scholarly journals The Globalization of Liberalization: Policy Diffusion in the International Political Economy

2004 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
BETH A. SIMMONS ◽  
ZACHARY ELKINS
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Exchange Rate Regime ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Economic Competition ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Liberalization Policy

One of the most important developments over the past three decades has been the spread of liberal economic ideas and policies throughout the world. These policies have affected the lives of millions of people, yet our most sophisticated political economy models do not adequately capture influences on these policy choices. Evidence suggests that the adoption of liberal economic practices is highly clustered both temporally and spatially. We hypothesize that this clustering might be due to processes of policy diffusion. We think of diffusion as resulting from one of two broad sets of forces: one in which mounting adoptions of a policy alter the benefits of adopting for others and another in which adoptions provide policy relevant information about the benefits of adopting. We develop arguments within these broad classes of mechanisms, construct appropriate measures of the relevant concepts, and test their effects on liberalization and restriction of the current account, the capital account, and the exchange rate regime. Our findings suggest that domestic models of foreign economic policy making are insufficient. The evidence shows that policy transitions are influenced by international economic competition as well as the policies of a country's sociocultural peers. We interpret the latter influence as a form of channeled learning reflecting governments' search for appropriate models for economic policy.

Introduction: domestic and international forces and strategies of foreign economic policy

1977 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Katzenstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Bureaucratic Politics ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
The North ◽  
Oil Crisis

Why does a common challenge, such as the oil crisis, elicit different national responses in the international political economy? The domestic structure of the nation-state is a critical intervening variable without which the interrelation between international interdependence and political strategies cannot be understood. The essay justifies this volume's concentration on a few advanced industrial states of the North; from a broader historical perspective it looks briefly at the interaction of international and domestic forces in the shaping of the international political economy; it examines two theories of foreign policy (international approaches and bureaucratic politics) in order to highlight the gap which this volume intends to fill; and it details the theoretical orientation informing the essays which follow.

Capital Politics: Creditors and the International Political Economy

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffry A. Frieden
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Economic Preferences ◽  
Monetary Relations ◽  
Level Of Analysis

ABSTRACTThis essay analyzes the relationship between international investment interests and foreign economic policy. The first step and level of analysis looks at nation-states as the relevant actors, and claims that a country's international investment position tends to affect its international economic preferences in ways that are easily understood and anticipated. Countries' international asset positions often have a predictable impact on their policies toward international monetary relations, cross-border investment, and trade.The second step and level of analysis looks inside national societies at the international asset positions of various domestic groups. It argues that sectors with varying interests related to their international investment positions contend for influence over national policy. The economic circumstances of each sector lead to sectoral policy preferences with predictable implications for domestic bargaining over foreign economic policy. The general argument is applied briefly to a number of modern creditor countries and sectors, most prominently the United States after World War Two.

scholarly journals The Limits of ‘Securitization’: Power, Politics and Process in US Foreign Economic Policy

2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Power Politics

AbstractThe concept of ‘securitization’ has become particularly influential in the post-9/11 world. This paper aims to scrutinize and, ultimately, reject an emerging set of claims about political economy which draw upon this framework. The contention that US foreign economic policy is increasingly subject to a process of securitization misrepresents the substance of contemporary US foreign policy, the political environment in which it is articulated and the process by which it is made. Pursuing this argument, the paper sets out a framework within which to understand the evolution of contemporary US policy, paying attention to distinctive forms of the economic–security nexus; the form of ‘ad hoc reactivism’ that has consistently characterized US foreign economic policy; the set of commercial and wider economic goals to which policy responds; and the dynamics of competition for leadership in key regions.

Who Supports Global Economic Engagement? The Sources of Preferences in American Foreign Economic Policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen V. Milner ◽  
Dustin H. Tingley
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Economic Aid ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Trade Preferences ◽  
Economic Engagement ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this article we bring together opposing international relations theories to better understand U.S. foreign policy, in particular foreign trade and aid. Using votes in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979–2004, we explore different theoretical predictions about preferences for foreign economic policy. We assess the impact of domestic factors, namely political economy and ideological preferences, versus foreign policy pressures. Our three main results highlight the differential effect of these factors in the two issue areas. First, aid preferences are as affected by domestic political economy factors as are trade preferences. Second, trade preferences, but not economic aid ones, are shaped by the president's foreign policy concerns; for economic aid, domestic political economy factors matter more than foreign policy ones. Third, aid preferences are shaped more by ideological factors than are trade ones, but ideology plays a different substantive role in each. Different constituencies support aid and trade. This finding has implications for foreign policy substitutability, “the internationalist coalition” in U.S. foreign policy, “statist” theories of foreign policy, and the connection between public opinion and legislative voting.

