LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY
Dept of Management and Engineering
Political science
Advanced level
2013-09-16
733A42: The Politics and Economics of International Relations, 7,5 credits
During the Fall of 2013 this course will be given jointly for students at several masters
programs. This means that there will be Swedish students, who take this course as the
first part of their course on Comparative Political Economy. The two groups will have
separate programs for the final week (week 48), see below.
The course is about how politics and economics impact on each other, in Europe as well
as globally. It will have a comparative approach, where we discuss literature from different perspectives. (See the short overview of the readings below.)
The course will cover main theories of capitalism and development; global economic
transformation in the late twentieth century; the international politics of trade, monetary and financial relations, foreign direct investments and development aid; the role of
regional and international institutions and organizations in matters related to international trade, finance and development.
Teaching
The course offers lectures which introduce and develop the content of the course. Guest
lecturers will focus on particular elements which they work on. Lectures are complementary to the literature.
Seminars are important aspects of the learning process and provide opportunities for
mutual, critical discussions which develop attitudes and skills. Students are expected to
be well prepared for the seminars. There will be questions provided for each of the
books, which will help reading the books and will also be the basis for the seminars.
The final seminar will have the character of a workshop, where students are expected to
present the result of group assignments, given at the first lecture. The groups are expected to comment on the work of other groups.
The course ends with a take-home exam, where students are expected to hand in an essay-like answer to an assignment which goes beyond the course contents. The idea is
that it is an application of the information given in the course of a character that can be
solved in less than two days.
Syllabus *** PRELIMINARY
For dates, times and rooms: see Time Edit.
Week
44
Date
Monday,
October 28
Time
10-12
Activity
Lecture
LN
Literature
Contents
Ravenhill, John (ed):
Introduction
International Political - Mercantilism
and
Economy
(Oxford 2010)
45
Tuesday,
October 29
(Wednesday,
October 30)
10-12
Monday,
November 4
8-10,
10-12
Tuesday,
November 5
8-10
10-12
46
47
Wednesday,
November 6
10-12
Friday,
November 8
8-10,
10-12,
13-15
8-10,
Monday,
November
11
Lecture
Ravenhill, continued
LN
Lecture
Jörg Winterberg
Seminar 1
(group 1 - 2)
Seminar 1
(group 3)
Lecture
LN
Liberalism
- Global economic
transformation
- International politics
and international economics
- economic perspectives
- international capitalism and development
Schmidt, Vivien:
The futures of European Capitalism
(Oxford 2002)
- three institutional
models in Europe
- Varieties of capitalism
Kristensen, Peer Hull
& Lilja, Kari:
Nordic Capitalisms
(Oxford 2011)
- Nordic and Swedish
capitalism
- the role of politics
and policy for the development of firms
Djelic, Marie-Laure &
Sahlin-Andersson,
Kerstin (eds):
Transnational
governance
(Cambridge, 2006)
- the role of norms in
global transformations
- transnational regulation
- sociological and constructivist
perspectives on global transformation
Lecture
Elisabeth
Sundin
Seminar 2
(group 1-3)
Lecture
LN
Thursday,
November
14
Monday,
November
18
10-12
Lecture
Hans Sjögren
8-10,
10-12,
13-15
Seminar 3
(group 1-3)
Tuesday,
November
19
10-12
Lecture
LN
Wednesday,
November
20
13-15
Lecture
Christian Berggren
Friday, No- 8-10
vember 22
10-12
48
13-15,
15-17
10-12
Tuesday,
November 26
Wednesday, 09.00
November 27
Thursday,
16.00
November 28
Seminar 4
(group 1)
Lecture
Eva Lövbrand
Seminar 4
(group 2-3)
Seminar 5
MIER only
Take-home
exam out
MIER only
Take-home
exam in
MIER only
Challenges and solu- Presentations of group
tions for Europe
assignments
Teachers
LN= Lars Niklasson, responsible for the course and examinor, lars.niklasson@liu.se, 013-282541
JW=Jörg Winterberg, Economics, SRH Hochschule Frankfurt
ES=Elisabeth Sundin, Business Administration
HS= Hans Sjögren, Economic history
CB= Christian Berggren, Industrial Management
EL=Eva Lövbrand, Center for Climate Policy Studies
Grading
To pass the course, students have to attend the seminars and contribute to the discussions, submit and present a group assignment and submit an acceptable take-home exam. The grade will
primarily be based on the take-home exam and will be related to the level of knowledge, independence and creativity.
Questions for the books and the seminars
Questions on the books will be provided on the course website to help focus the reading. The
same questions will be the basis for the first four seminars.
Readings
See a separate list of mandatory readings.
A short overview of the readings
Ravenhill (ed): International Political Economy consists of a set of articles which give an overview of major issues in international politics and economics, as well as an overview of processes
of transformation, mainly from a rationalist perspective (Economics, Realism, Rational choice).
Schmidt: The futures of European Capitalism is a modern classic on the varieties of capitalism in
Europe, exemplified by France, Germany and the UK. It shows how different the institutional
frameworks are and how the countries reacted to globalization. It also contains a section on how
political communication differs across countries.
Kristensen & Lilja (eds): Nordic capitalisms and globalization looks at individual Nordic countries and how politics and policy has had an impact on businesses. An obvious question is what
will happen with Nordic firms if the Nordic social models are under pressure to change.
Djelic & Sahlin-Andersson (eds): Transnational governance gives an overview of an alternative
perspective on drivers for change in the global economy. It highlights the role of private organizations in regulating the economy as well as the role of norms and ideas.