ASTK15400U COURSE: Globalization and the European Union

Volume 2015/2016
Education

Bachelorlevel: 10 ECTS


Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS

 

Elective course in the Specialization "International political economy"

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? Each of these issues will be discussed historically and in relation to the EU’s entanglement in the global financial crisis.    

 

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. The EU and the social dimension of globalization

14. The EU and the global financial crisis

 

Competency description

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.

 

Learning Outcome

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.   

 

  • 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.

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

  • Buch-Hansen, H and Wigger, A ‘Revisiting 50 Years of Market-Making: The Neoliberal Transformation of EC Competition Policy’. Review of International Political Economy, 17(1), 2010, pp.20-44.

  • Caporaso, J. and Tarrow, S. ‘Polanyi in Brussels : Supranational institutions and the Transnational Embedding of Markets’, International Organization Vol 63, No 4, 2009.

  • Crum, B ‘Saving the Euro at the Cost of Democracy?’, Journal of Common Market Studies 51(4), 2013, pp. 614-630

  • Damro, C ‘Market Power Europe’, Journal of European Public Policy 19(5), 2012, pp. 682-699

  • Ganghof, S and Genschel, P ‘Taxation and democracy in the EU’, Journal of European Public Policy 15(1), 2008, pp. 58-77

  • Favell, A. ‘Games without Frontiers? Questioning the Transnational Social Power of Migrants in Europe’, European Journal of Sociology 44(3), 2003, pp. 397-427

  • 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.

  • Jabko, N. ‘The hidden face of the Euro’, Journal of European Public Policy 17(3), 2010, pp. 318-334.

  • 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

  • O’Rourke, K. ‘Europe and the causes of globalization, 1790-2000’, in Henryk Kierzkowski (ed.) Europe and Globalization, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, pp. 64-86. [23] Version available at: https:/​/​www.tcd.ie/​Economics/​TEP/​2002_papers/​TEPNo1KO22.pdf

  • Parsons, C ‘Revisiting the Single European Act (and the Common Wisdom on Globalization)’, Comparative Political Studies 43(6), 2010, pp. 706-734.

  • Patomäki, H. The Great Eurozone Disaster: From Crisis to Global New Deal (Verso, 2013)

  • 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.

  • Schmidt, V.A. and Thatcher, M. Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy Cambridge University Press, 2013

     

  • 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.

  1.  
A good knowledge of the core literature in international relations and political science. Prior knowledge of European Union studies is helpful, but not essential.
The sessions will consist of a mixtures of mini-lectures, seminar discussions and small group exercises. Weekly reading will be guided by study questions which will help to form the agenda for class.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Total
  • 28
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
Written
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
  • Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner