International political economy in context : individual choices, global effects / Andrew C. Sobel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: part I BUILDING BLOCKS TO EXAMINE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND CONFLICT -- 1. Introduction: Political Economy, Rationality, and Social Science -- Similarities across Domestic and International Politics -- Globalization and Global Capitalism: Connecting Markets and Communities -- The Past as Prologue -- What Is Political Economy? -- Three Core Assumptions within the Micro Political Economy Approach -- Scarcity -- Political Survival -- Rationality -- Rationality, Preferences, and Self-Interest Explored -- Ordering Preferences -- Rationality under Scarcity and Political Survival -- Two Properties of Preference Ordering: Completeness and Transitivity -- Context and the Interdependence of Choices: Opportunity for Strategic Behavior -- Game Theory: Modeling Context and Interdependent Choices -- Outcomes versus Choice: Using the Rationality Assumption -- Backward Induction -- An Example of Backward Induction -- The Purpose and Process of Social Science.

Contents note continued: Social Analysis as Social Science -- Tasks of Inquiry: Describing and Explaining What Happened and Why -- Two Examples of Theoretical Failures: Liberalism and Realism -- Liberalism: The Mutually Beneficial Exchange of Trade and Globalization -- Realism: The Nation-State System and the Distribution of Power -- Conclusion and Some Other Pitfalls -- Appendix: Examples of Complete and Intransitive Preferences -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 2. Structure, Nation-States, Power, and Order in an International Context -- The Context of International versus Domestic Political Arenas -- Nation-States: Influential Political Organizations in the Global Arena -- States and Their Defining Characteristics -- Functional Equality and Specialization: What Every State Does, but Some Better than Others -- Nation: Development of Collective Identity and Social Cooperation -- Origins of the State System: Empire and Fragmentation.

Contents note continued: The Treaty of Westphalia and Sovereignty: Redrawing the Lines of Political Authority -- The Principle and the Practice of Sovereignty -- Common Violations of the Principle of Sovereignty -- Anarchy: Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation in the Global Arena -- Self-Help Dispute Resolution under Anarchy -- Hierarchy: Looking for Order and Predictability -- Power Defined as a Relative Concept -- Using the Tools of Statecraft and Diplomacy to Influence Behavior -- Persuasion -- Offer of Rewards -- Granting of Rewards -- Threat of Punishment -- Nonviolent Punishment -- Force -- Analyzing Political Behavior: Weighing the Costs and Benefits of the Tools of Statecraft -- Finding Order in Anarchy: Power Capabilities and Attributes -- Motivation versus Capability in the Hierarchy of Influence -- Tangible Attributes That Contribute to Power -- Intangible Attributes That Contribute to Power -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading.

Contents note continued: 3. Economic Liberalism and Market Exchange in the Global Arena -- Economic Liberalism: Competitive Markets and Social Outcomes -- The Price Mechanism Coordinating Supply and Demand -- Factors of Production: The Allocation of Land, Labor, and Capital -- The Normative Appeal of Economic Liberalism: Individual Choice, Liberty, and Efficiency -- Market Exchange as the Basis of International Trade: Mechanisms at the Core of Modern Globalization -- Absolute Advantage: An Early Principle of International Trade -- Comparative Advantage: A Revolution in Thought -- Revisiting Factors of Production: Labor Theory of Value to Factor Endowment -- The Balance of Payments: Regulating Trade and Capital Flows in the Global Political Economy -- The Role of Financial Invention and Integration in Expanding Global Capitalism -- Money: A Functional Approach -- Expanding Access to a Larger Pool of Capital -- Labor Mobility: Creating Linkages across State Borders -- Conclusion.

Contents note continued: Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- part II MICRO TOOLS -- 4. The Micro Approach to Political and Economic Markets in Theory and Practice -- Individual Preferences, Social Outcomes -- Economic and Political Market Exchange -- Market Exchange in the Political Arena: Rational Consumers and Producers -- The Mechanism of Political Exchange -- Voluntary versus Nonvoluntary Exchange -- Social Choice and Voting Rules -- Theoretical Prerequisites of Efficient and Competitive Markets -- Clear Property Rights and Low Transaction Costs -- Competition and Manipulation of Market Exchange -- Externalities -- Complete Information -- An Example of Political Market Exchange: Elections, the Median Voter, and Selection of Policy -- International Affairs If the Conditions for Efficient Economic and Political Exchange Hold -- Market Failure and Suboptimal Social Outcomes -- Understanding Market Failure.

Contents note continued: Incomplete Property Rights and Nonnegligible Transaction Costs -- Manipulation of Supply and Demand -- Third-Party Negative and Positive Externalities -- Threats of Incomplete and Asymmetric Information -- Context and Social Traps: Cycling, Coordination, and Cooperation Problems -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Using Game Theory to Explore Cycling and Coordination Problems -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 5. The Dilemma of Collective Action: Who Organizes, Who Does Not, and Why -- A Paradox of Collective Action -- Dismantling the Social Trap: Self-Interest and Collective Outcomes -- What Is a Collective Good? -- Initial Expectations about Provision of Collective Goods -- Positive Externalities and Incentives to Free Ride -- The Unraveling of Collective Good Provision -- Another Paradox: Collective Action despite the Social Trap -- Mechanisms for Overcoming Barriers to Collective Action -- Compulsion -- Selective Incentives.

