The global political economy is undergoing a moment of profound change and upheaval, precipitated by the recentering of the global economy back toward Asia, where it had traditionally been until the shock of colonialism and European industrialization. China, in particular through decades of sustained, rapid economic growth and domination of global manufacturing capacity, has greatly increased its influence over international affairs. This work explores some of the challenges generated by China and the other ‘rising powers’, including increased military and diplomatic confrontation, the erosion of core norms that underpin key institutions of economic governance and the creation of new institutions that may undermine the existing framework of global economic governance. The work reflects on the future of global political economy and questions the basis of the existing set of approaches, norms and institutions of global governance, whom they were created to benefit, and the extent of their claims to legitimacy.
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12. China and the Global Political Economy
Scott James
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3. Cooperation and Conflict in the Global Political Economy
Vinod K. Aggarwal and Cédric Dupont
How can one understand the problems of collaboration and coordination in the global political economy (GPE)? In situations of global interdependence, individual action by states often does not yield the desired result. Many argue that the solution to the problem of interdependence is to create international institutions. Yet this approach itself raises the issue of how states might go about creating such institutions in the first place. This work examines the conditions under which states might wish to cooperate and provides an introduction to game theory as an approach to understanding interdependent decision-making. It then discusses the conditions under which international institutions are likely to be developed and how they may facilitate international cooperation. Finally, the work examines dimensions of institutional variation, with a discussion of factors that shape the design of international institutions.
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11. Crime
Asif Efrat
This chapter studies the joint efforts of states to tackle crime through bilateral or multilateral action. The criminal activities that fuel global concern are transnational in nature; they involve more than one country and thus require an internationally coordinated response. These transnational criminal activities involve illicit flows; that is, the movement between countries of people, goods, or money. What makes these flows illicit is that they are prohibited by the laws of the country that is the source of the flows and/or the laws of the country receiving them. Smuggling drugs or firearms across borders; laundering illegally obtained funds through international financial transactions; the sale of women to engage in sex work—these are some examples of the transnational flows that constitute the illicit global economy. The chapter examines each of these flows, the challenge of measuring them, and their relationship with globalization, before turning to the efforts against them.
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4. Critical and Feminist European Political Economy
Angela Wigger and Laura Horn
This chapter explores the strength of critical and feminist approaches to European political economy. It explains that Critical and Feminist EPE plays an important role in demystifying dominant modes of understanding that strategically silence various forms of exploitation in capitalist power relations. Critical EPE seeks to understand the European Union in the context of the wider dynamics of global capitalism. Meanwhile, Feminist EPE focuses primarily on social power relations. The chapter elaborates on the state of the art of Critical and Feminist EPE with respect to theoretically informed explanations of crises and crisis responses and their social and political consequences. It highlights the importance of critical perspectives to analyse EPE and imagine an alternative future.
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8. Economic Liberalism, Inequality, and Populist Backlash
Jonathan Hopkin
This chapter covers the interplay between economic liberalism, inequality, and populist backlash. It introduces the concept of anti-system politics, which overwhelmed the political systems of the European countries. The contours of backlash politics in Europe since the Global Financial Crisis of the late 2000s showcase how party systems have changed under pressure from hard-pressed voters facing stagnating living standards. Additionally, the causes and consequences of this backlash include how the crisis of the European economy has sparked political contestation and how political institutions responded to the aforementioned backlash. The chapter then considers analytical tools of European political economy to discuss the European countries' political upheaval and economic pressures that drive political instability.
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12. Environment
Charlotte Burns and Neil Carter
This chapter considers a number of environmental issues at the heart of the European political economy. It looks at several key features that characterize the political economy of the environment in Europe. The rapid growth of EU environmental policy from the 1980s was underpinned by the economic rationale of establishing a level playing field to ensure a Single Market. Meanwhile, in 2019, the European Green Deal placed climate change and the environment at the heart of the EU's growth agenda. The chapter explains how Ideational and Critical and Feminist EPE approaches highlight the gaps between the EU's stated ambitions and the type of radical action required to achieve net zero.
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9. Environment and climate
Hayley Stevenson
This chapter begins by looking at mainstream and critical perspectives on the relationship between globalization and the environment. It shows how race and gender are implicated in the distribution of environmental harms, and how clean and safe environments in the Global North often come at the expense of communities in the Global South. A case study of green technology reveals that this asymmetry also characterizes efforts to transition to more sustainable societies. There are four key perspectives on globalization and the environment: liberal environmentalism, eco-Marxism, environmental justice, and ecofeminism. The chapter then turns to the topic of global governance to see how environmental multilateralism has developed over the past five decades, and the tensions that remain between global rules on trade and the environment.
