Introductory Lecture PEIS 101 Spring 2006
I.
Intro: The Situation we face today
A. A time of Change
B. The Best of Times: The Bright Side of Globalization
1. A rise in Living Standards
2. The Spread of Markets and Democracy
II. How does it Happen?
But what determines which economic system, culture, and institutions that are transferred
around the world? Why is it that Markets and democracy are the central institutions that
are spread? Is it simply because they are the best institutions that we have now or is it
because the institutions of the most powerful states get transplanted around the world?
1.. Globalization is also the result and spread of an IDEA
2. Doesn’t it take powerful states to spread this idea?
D. The Dark Side of Globalization:
1. A Time of Uncertainty
2.. Globalization has dramatically increased inequality between and within nations,
3. Two questions: why and so what?
What are the causes of global inequality in wealth and power? Why are some nations rich
and powerful and other nations poor and weak?
What causes countries to develop? Why do some countries have "developmental states" that
push for development, while other countries have "predatory" states that cannabilize society
and use up all the available resources for the pleasure of the ruler
a. Back to uncertainty: Historically, islands of wealth in a sea of misery have been a
prelude to upheaval and revolution.
. Simultaneous Integration and Fragmentation?
Globalization and power shifts. why does wealth and power seem to be shifting in the world
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from the United States to Asia and other rising economic powers?
What effect will Globalization have on YOUR prospects? Are you positioned to win in
Global competition?
B. Environmental Degradation and Energy shortages
C. Crises that arise in one part of the world affect all other parts as the world
D. What is so “dark” about the disappearance of non-dominant cultures.
II. What is Political Economy? The relationship between power and wealth.
III. Three approaches to Political economy
In order to address the concerns I raised in the beginning, we will study three approaches to
political economy and three approaches to the relationship between the market and the state:
The first approach is Liberalism, the idea that markets should be completely open and states
should stay out of the economy. Economic power should be diffused and political power
should be diffused as well. The combination of markets and democracy makes for the most
efficient and effective kind of political economy.
The Second Approach we will discuss is a Marxist critique of Liberalism: : Marxism offers a
critique of liberalism, in that it says that if the state stays out of the economy, the ruling class
will grab all of the wealth and take all of the power. The Marxist analysis suggests that
markets should actually be abolished and that states should run the economy for the good of
all of the people.
The Third Approach is that of Economic Nationalism and Communitarianism. This
approach also says that the state should run the economy, but it should allow markets to
operate. The state, however, must control the markets. It must maake sure that no other
economic powers exploit its economy. It protects its own economy and promotes its
businesses abroad. It is not laissez faire.
IV. Hegemony
A. Hegemony vs. the Market and the rightness of the Idea.
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Why did it take a Hegemon for integration to continue? What is hegemony? Isn’t
globalization simply the outcome of the invisible hand, the automatic spread of market
forces?
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