Contents note continued: Entrepreneurship -- Piggybacking -- Group Size -- Some Other Collective Action Considerations -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 6. The Role of Hegemonic Leadership and Its Micro Foundations -- Growing Global Exchange under a Liberal Hegemon -- Hegemonic Leadership and Global Stability -- Liberal Hegemons and Important Collective Goods -- Open Market for Distress Goods -- Countercyclical Lending -- Stable Exchange-Rate System -- Macroeconomic Policy Coordination -- Lender of Last Resort: Managing Liquidity in the Global System -- Sources of Hegemonic Capacity: Arising from Challenges to Political Survival -- Public Finance and Hegemonic Provision of Collective Goods -- Rule of Law -- Taxation -- Public Debt -- Lender of Last Resort -- National Currency as an International Reserve Currency -- Private Finance and Hegemonic Provision of Collective Goods -- Capital Market Size -- Capital Market Diversification.

Contents note continued: Capital Market Depth and Liquidity -- Market Transparency and Clearinghouse Mechanisms -- Openness and Absence of National Bias -- Change and Development of Hegemonic Capacity in a Global Financial Network -- Credibility of Public and Private Financial Arrangements in the Global Political Economy -- Increasing Returns and Network Externalities Necessary to Become a Global Capital Financial Center -- Alternative Explanations of the Source of Hegemonic Leadership -- Conclusion -- Important Caveat -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 7. Interest Groups and International Economic Foundations of Political Cleavage -- A Puzzle: How to Anticipate Possible Cleavages and Coalitions in Political Economies -- Explanations Grounded in Micro Political Economy -- Interest Groups: Fragmenting Monolithic Perceptions of Society -- Biological and Social Foundations of Cleavage -- International Economic Sources of Cleavage.

Contents note continued: Factor Endowment: A Source of Preferences, Cleavage, and Coalition -- A Critique of the Factor Endowment Framework -- Industrial Sector as an Alternative Means of Interest Aggregation -- Asset Characteristics as an Alternative Means of Interest Aggregation -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 8. The Role of Institutions in Political and Economic Market Failure -- Constraining Social Traps and Market Failure -- Institutions as Rules of the Game: Influencing Actions and Outcomes -- Difference between Formal and Informal Institutions -- Institutions as Social Bargains and Ex Ante Agreements -- Institutions as Equilibria -- Institutions as Incentives and Path Dependence -- A Normative Caveat: Are Institutions Inherently Good? -- Institutional Effectiveness and Durability: Lasting Consequences -- Distributional Implications of Institutions -- The Social Origins of Institutions: Intentional and Unintentional Design.

Contents note continued: Institutions as Devices to Overcome the Time-Inconsistency Dilemma -- Important Institutional Considerations in Domestic and Global Affairs -- Regime Type: Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes and the Rules of the Game -- Electoral Systems: Influencing the Nature of Politics and Policies -- Structure of Government: Domestic and Global Implications -- Social Institutions: Influencing Uncertainty and Risk through Social Bargains -- Veto Points: Institutional Checks and Balances in a Political Economy -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- part III CONTEXT -- 9. Around the World in Eighty Days: A Stage of Modern Globalization -- Globalization Is Nothing New -- Intellectual Change: Comparative Advantage and Efficiency Improve Social Welfare -- Shifts in Public Policy Affect International Exchange -- Mercantilism and Protectionism as the Legacy of War -- The Rise of British Protrade Political and Policy Pressures.

Contents note continued: Bilateral Trade Treaties and Most-Favored-Nation Status -- Other Liberalizing Policy Shifts and a Caveat -- The Influences of Risk and Uncertainty on International Trade -- Managing Risk and Uncertainty: Incomplete Contracting, Default Risk, and Banker's Acceptances -- Managing the Problems of Currency Risk: Monetary Regimes -- The Gold Standard and Stable Exchange Rates -- Debate over Alternatives to the Gold Standard -- Why Converge on a Gold Standard? -- Convertibility as a Collective Good -- Why Would a Government Renege on a Commitment to Its Currency Price? -- British Contributions to Other Collective Goods -- Liquidity: Fuel for a Global Economy -- Lender of Last Resort: Managing Economic Crises -- Market Access under Duress -- Technology's Role in the Growth of Globalization -- Transportation Leads to Greater Efficiency and Market Integration -- The Industrial Revolution and Migration Transform Political Economies.

