGS
1. David Balaam and Bradford Dillman, 2011. Introduction to International Political
Economy , 5 th
edition. Longman Press
2. Thomas Oatley, 2012. Debates in International Political Economy,2 nd
edition. Longman
Press.
3. Pietra Rivoli, 2005. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist
Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade . John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
5. Reading on reserve at library and on electronic reserve.
Syllabus: Please read the assigned readings by the date indicated
Part I : Three Main Theoretical Approaches to IPE
January 4 th Course Introduction The relationship between the state and the market
January 6 th Liberalism

Balaam and Dillman, chapter 1-2.
January 9 th Liberalism cont.

Hayek, Road to Serfdom, http://mises.org/books/TRTS/

Milton Friedman, chapters 1-3 from Capitalism and Freedom . Chapter 1 at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ipe/friedman.htm
. Book available on reserve at library.
January 11 th Realism and Mercantilism

Balaam and Dillman, chapter 3.
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January 13 th Mercantilism cont.

Friedrich List , “The American System of Economy, “ adapted from Fredrich
List : Outlines of American Political Economy in Twelve Letters,” download and read http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/listlieb.htm#america
Yes… it has an odd format. Please read it ALL…

In Douglas Irwin---Jacob Viner, 1991. “Mercantilist Thought,” chapter 11 in
Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 262-276. electronic reserve.
January 16 th MLK Holiday –no class.
January 18 th Marxism

Balaam and Dillman, chapter 4.

Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, “The Communist Manifesto,” http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
January 20th Marxism cont.

Vladimir Lenin. 1988. Excerpts from Imperialism: The Highest Stage of
Capitalism . U.S.: International Publishers. Chapter 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/
Part II: International Finance
January 23 rd Exchange Rate Mechanisms

Balaam and Dillman, chapter 7 and 8.
January 25 th Historical Background: The Bretton Woods System
 Cohen, “The Triad and the Unholy Trinity: Problems of International
Monetary Cooperation,” copy distributed.
January 27 th The Bretton Woods International Institutions: Past and Present

Jonathan Shaw, “Debtor Nation: The risks of the American Dream on a borrowed dime,”
Harvard Magazine . July-August 2007. electronic reserve

Chapter 10 in Oatley Trade Debates—Financial Crisis o Stigliz, “The Anatomy of a Murder: Who Killed America’s Economy” o White, “How Did we Get into this Financial Mess”
Hand out homework assignment on financial relationships—due on Monday January 30 th
January 30 th Exchange Rate Manipulation—Currency Wars and Trade

Chapter 11 in Oatley Trade Debates—China and Trade Deficit o Bergsten, The Dollar and the Renminbi” o Hale and Hale, “Reconsidering the Revaluation: The Wrong Approach to the U.S. Chinese Trade Imbalance”
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Homework assignment due in class January 30 th Be ready to hand in and talk about homework in class. NO LATE HOMEWORK ACCEPTED.
February 1 st --Hayek versus Keynes in the Bretton Woods System
Chapter 1 in Oatley Trade Debates—Geopolitical Change o Burrows and Harris, Revisiting the Future: Geopolitical Effects of the
Financial Crisis” o Ikenberry, “The Liberal International Order and Its Discontents”
February 3rd Movie: The Commanding Heights, part 1.—paper topic passed out during class.

Paper due on Monday February 6 th —based on the movie the Commanding Heights
Part III: International Trade
February 6 th Overview International Trade Theory

Balaam and Dillman, chapter 6.
February 8 th International Trade Theory –Liberal Trade
 Paul Krugman, 1993. “What do Undergraduates Need to Know about Trade.”
The
American Economic Review. Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 23-26. Electronic reserve.

Paul Krugman, chapters 1 in Pop Internationalism . Electronic reserve

Moises Naim, 2007. “The Free Trade Paradox,” Foreign Policy . Sept/Oct Vol. 162, p. 96. electronic reserve
February 10 th Mercantilism--Patterns of Trade Protection

Chapter 2 Trade debates in Oatley—Trade Deficits o Robert Scott, “The China Trade Toll”

T-Shirt Book—Part I: The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. o David Irwin, “The Employment Rationale for Trade Protection”
February 13 th --Special interest groups and trade politics

T-Shirt Book, II, III, and IV
February 15 th --- MNCs and Trade

Chapter 8 Trade debates in Oatley—Multinational Corporation Race to the Bottom o Deborah Spar and David Yoffie, “Multinational Enterprises and the Prospects for
Justice,” o Daniel Drezner, “Bottom Feeders”

Chapter 7 Trade debates in Oatley— o Paul Krugman. “In Praise of Cheap Labor: Bad Jobs at Bad Wages are Better than
No Jobs at All,”
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o John Miller. “Why Economists Are Wrong About Sweatshops and the Anti-
Sweatshop Movement,”
February 17 th no class—study for midterm
February 20 th Presidents Day Holiday
****February 22 nd —midterm in class *** bring blue book
Part IV: The Political Economy of Development
February 24 th —Development Alternatives

Balaam and Dillman, chapters11 and 13
February 27 th –International Financial Crises

Balaam and Dillman, Chapters 17.
 Martin Feldstein, 2002. “Argentina’s Fall: Lessons from the Latest Financial Crisis,”
Foreign Affairs . March/April, Vol. 81, Issue 2, pp. 8-14. Electronic reserve.
 Roger Altman, 2009. “The Great Crash,” Foreign Affairs , Jan/Feb, Vol. 88, No. 1, pp 2-
14. –electronic reserve
February 29 th Debt Crises

Balaam and Dillman, Chapters 19.
 The Economist, “Staring into the abyss” November 12, 2011. EU special debt reading to be made available
March 2 nd — Promoting Development
 William Easterly, 2005. “Reliving the 50s: The Big Push, Poverty Traps and Takeoffs in
Economic Development,” download document from http://williameasterly.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/48_easterly_relivingthe50s_prp.pdf
 Jeffrey Sachs, 2005. “The Development Challenge,”
Foreign Affairs , March/April, Vol.
84, Issue 2, pp. 78-90. Electronic reserve.
March 5 th Trade and Development

Chapter 12 in Oatley Trade Debates—Trade promotes growth o David Dollar and Aart Kraay, “Spreading the Wealth” o Dani Rodrik, “Trading in Illusions”
 Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik, Arvind Subramanian, “How to Help Poor Countries,”
Foreign Affairs , July/August 2005. Electronic reserve
March 7 th –Movie Commanding Heights part II
March 9 th -State Capitalism and Its Alternatives
 Ian Bremmer, 2009. “State Capitalism Comes of Age,”
Foreign Affairs , May/June, Vol.
88, Issue 3. pp. 40-55.—electronic reserve.
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
Ethan Kapstein, 2009. “Africa’s Capitalist Revolution, Foreign Affairs , July/Aug. Vol.
88, Issue 4, pp. 119-128. Electronic reserve
Final exam passed out in class on last day.
Due Wednesday March 14 th 12:00. Late penalties start after 12:00 at 20% per day. No papers accepted after 5pm on Friday March 16 th .
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