Economic culture and foreign policy: the cognitive analysis of economic policy making

1987 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Egon Rohrlich

Political scientists researching economic foreign policy have generally taken one of two analytic approaches. The first is based on realpolitik, the traditional application of “high” politics to the “low” politics of economics. This approach considers economics subordinate to politics. The concept of the national interest dominates; the pursuit of power—what enables the state to achieve its goals of security, welfare, and other societal values—is seen to underlie most actions. The study of foreign economic policy is thus an analysis of the distribution of power among states within the international system. By understanding a state's sources of strength and areas of vulnerability in relation to other states, the analyst will better understand the creation of foreign policy. Hans Morgenthau notes that while states may sometimes pursue economic policies for their own sake (in which case they should take little interest in their success), the more important economic policies they will favor are instruments of political power.Stephen Krasner views the state as an autonomously motivated actor, able to guide policy in pursuit of state priorities while resisting interest groups and ideologies. According to this “power theory”, the state tries to increase its economic competitiveness, ensure security of material needs, and promote its broad foreign-policy objectives. Economic policy is for the most part subordinate to and best explained by state priorities and prerogatives. Robert Tucker, Klaus Knorr, Robert Gilpin and others have also adopted this framework.

Author(s):  
David H. Bearce

This chapter provides an overview of foreign economic policy. First, it defines the subject as it relates to the discipline of Political Science in order to demonstrate how this discipline’s research on foreign economic policy is problem-centered and what problem is its focus: explaining the variation in policy related to trade, external investment, capital, exchange rates, and immigration. Second, it reviews two major research programs related to this problem: the state-level variation based on political regime type and the individual-level preference variation for different foreign economic policies. Third, this chapter highlights the obstacle to connecting these two research programs: how to explain outcomes at the state-level based on preferences at the individual-level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos ◽  
Célio Hiratuka

There is some consensus on the foreign policy of Dilma Rousseff’s government that Brazil lost prestige and international influence because of her lesser personal dedication. Against this consensus, the paper presents two alternative hypotheses for explaining its unsatisfactory outcomes: that there was no change in policy objectives but an adaptation to a more hostile context and that its limitations were structurally related to dependency on global corporations and to the increasing rejection of South-South politics by domestic business. If this analysis is correct, the structural limitations described require that the struggle to achieve an independent foreign policy involve deeper political and ideological battles and a more radical questioning of neoliberal capitalism. Há certo consenso sobre a política econômica externa do governo Dilma Rousseff: o Brasil perdeu prestígio e influência internacional por causa de sua menor dedicação pessoal. Contra este consenso, o artigo apresenta duas hipóteses para explicar os resultados piores: que não houve mudança nos objetivos da política, mas sua adaptação a contexto mais hostil, e que os limites da política externa relacionam-se, estruturalmente, à dependência das corporações globais e, politicamente, à gradual rejeição da política Sul-Sul por parte do empresariado interno. Se esta análise estiver correta, a existência dos limites estruturais apontados exige que, no futuro, a luta para assegurar uma política externa independente envolva batalhas políticas e ideológicas mais profundas e um questionamento mais radical do capitalismo neoliberal.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-113
Author(s):  
Iaroslav Petrunenko ◽  
Oleg Podtserkovnyi

Complex and contradictory processes of modern social transformations and the need to overcome the crisis in the economy require the appropriate influence of the state and a clear system of socio-economic management through the formation and implementation of effective state economic policy. The main elements of economic policy are financial and credit, budgetary, scientific and technical, structural, social, investment, agricultural, regional, foreign economic policy. The implementation of state economic policy is considered in terms of the relationship between social problems and the state. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study the essence, tools and methods of state economic policy in modern conditions. It is also necessary to identify the main risks and features of further development of state economic policy of individual states in a global imbalance and crisis. The theoretical part is devoted to the study of the essence of state economic policy, theoretical and practical aspects of its organization in the state, as well as tools that can be used by the state. The resulting part is devoted to the consideration of the situation, in which the world economy has found itself in 2020 in the conditions of the economic COVID-19 crisis. General forecasts have not provided to individual states because it has been impossible to predict the end of the pandemic and the return of the world to normal life. However, it is clear that the world economy has undergone irreversible processes that will synergistically affect different states in different ways. The crisis has hit a significant number of industries, including tourism, logistics, hotel business, the crisis has been felt in world markets: oil prices have collapsed, as well as the stock markets. Undoubtedly, there are areas with a rapid growth, especially the pharmaceutical industry and retail, online delivery services, IT entertainment and communications industry, information marketing business and education and training services. It is likely that the indicators of economic development in the states by the end of the year will be better than the results of the first half of the year. The basic forecast of economic world development assumes a sharp growth of the economy after a short recession after quarantine. The financial capabilities of the EU states vary considerably, but each state must pursue counter-cyclical policies aimed at stabilizing its own economy. The answer to the question of what kind of crisis response policy they can afford depends on the fiscal policy of the states before the crisis. In economically developed states, where emergency measures have been introduced, governments and central banks issue trillions of dollars in government spending, social support of citizens, and interest-free business loans to limit the economic damage of quarantine. At the same time, in Latin America and Southeast Asia, total quarantine is impossible in multi-million cities. Such states have a triple effect of suffering from the virus, the environment and poverty. States dependent on the export of natural resources and raw materials, when faced with the crisis, are forced to sell them for nothing, so they will suffer great losses. More than 150 states have set up anti-crisis headquarters and are taking anti-crisis measures. The authors have also tried to predict how largescale the global economic crisis will be for Ukraine, what consequences await it, and what measures need to be taken to overcome it.


2020 ◽  
pp. 67-72
Author(s):  
Ye Bilousov

Problem setting. The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the legal regulation of foreign trade interms of doctrinal and legislative approaches. The author analyzes the basic concepts of foreign trade policy, identifies itsmain components, as well as describes the tools for regulating foreign trade, including customs tariffs. Analysis of recent research and publications. Both domestic and foreign representatives of legal and economicsciences, such as Bachylo I., Zadykhailo D., Kleshchova S., Karvatska N., Sarkisyan L., Stavytsky L. and others, devotedtheir works to the study of the legal regulation of foreign trade. Article’s main body. Presenting main material. CTD is carried out, as a rule, at the level of enterprises (sometimesthey are natural persons-entrepreneurs). The initial principle of the CTD is a commercial calculation based on economicand financial independence and self-payment. CTD – the sphere of entrepreneurship in the system of international exchangeof goods, services, works, information and results of intellectual activity, related to the preparation and implementationof foreign trade operations and agreements. Cross-border trade and free economic zones are considered as special regimesof the CTD. Each country of the world in the framework of participation in foreign economic relations (both directly and throughnational entities of the CTD) pursues foreign economic policy, including in the field of foreign trade. The foreign economicpolicy of the state is the activity of the state aimed at the development and regulation of economic relations with othercountries. The implementation of foreign economic policy involves defining the strategic goals of the state in foreigneconomic relations in general and with individual countries and groups of countries, as well as developing methods andtools to achieve the goals and preserve the results achieved later. Foreign economic policy is aimed at the whole set offoreign economic activity, the hallmark of which is the international purchase and sale of goods and services, as well asthe international movement of material, monetary, labor and intellectual resources. Foreign economic policy is inextricablylinked with the domestic economic policy of the state. Therefore, its content is due to the tasks of expanded reproduction,which the country solves within its national economy. It can be argued that the main task of the foreign economic policyof the state is to create favorable external economic conditions for expanded reproduction within the country. Within theframework of the general foreign economic policy the state carries out: a) foreign trade policy – is the state regulation of export and import operations; b) export promotion policy – a policy aimed at selling in foreign markets goods for which the country has economicadvantages, stimulating the competitiveness of domestic enterprises with foreign ones, increasing the serial productionof competitive products in order to expand its exports (to foreign markets); c) the policy of regulating the import and export of capital. A characteristic feature of capital movements at the presentstage is the inclusion of an increasing number of countries in the process of export and import of capital. At the same time,most countries of the world market economy simultaneously act as exporters and importers of investments. The influenceof developed countries on the movement of capital is carried out, for example, by stimulating the export-import of capitalat the national and interstate levels; d) monetary policy – aims to maintain economic stability and create a solid foundation for the development ofinternational economic relations by influencing the exchange rate and currency exchange operations; e) customs policy is a set of measures taken to ensure the most effective use of instruments of customs control andregulation of trade in the customs territory, participation in trade and policy tasks to protect the domestic market, stimulatethe national economy; f) free trade policy – a policy of minimal government intervention in foreign trade, which develops on the basis offree market forces of supply and demand. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The formation and implementation of state policy in the studyarea involves the possibility and necessity (not absolute) of state intervention in economic processes in order to create aneffective and efficient system of foreign trade. Fulfillment of this task is possible only under the condition of strategicplanning and conceptualization of the principles of state-administrative influence, which, in fact, is the content and essenceof state economic policy in general and state policy in the field of foreign economic activity in particular. Understanding this issue and further resolving these pressing issues at the doctrinal (hereinafter – legislative) levelswill allow the state to be an active participant in foreign trade relations, and thus – to provide national participants in theserelations with potential markets for goods, works and services, to compete effectively in these foreign markets.


1988 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent E. Calder

The concept of the “reactive state” is useful in understanding the foreign economic policy behavior of Japan and certain other middle-range powers deeply integrated in the global political economy, particularly during periods of economic turbulence when international regimes do not fully safeguard their economic interests. The essential characteristics of the reactive state are two-fold: (1) it fails to undertake major independent foreign-policy initiatives although it has the power and national incentives to do so; (2) it responds to outside pressure for change, albeit erratically, unsystematically, and often incompletely.In the Japanese case, reactive state behavior flows from domestic institutional characteristics as well as from the structure of the international system. Domestic features such as bureaucratic fragmentation, political factionalism, powerful mass media, and the lack of a strong central executive have played an especially important part in Japanese financial, energy, trade, and technology policy formation since 1971.


2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Phillips

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.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens van 't Klooster ◽  
Steffen Murau

This article proposes a conception of monetary sovereignty that recognizes the reality of today’s global credit money system. Monetary sovereignty is typically used in a Westphalian sense to denote the ability of states to issue and regulate their own currency. This article rejects the Westphalian conception. Instead, it proposes a conception of effective monetary sovereignty that focuses attention on what states are actually able to do in the era of financial globalization. The conception fits the hybridity of the modern credit money system by acknowledging the crucial role not only of central bank money but also of money issued by regulated banks and unregulated shadow banks. These institutions often operate ‘offshore’, outside of a state’s legal jurisdiction, which makes monetary governance more difficult. Monetary sovereignty consists in the ability of states to effectively govern these different segments of the monetary system and thereby achieve their economic policy objectives.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerasimos Tsourapas

Why do states vary their policies towards their citizens abroad, and why are some emigrant groups treated preferentially to others? The literature on the politics of international migration has yet to explore this as a separate field of inquiry, assuming that states adopt a single policy that encourages, sustains or prevents emigration abroad. Yet, in the case of Egypt, the state developed a multi-tiered policy that distinctly favoured specific communities abroad over others. I hypothesise that policy differentiation is based upon the perceived utility of the emigrant group remaining abroad versus the utility of its return. This utility is determined by two factors: the sending state’s domestic political economy priorities and its foreign policy objectives.


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