POLS 350-02: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL ECONOMY
2013 SPRING
Instructor : Jee-Kwang Park
Office: HUSS 2013
Phone : X1898
Email: jpark@aucegypt.edu
Class Hours : W/U 3:30-4:45
Class room: Waleed C130
Office Hours: W/U 11:15-12:15 and by appointments
Textbook :
International Political Economy (5th edition), Thomas Oatley,
Pearson.
: This book is available in the AUC textbook store.
Further readings:
Robert Gilpin(2001). Global Political Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Paul Krugman(1994), Pop Internationalism,
Nathan M. Jensen (2006). Nation States and the Multinational Corporation: A Political
Economy of Foreign Direct Investment. Princeton NJ: Princeton
University Press.
James R. Vreeland (2003). The IMF and Economic Development. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Course Description
This course is an introduction to major issues in political economy, including: trade policy
preferences and interest groups; trade and economic development; dependency theory; domestic
and international institutions and trade; trade and conflict; the politics of international capital
flows; the politics of international debt; and the domestic political effects of globalization.
Students are required to make a 15-20 minute presentation on international political economy of
a country. This will account for 20% of the final grade.
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Course Schedule
Week 1 : Introduction and Organization
Suggested readings : Todd G. Buchholz, New ideas from dead economist
Week 2 : Three Schools of IPE & WTO
Required Reading Assignments : Chapter 1 , Chapter 2.1-2.2
Further reading : Gilpin ch.8
Week 3 : Regional Trade Arrangement and WTO
Reading Assignments : chapter 2.3-2.4 & chapter 3.1
Further reading : Paul Krugman, Pop Internationalism
Week 4 : Political Economy of International Trade Cooperation
Reading assignments : chapter 3.2 and chapter 3.3
Week 5 : Society-Centered Approach to Trade Politics
Reading assignments : chapter 4.1 and chapter 4.2-4.3
Week 6 : State-Centered Approach to Trade Politics and Import Substitution
Industrialization
Reading assignments : chapter 5 & chapter 6
Week 7 : Trade, Multinational Corporations, and Economic Development
Reading assignments : chapter 7 , Chapter 8 &9
Week 8 : American Trade Policy
Reading assignments : I.M. Destler, American Trade Policy
Week 9 : US-Korea FTA
Reading assignments :
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Week 10: International Monetary System
Reading assignments : chapter 10 & chapter 11
Week 11 : Society-Centered Approach to International Finance
Reading assignments : chapter 12
Week12 : State-Centered Approach to International Finance
Reading assignments : chapter 13
Week 13 (Apr. 17 & Apr.19): Developing Countries and International Finance
I: The Latin American Debt Crisis
Reading assignments : chapter 14.1-14.2, chapter 14.3-14.4
Week 14 (Apr. 24 & Apr. 26): Developing Countries and International Finance
II: The Asian Financial Crisis.
Reading assignments : chapter 15.1 , chapter 15.2-15.3
COURSE POLICIES
• Attendance
Policy
I will take attendance. Students are expected to come to class ON TIME and to refrain from doing
any distractions, including talking to classmates, during the class. Students miss more than three
classes will be advised to drop the course. There is a penalty for each abstention; - 2 points. If you
leave before the end of class, you will be considered to miss the class.
 Students can be given “F” because of their bad behavior in class including chatting with
other students, texting, and gaming. I will give a warning to those problematic students. If
they keep behaving badly, the will be told to drop the course or to get “F”.
• Grading
Policy
Attendance, class participation, and others 10 %
1st Exam : 30 %
2nd Exam : 20 %
3rd Exam : 20 %
In-class presentation: 20 %
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The letter grades will be assigned as follows (scores will be rounded up). I expect about 20 ~30 %
of the students will get A- or above.
Score
93-100
90-92
87-89
83-86
Grade
A
A–
B+
B
Score
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
Grade
B–
C+
C
C-
Score
67-69
60-66
Below 60
Grade
D+
D
F
• Class
Participation Policy:
I strongly encourage you to ask questions and to participate in class discussions. There is no such a
thing like a stupid question. If any question comes to your mind, ask it to me not to your nextseating person. If you are too shy to ask questions in class, post your questions on the discussion
board on the Blackboard. I will usually post my responses within 48 hours.
• Exam Policy:
There will be a mid-term and a final exam, which are in-class & closed-book tests. Each exam will
run 75 minutes. There will be no make-up exam except for some extraordinary situation. I will not
accept the followings as an excuse; your missed the bus or your grandmother died or was hospitalized. I
strongly recommend you to contact me before the exams when you can’t take the exam.
