PSC 6900: Globalization and Europe
Instructor: Marcus Kreuzer
Office Hours: M/F 3-4 or by appointment
E-mail: markus.kreuzer@villanova.edu
Phone: 519 5300
Office: SAC - Rm 257
Course Description: Globalization is one of the most talked about recent phenomena. Politicians invoked
it, the media covers it, everyday people experience it and even academics study it. With so many groups
engaged in the same topic, the interpretations of its causes and consequences vary widely. This
disagreement is amplified by the fact that it is a very recent and ongoing phenomenon whose consequences
are inherently difficult to ascertain. One goal therefore is use our critical thinking and research skills to
separate facts from fiction in the globalization debate.
The course begins by clarifying different conceptions of globalization (which includes European
integration) and taking an inventory of its possible causes. It then concentrates on following areas in which
globalization allegedly has had the most far reaching impact:
a) undermining welfare programs by limiting the capacity of governments to tax their populations;
b) restructuring of labor markets by shifting the balance of power from workers to corporations;
c) undermining democracy and nation states by shifting most economic decision-making to markets
d) increasing anti-Americanism giving rise to new extremist movements
Academic Integrity Notice:
Fair and effective education requires academic honesty and any violation is a very serious matter.
Villanova's rules concerning academic integrity are spelled out in the Enchiridion
(http://davinci.vill.edu/enchiridion/). Note especially the strict prohibition against plagiarism, i.e.
submitting as your own or without proper attribution work done wholly or in party by another person.
Plagiarism includes unauthorized collaboration on course assignments. Unless otherwise indicated, all
assignments in this course are individual and no collaboration with any person is permitted. Any academic
integrity violation will be punished by a grade penalty up to automatic course failure and will without
exception be reported to the student's dean for disciplinary action.
Absences: Class participation is mandatory. Any absence requires written excuses. Furthermore, every
student absent is required to write a five page summary of that week’s readings. This make-up requirement
does not apply for your first excused absence.
Grading:
a) CLASS PARTICIPATION (40%): This class’ seminar format has important repercussions for how your
performance will be assessed. You are expected to self-participate, that is, you are expected to have the
readings done, reflected on them, and prepared questions, comments, criticisms. I will do my best to create
and maintain a collegial environment of mutual respect so that everybody is comfortable participating.
Students who are afraid to speak up are expected to contact me early on in the semester so that I can assist
them or, in exceptional circumstance, arrange for alternative forms of assessment. In all other cases, lack of
engagement in class participation will be interpreted as disinterest in the material, deficient preparation and
inability to effectively express oneself orally. In other words, it will judged as a form of academic
deficiency on par with poor command of material on written exams, sloppy grammar and writing in essays
and spotty class attendance. Given that self-participation is the expected norm, being called on by me is a
sign of unsatisfactory (e.g. failing) class performance.
b) RESEARCH PAPER (60%): You are expect to write an 15-18 page research paper which assesses the
consequences of globalization in at least two advanced industrialized countries. The grading formula
adopted for this paper attempts to maximize quality of your paper by providing generous grading
incentives for early starters and penalties for procrastinators. It rests the simple assumption that a quality
research paper requires time and thus can only be written if the research and drafting are started early. Your
paper will assessed at three stages – a proposal, draft and final stage. The proposal and draft version will be
weighted each 40% of your overall paper grade and the final version only 20%. Procrastinators are given a
modest chance to atone for your tardiness as the weighting of final paper increases by 7.5% for each 5%
improvement in the final paper over the combined grade average of proposal and draft.
Readings: The readings average around 100-120 pages per week. They are neither breezy textbook
readings with cartoons and pictures nor are they arcane, jargon ridden academic treatises. They are written
for general, intellectually engaged audience and as such require careful reading
- Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree (New York: Anchor) Available in the
bookstore.
A. From the Old to the New World Order
Week 1
Aug. 27
Week 2
Sept. 3
Introduction
From New to Old World Order
Readings: Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Anchor): 3-17, 44-72, 112-45
- Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. 1998. Commanding
Heights (New York Touchstone): 1-27, 309-337.
3
Sept. 10
Week
What to Make of It ?
Readings:- Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Anchor): 327-64.
- **Economist. 2001. “Globalization and Its Critics,”
(September 29): 3-5.
- **Economist. 2001. “Profits over People.” (September
2001): 5-7.
- Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. 1998. Commanding
Heights (New York Touchstone): 399-18
- Noami Klein. 2000 No Logo (New York: Picador): 32563.
- Betz, H. G. “The New Politics of Resentment. Radical
Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe,”
Comparative Politics 25/4 (July): 413-23
B. Globalization and Welfare
Week 4
Sept. 17
Conceptions of Welfare
Readings: *Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year, John Paul II,
1991):
Sections
1-21,
30-43.
[http://www.osjspm.org/cst/ca_el.htm]
- Peter Singer. 1972. Famine, Affluence and Morality.