Contents note continued: Technological Advances in Communication Promote Globalization -- The Dark Side of Globalization in the 1800s -- Creative Destruction and Dislocation -- The Dominance of Colonialism and Imperialism -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 10. The World between the Wars: A Breakdown in Globalization -- Why the Reversal in Globalization and Economic Advance? -- Allocating Costs of Adjustment -- The Legacy of Rapid Change in the 1800s -- Agriculture and Costs of Adjustment -- Retrenchment of Trade Barriers -- The Unsettling Legacy of World War I in the Interwar Years -- Post-World War I Population Loss as a Barrier to Economic Activity -- The Exchange-Rate Mechanism: Currency Instability and Convertibility -- Beggar-Thy-Neighbor Policies and Currency Devaluation -- Breakdown in Liquidity and Lender-of-Last-Resort Collective Goods -- The Effects of War Debts and Reparations on Liquidity.

Contents note continued: German Hyperinflation Threatens Monetary and Political Stability -- The Rise of Political Extremism in Germany -- U.S. Financial Market Speculation and the Crash -- Crisis in the Credit Mechanism -- The Breakdown in Trade Erodes the Benefits of Global Exchange -- Tit-for-Tat Retaliation Beggars International Trading Partners and Hinders Recovery -- The Absence of Hegemonic Leadership in the International System -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 11. The Bretton Woods System: The Rebuilding of Globalization -- Past Mistakes and a New Framework for International Cooperation -- Policy Making and Time Inconsistency: Lessons from the Interwar Years and the Postwar Dilemma -- Using Monetary and Fiscal Policies to Manage Economies: Postwar Domestic Strategy and Mechanism Design -- Supporting Hegemonic Leadership with IGOs: Postwar International Strategy and Mechanism Design -- Promoting Freer Trade: The GATT.

Contents note continued: Monetary Arrangements and the International Monetary Fund -- Development and the World Bank: Encouraging Economic Expansion -- Active Engagement and the Truman Doctrine -- Economic and Military Containment -- The Marshall Plan's Strategy to Promote Economic Growth -- Breakdown in the Bretton Woods Monetary Arrangements -- Suspension of Convertibility and Imposition of Capital Controls -- The Leading Currency Problem and the Triffin Dilemma -- Growing Pressures on the Dollar-Gold Relationship Threaten the Bretton Woods Monetary System -- U.S. Financial Constraints and International Reactions Challenge U.S. Leadership -- Suspension of Dollar-Gold Convertibility -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 12. The World Post-Bretton Woods: Globalization Advances -- Fundamental Shifts in Global Finance -- Post-Bretton Woods Monetary Arrangements -- Seeking a Stable System of Exchange Rates amid a Variety of Exchange-Rate Mechanisms.

Contents note continued: Strategies to Limit Exchange-Rate Volatility: Currency Pegs, Currency Control Boards, and Limited Monetary Policy Flexibility -- A Collective-Currency Peg to Limit Exchange-Rate Volatility: The European Snake -- Balancing Strong- and Weak-Currency States: The European Monetary System -- The European Monetary Union: Balancing Greater Monetary Integration with Fiscal Autonomy -- Financial Globalization and Liberalization: Unleashing National Financial Markets and Reviving Global Finance -- Explanations for Globalization: Technology, Competition, Politics, and Policy -- Challenging the Emerging Global Financial Infrastructure: Petrodollars and a Debt Crisis -- Implications of Financial Globalization: Does Mobile Capital Gain Disproportionate Advantage and Erode National Policy Autonomy? -- The Capital Mobility Hypothesis: The Use or Fear of Bargaining Leverage -- The Unholy Trinity: Three Policy Tools and an Inherent Tension.

Contents note continued: Going Forward: The IMF and the Washington Consensus -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 13. Detente and the End of the Cold War: Globalization during Transition -- Cold War to Post-Cold War Transformation -- The Command Economies Gradually Join the Global Economy -- Detente and Shifts in the International Political-Military Context Lead to Improved Economic Relations -- The Cuban Crisis and a U.S.-Soviet Strategic Gap Lead to Greater Cooperation -- The Two Germanys and Political Settlement in Europe Transform the Global Context -- The Vietnam War's Resolution Contributes to Improved East-West Relations -- Global Implications of Discord within the Sino-Soviet Alliance -- Domestic Shifts in the Eastern Bloc and China Generate Greater International Exchange -- Access to Western Markets, Technology, and Capital Encourages Development -- Second Thoughts, Overleveraged Political Economies, and International Lending.

Contents note continued: Renewal of Political-Military Tensions Interrupts the Eastern Bloc's Global Economic Integration -- China Takes Steps toward Liberalization -- Arms Control, Perestroika, and Glasnost Change the Political Economic Landscape -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises -- Further Reading -- 14. Into the Future: Political and Economic Market Failures and Threats to Globalization -- Regional and Financial Instability Grow into a Systemic Threat -- The Future of U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century -- A Network of Financial Relations Creates Self-Sustaining, but Not Stable, Leadership -- Public and Private Domestic Financial Practices Threaten U.S. Hegemony -- Challenging the Health and Efficacy of U.S. Global Economic Leadership -- Potential Hegemonic Successors to Stabilize the System and Promote Cooperation -- Considering the Microfoundations of Hegemonic Capacity for China, India, and the European Union -- Conclusion -- Key Concepts -- Exercises.

Contents note continued: Further Reading.