• Exam Policy:
Qualitative paper : You will be required to write two papers, one qualitative paper and one quantitative
paper. For the qualitative paper, read Egyptian newspapers for your assigned week and write a 5~ 6 page
long situation report. For the quantitative paper, analyze 2012 Egyptian presidential election polls, which
will be provided by the instructor, and write a 10 page long paper.
Classroom Behavior Policy:
Only drink is allowed in the classroom.
No Cellular phones and beepers.
Please turn off all cellular phones, beepers, or any other potentially disruptive equipment. Should you
need to make or to receive a phone call, feel free to leave the classroom and to take all your belongings,
as you will not be allowed to return to class for that class. Should you decide to leave in the middle of
class, you will be recoded absent.
No text messaging
No chatting in class
Raise your hand and ask directly to me not to your friends. I will happily answer any questions. No sidetalking is allowed in class.
Again, if you keep doing any of these things in class, you will be told to drop the course to avoid to fail
this cours.
• Accommodations
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If you have a disability or special needs related to your performance or attendance, please let me know
about them. I will do my bests to help you. You may also want to contact Disability Services at the Office
for Student Support (http://www.aucegypt.edu/students/OSS/Disabilities)
• Penalties
for Academic Dishonesty/Academic Integrity
Cheating and plagiarism.
Any information, arguments, or data used by students in their assignments should be properly cited and
credited with IN-TEXT CITATIONS AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY. This includes paraphrased
information and direct quotations used in your papers (skills you are learning or learned in your freshman
writing courses). Should you fail to give proper credits wherever appropriate (this includes directly
pasting material from the World Wide Web into your paper without giving proper credit), copying
assignments or review problems from friends, receiving or giving information during an exam or use
unauthorized material during an exam, I will give you an F (0%) on the exam or assignment in
question. I also reserve the right to fail you for the course and to turn your name over to the university’s
Academic Integrity Committee for further disciplinary measures.
AUC’s Code of Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values:
honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. From these values flow principles of behavior
that enable academic communities to translate ideals into action. All activities at the American
University in Cairo, from teaching to administrative and support functions, serve the process of
learning. Together, the university’s faculty, staff, and students form a cohesive academic
community which shares the Code of Academic and Professional Ethics outlined in this
document.
Violation of Academic Integrity
Academic fraud and dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following categories:
cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, multiple submissions, obtaining unfair advantage, unauthorized
access to academic or administrative systems, aiding and abetting, impersonation, threatening
harm, and copyright infringement.
1. Cheating: using unauthorized notes, aids, or information on an examination; altering a graded
work prior to its return to a faculty member; allowing another person to do one's own work and
submitting it for grading.
2. Plagiarism: submitting material that in part or whole is not one's own work; submitting one's
own work without properly attributing the correct sources of its content.
3. Fabrication: inventing or falsifying information, data, or citation; presenting data gathered
outside of acceptable professorial guidelines; failing to provide an accurate account of how
information, data or citations were gathered; altering documents affecting academic records;
forging signatures or authorizing false information on an official academic document, grade,
letter, form, ID card, or any other university document; submitting false excuses for absence,
delay or illness.
4. Multiple Submissions: submitting identical papers or course work for credit in more than one
course without prior permission of the instructor.
5. Obtaining Unfair Advantage:
• gaining or providing access to examination materials prior to the time
authorized by an instructor;
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• stealing, defacing, or destroying library or research materials which can
deprive others of their use;
• unauthorized collaboration on an academic assignment;
• retaining, possessing, or circulating previously used examination materials
without the instructor's permission;
• obstructing or interfering with another student's academic work;
• engaging in any activity designed to obtain an unfair advantage over another
student in the same course;
• offering bribery to staff or any university employee to effect a grade change,
or gain unfair advantage over other students
6. Unauthorized Access: viewing or altering in any way computer records, modifying computer
programs or systems, releasing or distributing information gathered via unauthorized access, or
in any way interfering with the use or availability of computer systems/information.
7. Aiding and Abetting: providing material, information, or other assistance, which violates the
Standards for Academic Integrity; providing false information in connection with any inquiry
regarding academic integrity.
8. Impersonation: impersonating or allowing to be impersonated by another individual during
classes, examination or other university activities.
9. Threatening Harm: threatening, effecting, or encouraging bodily, professional or financial
harm to any faculty, staff, administrator or student who has witnessed or reported a violation of
the Code of Academic Ethics.
10. Misconduct: behaving in a manner that violates or adversely affects the rights of other
members of the AUC community (disrupting class activities, unruly behavior, etc.)
11. Copyright Infringement: using copyrighted materials (print, electronic, or multimedia) in a
manner that violates international copyright laws.
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