How Did American International Political Economy Become Reductionist? A Historiography of a Discipline

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Kindred Winecoff
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Statistical Models ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
International System ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Individual Level

First-wave international political economy (IPE) was preoccupied with the “complex interdependencies” within a world system that (it believed) was rapidly devolving following the 1971 collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. The original IPE scholars were more dedicated to theorizing about the emergence and evolution of global systems than any strict methodology. As IPE developed, it began to emphasize the possibility that institutions could promote cooperation in an anarchic environment, so IPE scholarship increasingly studied the conditions under which these institutions might emerge. Second-wave IPE scholars began to focus on the domestic “level of analysis” for explanatory power, and in particular analyzed the role of domestic political institutions in promoting global economic cooperation (or conflict). They also employed a “second-image reversed” paradigm in which the international system was treated as an explanatory variable that influenced the domestic policymaking process. In opening up the “black box” of domestic politics, in particular as it pertained to foreign economic policy, the “American school” of IPE thoroughly explored the terrain with regression-based statistical models that assume observational independence. As a result, complex interdependencies in the global system were increasingly ignored. Over time the analytical focus progressively shifted to micro-level units—firms and individuals, whenever possible—using neoclassical economic theory as its logical underpinning (with complications for political factors). This third wave of IPE, “open economy politics,” has been criticized in the post-crisis period for its narrow focus, rigid methodology, and lack of systemic theory. Leading scholars have called modern IPE “boring,” “deplorable,” “myopic,” and “reductionist,” among other epithets. A “fourth-wave” of IPE must retain its strong commitment to empiricism while re-integrating systemic processes into its analysis. A new class of complex statistical models is capable of incorporating interdependencies as well as domestic- and individual-level processes into a common framework. This will allow scholars to model the global political economy as an interdependent system consisting of multiple strata.

Introduction: approaches to explaining American foreign economic policy

1988 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. John Ikenberry ◽  
David A. Lake ◽  
Michael Mastanduno
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
The World ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Despite its relative economic decline, the United States remains the dominant power in the world economy. The foreign economic actions taken by American officials, whether they involve trade, technology transfer, or the value of the dollar, continue to have profound consequences for other states in the international system, as well as for American domestic politics and economics. Thus, it is not surprising that the study of American foreign economic policy attracts considerable scholarly attention, and presently constitutes a major portion of the subfield of international political economy.

The IMF and the Politics of Austerity in the Wake of the Global Financial Crisis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Clift
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Advanced Economy ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Imf

The book provides a path-breaking comprehensive analysis of how the IMF approach to fiscal policy has evolved since 2008, the Fund’s role within the politics of austerity, and how it worked to shape advanced economy policy responses to the global financial crisis (GFC) and the Eurozone crisis. The book aligns with and advances cutting-edge ideational scholarship in international political economy (IPE) and comparative political economy (CPE) to build an innovative theorizing of how ideational change operates in international organizations (IOs). The construction of economic policy knowledge is understood here as a social process, wherein the IMF works to impress its interpretation of sound policy upon member countries through surveillance and other interactions. It updates and refines our understanding of how the IMF seeks to wield ideational power by analysing the Fund’s post-crash ability to influence what constitutes legitimate knowledge, and their ability to fix meanings attached to economic policies. This book is interested in the politics of economic ideas, focused on the assumptive foundations of different approaches to economic policy, and how the interpretive framework through which authoritative voices evaluate economic policy is an important site of power in world politics. After establishing the internal conditions of possibility for new fiscal policy thinking to emerge and prevail, detailed case studies of IMF interactions with the UK and French governments during the Great Recession drill down into how the Fund seeks to shape the policy possibilities of advanced economy policymakers and account for the scope and limits of Fund influence.

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