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1. European Open Economy Politics
Mark Copelovitch and Stefanie Walter
This chapter outlines an Open Economy Politics (OEP) perspective on how national interests are formed and how they matter in European politics. It focuses on national economic interest, which defines the governments' preferences with regard to European economic policymaking. The key point of the OEP approach to European political economy is that national interests emerge in a process of upward aggregation. The chapter enumerates the major issues of the Euro crisis and Brexit under the OEP perspective. It highlights that the conflict between the distributional winners and losers over economic crises and economic policies sits at the very heart of European political economy.
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10. European Political Economy and Interdependence
Elliot Posner
This chapter focuses on the correlation between the key concepts of European political economy and interdependence. It elaborates on the interplay between multi-level governance, Europeanization, globalization, and EU market integration. Essentially, the EPE cannot be understood without careful analysis of the interlinkages between the EU market-building project and the region's interdependent relationships with the rest of the world. The chapter then provides an overview of the main concepts surrounding globalization, regionalization, and general trade patterns of national markets. It notes the high likelihood that EU-level agents, processes, and structures are prime shapers in any given aspect of the EPE.
Book
Edited by Manuela Moschella, Lucia Quaglia, and Aneta Spendzharova
European Political Economy combines the key theoretical and empirical approaches of political economy and EU scholarship. It draws on theoretical debates and recent policy case studies, to help readers apply theories and methods to real life issues in European political economy. The book offers a clear analysis of some of the most pressing challenges confronting Europe, such as the political impact of rising inequality, the functioning and the effects of Economic and Monetary Union, the future of the ‘European’ social model, the ongoing impact of Brexit, Europe's role in a changing global economy, and Europe's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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8. The Evolution of the International Monetary and Financial System
Eric Helleiner
The international monetary and financial system plays a central role in the global political economy (GPE). This work examines how the contemporary system is still shaped by many legacies of the Bretton Woods monetary and financial order established in 1944 and the political priorities of its architects. That order has also undergone several pivotal transformations. An important gradual change has been dramatic globalisation of financial markets since the 1960s. A more sudden one was the abandonment of the Bretton Woods gold exchange standard in 1971. The dollar standard that replaced it faces a number of challenges in the contemporary era. Also significant have been the breakdown of the adjustable peg exchange rate regime in the early 1970s as well as regionalization and decentralization trends.
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5. Finance
Lena Rethel
This chapter focuses on the Global Political Economy (GPE) of finance. It begins by exploring the key pillars of the GPE of finance, starting with money, currencies, and the international monetary system, before examining the dynamics of credit and debt. While money is ubiquitous, its usages are characterized by great variety and so are the practices—economic, political, and cultural—to which money gives rise. The chapter then looks at both public and private mechanisms which were established to govern global finance. Recurring financial crises are a key feature of the Global Political Economy. These crises can be triggered in different segments of the global financial system, including currency and debt markets, and can result from shocks outside the financial economy such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter also considers different ideas that may shape the international organization of credit, such as Islamic finance.
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6. Financial Integration and Regulation
Lucia Quaglia
This chapter provides an overview of financial integration and regulation. It discusses the main issues at stake in the political economy of financial integration and regulation in Europe. Due to the recurrence of financial crises, the globalization of finance, the multi-level governance of financial services, and the large size and far-reaching influence of the financial sector, financial integration and regulation hold particular significance in the European political economy. Over time, financial integration increased in the European Union, which has harmonized regulations on a variety of financial services across Member States. The financial integration and regulation in Europe face several ongoing and future challenges, such as the incompleteness of the Banking Union and its asymmetric functioning.
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10. Global Finance and the Everyday
Clarke Chris and Roberts Adrienne
This work uses ‘the everyday’ as a lens to explore the worlds of finance, debt and money. It offers a ‘bottom up’ perspective on broader structural trends in the world economy, showing both how these affect the day-to-day experiences of individuals and households, and how everyday financial practices are constitutive of the world economy. The work uses debt and money as entry points for this discussion. It discusses how and why households have come to rely on debt as part of everyday life and shows how debt reliance has unequal consequences. It also surveys the use of money by ordinary people and the everyday political economy of monetary governance.
