Toward a political economy of complex interdependence

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 957-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Oatley
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Core ◽  
Complex Interdependence ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Complexity Theories ◽  
Oriented Approach

How should we theorize about international political economy in an era of complex interdependence? The global economy is much more interdependent today than it was 40 years ago. As a result, there is a widening appreciation that we need new theoretical tools to understand how complex interdependence arose, how it operates, and where it might be headed. I argue that to develop such tools, we must embrace new theoretical logics that more readily accommodate and explain change. I develop this point by drawing on complexity theories, ecology, and information theory. I first develop the core elements of a complexity-based approach and contrast it to the central assumptions of the Open Economy Politics approach. I then illustrate this complexity-oriented approach by using the logic of coevolution and the information–entropy cycle to explain key elements in the development of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Monism vs. pluralism, the global financial crisis, and the methodological struggle in the field of International Political Economy

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joscha Wullweber
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

In recent years, a comprehensive debate has been taking place over the ontological, epistemological and methodological roots underlying the discipline of International Political Economy. A fundamental and sometimes fierce discussion arose over the questions of which research strategies should prevail, which methods should be applied and what kind of knowledge counts as scientific. The debate has tended to reduce the different positions and International Political Economy approaches to American International Political Economy on the one side and British International Political Economy on the other. Framing the perspectives in this way, however, is misleading. This article argues that the issue at the core of the methodological debate is not the American versus the British school, but rather theoretical monism versus theoretical pluralism. Hence, the core of the debate addresses the question whether scientific work in International Political Economy should ultimately subscribe to one methodology or one fundamental principle or whether the field should make use of a wide variety of theories and methods so as to enable scholars to adapt their research strategy depending on the case under study. A short analysis of existing approaches to the global financial crisis shows the importance of the existence of multiple perspectives, concepts and theoretical approaches. The paper concludes that the 2008 financial crisis in particular has shown how dangerous it is to reduce intellectual endeavour to a narrow mindset. Only pluralism conveys the ability to respond in an adequate manner to the old and new challenges of our times.

The Evolving State of the State in International Political Economy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Ba
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Complex Interdependence

Three established conceptions of the nation-state have a long and well-established tradition in the field of International Political Economy (IPE), each aligning with a major research paradigm within IPE or the broader field of international relations: realism, open economy politics, and constructivism. A fourth, emerging, research paradigm called the “New Interdependence Approach” or the “Political Economy of Complex Interdependence” offers a promising new conceptualization of the nation-state that encompasses the best insights offered by traditional paradigms. This article reviews the evolution of scholarly thinking about the nation-state within the field of IPE and proposes a new, more encompassing conception of the nation-state as a cross-section of the international political economy multiplex.

Patents and Development in the New Global Economy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Shadlen
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
World Order ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Pharmaceutical Patents ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Comparative Case Studies ◽  
Privately Owned

The concluding chapter reviews the main findings from the comparative case studies, synthesizes the main lessons, considers extensions of the book’s explanatory framework, and looks at emerging challenges that countries face in adjusting their development strategies to the new global economy marked by the private ownership of knowledge. Review of the key points of comparison from the case studies underscores the importance of social structure and coalitions for analyses of comparative and international political economy. Looking forward, this chapter supplements the book’s analysis of the political economy of pharmaceutical patents with discussion of additional ways that countries respond to the monumental changes that global politics of intellectual property have undergone since the 1980s. The broader focus underscores fundamental economic and political challenges that countries face in adjusting to the new world order of privately owned knowledge, and points to asymmetries in global politics that reinforce these challenges.

10. Global Political Economy

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-249
Author(s):  
Stephanie Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Global Political Economy ◽  
The North ◽  
Role Of The State

This chapter offers an overview of the field of Global Political Economy (GPE)—also known as International Political Economy (IPE). It builds on themes introduced in previous chapters, including connections with theories of global politics. These are discussed from a historical perspective to enable a better appreciation of how ideas, practices, and institutions develop and interact over time. These theories arose substantially within a European context, although the extent to which these may be applied uncritically to issues of political economy in all parts of the globe must be questioned. Significant issues for GPE include trade, labour, the interaction of states and markets, the nexus between wealth and power, and the problems of development and underdevelopment in the global economy, taking particular account of the North–South gap. The chapter then discusses the twin phenomena of globalization and regionalization and the way in which these are shaping the global economy and challenging the traditional role of the state. An underlying theme of the chapter is the link between economic and political power.

