ASTK12139U Globalization and the European Union

Volume 2013/2014
Content

The course commences with a discussion of how globalization has been conceptualized in the broad social scientific literature. It will examine the complex and ongoing debates about globalization’s character, its alleged effects and its supposed consequences for the state, governance, democracy, power and social order. These ideas are then applied to contemporary Europe, which is notable for an institutional experiment – the European Union – that is claimed by some to be a collective antidote to globalization and by others to be globalization incarnate. The evidence is examined in two broad stages. In the first, the course examines the interplay of globalization and European integration – across a range of issue areas - within contemporary Europe. For example, the course considers whether the EU is ineluctably wedded to an ideology of neoliberalism that rules out alternative models of political economy or whether – through the development of European social policy for example – counter-tendencies to globalization can be mobilized at the supranational level. Does the EU contribute to the decline of democratic accountability and shifts of power from state to market that are often associated with globalization? Has the EU been responsible for regionalizing rather than globalizing Europe? How do different EU countries construe the relationship between European integration and global processes?.  In the second, the course shifts focus to think about the EU’s external role in terms of debates about globalization. How does the EU relate to the main global economic institutions? How do its practices – conducted though various forms of external action - help to reinforce disciplinary forms of neoliberalism? To what extent can EU ‘normative power’ contribute to a social ‘dimension’ of globalization?

The course is structured as follows:

1. Introduction

2. European integration as globalization or resistance to globalization?

3. Understanding globalization

4. Perspectives on globalization and regional integration

5. The evolution of the European and global economies in historical perspective

6. The EU and the post-war global economic order

7. The EU regulatory state and global neoliberalism

8. Corporate governance and market regulation

9. The European social model in the global order

10. Globalisation, domestic politics and democracy in the EU

11. The EU and world trade

12. Globalisation, migration and the EU

13. Normative power Europe and the social dimension of globalization

14. The EU and the global financial crisis

Learning Outcome

This course considers the complex relationship between the processes of globalization on the one hand and the development of the European Union on the other. The course revolves around a central problem: whether the EU can be read as an agent of globalization or as a form of resistance to globalization. The course will show that the problem is easily stated, but difficult to resolve and that the very statement of the problem raises some complex social science questions. The course will look at theories of globalization, how regional integration fits into those theories and then will examine evidence across several empirical examples – political, economic, sociological, historical, cultural - of the relationship between globalization and European integration. These question are dealt with both analytically and normatively.

On completion of the course, students should (a) be able to demonstrate familiarity with the main theoretical debates about globalization and their application to the EU; (b) be able to analyse the globalization-EU dilemma in relation to one or more concrete cases; (c) be able to make informed, analytical evaluations of both different approaches to the study of the globalization/EU debate and their principal critics (d) be able to locate discussion about the relationship between globalization and the EU within a wide multi-disciplinary literature.

What can the course be used for?
The course can be used as a stepping stone to further study and/or thesis work in the areas of international political economy, (international) public administration and European studies. The substantive content of the course will be of interest to students wishing to pursue careers in national and international public administration, think tanks and the media.

Literature

The following is an indicative list of core readings. A detailed list of core and required readings will be provided at the start of the course.

  • Caporaso, J. and Tarrow, S. ‘Polanyi in Brussels : Supranational institutions and the Transnational Embedding of Markets’, International Organization Vol 63, No 4, 2009.
     
  • Hay, C. and Rosamond, B. ‘Globalisation, European integration and the discursive construction of economic imperatives’, Journal of European Public Policy. Vol. 9, No.2, 2002.
     
  • Hodson, D and Quaglia, L. ‘European Perspectives on the Global Financial Crisis’, Journal of Common Market Studies Vol 47 No 5, 2009.
     
  • Jacoby, W. and Meunier, S. ‘Europe and the management of globalization’, Journal of European Public Policy Vol 17 No 3, 2010.
     
  • Katzenstein, P.J. A World of Regions. Asia and Europe in the American Imperium, Cornell University Press, 2005.
     
  • Kelemen, R.D. ‘Globalizing the European Union’s environmental Policy’, Journal of European Public Policy Vol 17 No 3, 2010.
     
  • Kierzowski, H. (ed. ) Europe and Globalization, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
     
  • McCann, D The Political Economy of the European Union, Polity, 2010.
     
  • Rosamond, B. ‘Globalization, The Ambivalence of European Integration and the possibilities for Post-Disciplinary EU Studies’, Innovation, Vol.18, No.1, 2005.
     
  • Sapir, A. ‘Globalization and the Reform of European Social Models’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2, June 2006.
     
  • Scharpf, F. ‘The European Social Model’, Journal of Common Market Studies Vol 40 no 4, 2002.
     
  • Scholte, J.A Globalisation: A Critical Introduction. 2nd edition, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2005.
     
  • Schmidt, V.A. The Futures of European Capitalism, Oxofrd University Press, 2002.
     
  • Swank, D. and Betz, H-G ‘Globalization, the welfare state and right wing populism in Western Europe’, Socio-Economic Review Vol 1 No 2, 2003.
     
  • Wallace, H. ‘Europeanisation and globalisation: complementary or contradictory trends?’ New Political Economy, Vol.5, No.3, 2000.

 

Most core readings will draw heavily upon the following journals: Global Governance, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, New Political Economy, Review of International Political Economy, Review of International Studies.
Lectures, seminar discussions, small group exercises.
BA in political science/IR (exceptions tolerated).
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 79
  • Preparation
  • 168
  • Total
  • 275
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Written exam
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is for students with excellent performance, and full or almost full mastery of the content of the course materials and the literature and an excellent ability to discuss, analytically and with critical insight, debates about globalization and the EU
     
  • Grade 7 is for students with good performance, and good understanding of the content of the course materials and literature and a good ability to discuss, with a solid degree of analysis and critique, debates about globalization and the EU
     
  • Grade 02 is for students with sufficient performance, and understanding of the content of the course material and literature and some ability to discuss debates about globalization and the EU