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14. Global governance
Richard Jolly and Thomas G. Weiss
This chapter discusses ‘global governance’, the term now used widely to analyse the international system. Global governance consists of collective efforts to identify, understand, and address worldwide problems and processes that go beyond the capacities of individual states. The question of how to improve global economic governance can be understood by addressing the main ‘gaps’ in the international system: knowledge, norms, policies, institutions, leadership, and compliance. The chapter then presents three illustrations of current issues in global governance—and the gaps therein—to help in understanding international responses (both weak and strong) to communicable diseases, economic instability, and child welfare. Ultimately, addressing global governance problems requires more robust intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Book
Edited by Nicola Phillips
Global Political Economy explores the breadth and diversity of this topic and looks at the big questions that matter today. It addresses essential topics and themes, such as poverty, labour, migration, and the environment. With a strong emphasis on ‘globalising’ the study of this subject, the text introduces the idea that it matters who is talking and writing. It explains that there are different ways of seeing the world, and that bringing together different theoretical and methodological perspectives adds to the depth and richness of understanding. In addition, chapters look at globalism and neoliberalism, finance, trade, production, health, climate change, inequality, crime, migration, and global governance.
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Erin Hannah and John Ravenhill
What constitutes Global Political Economy? In whose interest is GPE constructed, and by whom? How can inequalities in GPE best be redressed? These are some of the key questions addressed in the 7th edition of this title.
As an ever-evolving field, subject to constant changes and developments, Global Political Economy provides a comprehensive introduction to GPE written by leading experts in the field. Under the direction of new editor Prof. Erin Hannah, the 7th edition surveys major contemporary issues and debates in GPE while being attuned to silences, marginalizations, and exclusions that predominate the field. By integrating a wide range of theoretical approaches, rich empirical material, non-western viewpoints and diversity of contributors, the 7th edition provides enhanced coverage of the central axes of inequality in GPE and centers topics such as colonialism, race, gender, North-South divides and everyday life throughout chapters on GPE theory, global trade and production, global money and finance, the resurgence of the state, development and inequality, the environment, and digital technologies.
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14. The Global Political Economy of Development
Ali Bhagat
Some major advances in the betterment of human life have been made in recent years but at the cost of accelerated climatic change and through uneven means of development. A reduction in child mortality, a rise in literacy and education, and by some measures the fewest people live in extreme poverty than they ever have before. Nevertheless, inequality on the multiple axes of health, income, environment, gender, education, technology, finance, shelter, food, water, and various other issues concerning access persist. This work examines efforts by various actors to deal with these problems with mixed and contested results. The analysis is centered around a key question: who benefits and why from globalised development? In so doing, it examines various development theories, traces the history of globalisation-led development post-WWII, and scrutinises contemporary challenges like the Great Recession and the Global Refugee Crisis, in order to understand the crisis prone tendencies of globalisation and its linkages to everyday practices in global political economy.
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17. The Global Political Economy of Digital Technology
Tyler Girard
The current digital transformation of the global economy continues to create new forms of power, new political cleavages, and new coalitions to which the governance of the GPE need to adapt. This work explains the technologies and firm dynamics at the center of this transformation, as well as the new analytical tools and concepts being used to explain these changes. It explores the digital transformation across three interrelated areas. The fragmentation of national and global governance initiatives for artificial intelligence is contrasted with the emergence of the European Union (EU) as a global standard-setter in data and privacy governance. The disruption of labour markets and shifting political cleavages caused by the digitization of global trade, as well as the creation of new points of conflict in global trade governance are explored. Finally, the work provides an assessment of the disruptive impact of technology firms and cryptocurrency on global finance.
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15. The Global Political Economy of North–South Relations: A View from the South
J. P. Singh
Some major advances in the betterment of human life have been made in recent years but at the cost of accelerated climatic change and through uneven means of development. A reduction in child mortality, a rise in literacy and education, and by some measures the fewest people live in extreme poverty than they ever have before. Nevertheless, inequality on the multiple axes of health, income, environment, gender, education, technology, finance, shelter, food, water, and various other issues concerning access persist. This work examines efforts by various actors to deal with these problems with mixed and contested results. The analysis is centered around a key question: who benefits and why from globalised development? In so doing, it examines various development theories, traces the history of globalisation-led development post-WWII, and scrutinises contemporary challenges like the Great Recession and the Global Refugee Crisis, in order to understand the crisis prone tendencies of globalisation and its linkages to everyday practices in global political economy.