Philosophy and Public Affairs 1/3 (Spring): 229-39. (do not
read 239-43)
- Robert Goodin et al. 1999. The Real World of Welfare
Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 4155
Week 5
Sept. 24
Transformation of Welfare States
Readings. - Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Anchor): - 101-11
- Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schuman. 1997. The
Global Trap (New York: Zed Books): 1-12, 196-208.
- **Economist “Getting Personal. Taxing People is
Becoming Harder,” January 29, 2000.
- Pierson, Paul. 1998. “Irresistible Forces, Immovable
Objects: Post-Industrial Welfare States Confront Permanent
Austerity” Journal of European Public Policy 5/4
(December): 539-60
- Rieger, Elmar and Stephan Leibfried. 1998. “Welfare
Limits to Globalization,” Politics and Society 26/3
(September): 363-90.
- Philipp Genschel. 2002. “Globalization, Tax Competition
and the Welfare State” Politics and Society 245-67.
Week 6
Oct. 1
Transformation of Labor Market
Readings:* Laborem Exercens” (On Human Work, John Paul II,
1981): Sections 1-20 [http://www.osjspm.org/cst/le_el.htm]
- Robert Kuttner. 1996. Everything for Sale (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press): 68-77.
- Schor, Juliet. 1991. The Overworked American (New
York Basic Books) 1-15
- Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schuman. 1997. The
Global Trap (New York: Zed Books): 96-138
- Andres Rodriguez-Pose. 2002. The European Union
(OUP): 113-35
- Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Anchor): 306-24
- Richard Sennett. “The Corrosion of Character” (2 page
excerpt)
Week 7
Oct. 8
Research Workshop (held at Falvey)
Week 8
Oct. 15
Fall Break
Week 9
Oct. 20
Globalization and Identity:
Readings: - Jan Scholte. 2000. Globalization (New York: St.
Martin’s Press): 159-84.
- Chua, Amy. 2003. The World on Fire (New York
Doubleday): 229-59.
- Economist. Nov. 2, 2002. “The Longest Journey” (p. 3-5);
“Feeling at Home” (pp. 9-10); “A Modest Contribution”
(pp. 12-14)
- Eric Schlosser. 2001. Fast Food Nation (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin), 225-34, 239-52.
- Jeremy Rifkin. 2000. The Age of Access (New York:
Putnam), 137-67.
- Richard Sennet. 1998. The Corrosion of Character (New
York: Norton): 15-31
C. Globalization and Politics
Week 10 Oct. 29
Globalization and Expansion of Democracy
Readings: Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Anchor): 167-93
- Robert Bates. 2001. Prosperity and Violence (New York:
Norton): 70-83
- Samuel Huntington. 1991. The Third Wave:
Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press): 85-106
- Bernard Lewis, “Islam and Liberal Democracy,” The
Atlantic Monthly (February 1993): 89-98
- Fareek Zakaria. 2003. The Future of Freedom (New
York: Norton): 119-59.
Week 11 Nov. 5
Globalization and the Contraction of Democracy
Readings: - Thomas Friedman. 1999. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux): 101-12. [re-read]
- Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schuman. 1997. The
Global Trap (New York: Zed Books): 8-11 [re-read]
- *John Markoff. 1999. “Globalization and the Future of
Democracy,” Journal of World-Systems Research vol. 2:
281-98.
[http://csf.colorado.edu/jwsr/archive/vol5/vol5_number2/v5
n2_split/jwsr_v5n2_markoff.pdf]
- Jan Scholte. 2000. Globalization (New York: St. Martin’s
Press): 132-58.
- John McCormick Understanding the European Union
(NY: St. Martin, 1999): 147-75.
- Stephen Krasner. 2001. “Sovereignty,” Foreign Policy
(Jan/Feb.): 20-30.
- **Economist. 2001. “A Crisis of Legitimacy.”
(September 29): 18-20.
- **Economist. 2001. “Is Government Disappearing”
(September 29): 14-18
- **Economist. 2001. “Who Elected the WTO.”
(September 29): 26-28.
- **Economist “Learning to Love the EU” (May 31, 1997)
Week 12 Nov. 12
Globalization and National Security
Readings: Thomas Friedman. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree
(New York: Anchor): 248-75.
Amy Chua. 2003. The World on Fire (New York
Doubleday): 127-46, 189-210
Paul Kagan. 2002 Power and Weakness,” Policy Review
(June/July): 3-10, 15-22
Michael McFaul. 2002. “The Liberty Doctrine,” Policy
Review 112 (April): 3-22
John Judis. 2003. “A Case for Hell,” The American
Prospect vol. 14/4 (April 1): 1-3
Harold Meyerson. 2003. “A Clash of Civilizations,” The
American Prospect vol. 14/4 (April 1): 1-5.
Week 13 Nov. 19
Paper Discussion
Week 14 Nov. 27
Thanksgiving
Week 15 Dec. 4
Paper Discussion
Week 16 Dec. 11
Paper Discussion