ASTK15457U CANCELLED - COURSE: Globalization and the European Union

Volume 2016/2017
Education

Elective course for Security Risk Management

Elective course in the specializations "International Political Economy" and "International Relations, Diplomacy, and Conflict Studies"

Bachelorlevel: 10 ECTS


Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS

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, its supposed consequences for the state, governance, democracy, power and social order and its sustainability in a post-crisis world. 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 three 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? In the third phase, the course considers the nature of the relationship between globalization and the EU in the context of a series of key contemporary challenges: changing power balances within the global political economy, the rapid recent increase of migratory flows into and within Europe, the prospect of significant anthropogenic climate change and the possibility of disintegration of the EU itself.

 

The course is structured as follows:

 

1.Introduction:

2. European integration as globalization or resistance to globalization?

3. Understanding globalization and regional integration

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

5.  The EU regulatory state and global neoliberalism

6. The European social model in the global order

7.  Globalisation, domestic politics and democracy in the EU

8. The EU and world trade

9. The EU and the social dimension of globalization

10. Re-globalisation? The EU and the changing balance of power in world politics

11. Globalisation, migration and the EU

12. The EU and the political economy of global climate change

13. European dis-integration and globalisation

14. Conclusions and examination preparation

 

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.   

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.

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