Comparative and International Political Economy and the Global Financial Crisis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Johnston
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
European Debt Crisis ◽  
Foreign Credit

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and subsequent European Debt Crisis had wide-sweeping consequences for global economic and political stability. Yet while these twin crises have prompted soul searching within the economics profession, international political economy (IPE) has been relatively ineffective in accounting for variation in crisis exposure across the developed world. The GFC and European Debt Crisis present the opportunity to link IPE and comparative political economy (CPE) together in the study of international economic and financial turmoil. While the GFC was prompted by the inter-connectedness of global financial markets, its instigators were largely domestic in nature and were reflective of negative externalities that stemmed from unsustainable national policies, especially those related to financial regulation and household debt accumulation. Many in IPE take an “outward looking in” approach to the examination of international economic developments and domestic politics; analysis rests on how the former impacts the latter. The GFC and European Debt Crisis, however, demonstrate the importance of a (CPE-based) “inward looking out” approach, analyzing how unique policy and political features (and failures) of individual nation states can unleash economic and financial instability at the global level amidst deepened economic and financial integration. IPE not only needs to grant greater attention to variation in domestic politics and policies in a time of closely integrated financial markets, but also should acknowledge the impact of a wider array of actors beyond banks and financial institutions (specifically more domestically rooted actors like households) on cross-national variation in the consumption of foreign credit.

Capitalisms: A Global System

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Deeg
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Business Systems ◽  
Global System ◽  
Global Political Economy ◽  
Epochal Change

The global political economy is a multilevel system of economic activities and regulation in which the domestic level continues to predominate—in other words, it is a global system comprising national capitalist economies. Nations differ in terms of the regulations and institutions that govern economic activity, an observation that is embodied in the so-called “varieties of capitalism” (VoC) literature. Contemporary VoC approaches highlight the significance of social and political institutions in shaping national economies, in stark contrast to neoclassical economics which generally ignores institutions other than markets or sees them as hindrances to the functioning of free markets. Three analytical premises inform the diverse conceptual frameworks within the VoC literature: the firm-based approach, national business systems approach, and the governance or “social systems of production” approach. The VoC literature offers three important contributions to our understanding of the global political economy. The first is that different sources of competitive advantage for firms and nations are institutionally rooted and not easily changed. The second contribution is that these distinct national arrangements give rise to different interests/preferences in how the global economy is constructed and managed. Finally, the VoC approaches provide a framework for analyzing long-term institutional changes in capitalist systems and the persistence of diverse forms of capitalism, including the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 that may usher in yet another epochal change in the “battle of capitalisms.”

States and the future of global finance

1992 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Helleiner
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Trade ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Finance ◽  
International Economics ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Financial Sector ◽  
Global Finance ◽  
The Future

One of the central objectives of the field of international political economy (IPE) in the last 20 years has been to introduce insights from the field of international relations into the study of global economic affairs. Although this effort has been largely successful in the study of international trade, much less attention has been focused on the financial sector of the global economy. Seemingly highly technical and arcane, the study of international finance has been left largely to specialists in international economics, financial journalists, and international financial practitioners.

scholarly journals The evolution of China's climate change policy: international and domestic political economy and a strategy for working with China

2021 ◽  
Vol 9s10 ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Hongyi Lai
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Effective Theory ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Change Policy

For over a decade China has been the predominant carbon emitter in the global economy. It is thus imperative for us to understand the factors behind its climate change policy in the past decades. In the article, the author surveys the evolution of China�s climate change policy during 1990�2021 and applies theories from international relations and international political economy to explain it. It is found that (neo-)realism/nationalism and liberalism, two main theories in the field, offer only a partial explanation of China�s climate policy. The most effective theory is domestic sources. In particular, leadership power consolidation and a concern with economic growth seem to dictate China�s climate policy. The findings point to the analytical utility of domestic political economy in accounting for the climate stances of nation-states. Policy suggestions for external parties to interact with China on climate change are proposed. There the importance of involving China in global action against climate change, as well as the utility of the economy and trade leverage, soft power standing, and the prevention of extreme weather are discussed.

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