Middle East Technical University
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Department of International Relations
2011-12, Fall Semester
Instructor: Doç.Dr. Pınar Bedirhanoğlu
Lectures: Wednesday 9.40-12.00 (Grey Room)
IR.576 State in Global Capitalism
Purpose of the Course
This course aims to provide the graduate students with a critical historical understanding on neoliberal state transformation within the so-called globalisation process. After a methodological and historical analysis on the development of the capitalist state in its bourgeois democratic and national form until the 1980s, the course will scrutinise the social, economic and ideological bases of the ongoing transformations in the political field since then. In this regard, possible implications of various global processes on the state will be discussed by focusing on the restructurings that have been taking place in the economic managements, legal frameworks and coercive functions of states.
Requirements of the Course
The course will cover 6 main topics on state. The students are required to read and comprehend the articles assigned for each topic before coming to the lectures. Their qualified contribution to class discussions will be evaluated out of 10 %.
Students are expected to write 9 weekly short papers on the selected articles assigned by the lecturer from the outline. Papers which are not submitted on time will not be accepted later. 2 out of these 9 papers, which are either not submitted on time or with the lowest grades, will not be considered in the students’ overall evaluation. (60 %)
Students will also be required to make group presentations on the neoliberal transformation of the Turkish state in relation to one of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th topics. (15 %) Students will be exempt from one of the papers of their topic of presentation. The research groups and their presentation topics have to be defined latest by 26 October 2011.
There is also a maximum 3000 words-long individual term-paper requirement on the students’ group presentations (15 %). The term-papers are due on 7 January 2012.
Organisation of the Course and the Reading List
Week 1 (28 September)
Introduction to the Course
Weeks 2, 3 and 4 (5/12/19 October)
Topic 1: Methodological Perspectives on State (2 papers)
Cammack, P. (1990) “Statism, New Institutionalism, and Marxism” in R.Miliband, L.Panitch and J.Saville (eds.) The Socialist Register, The Merlin Press: London, 147-170.
Clarke, S. (1991) “State, Class Struggle and the Reproduction of Capital” in S.Clarke (ed.) The State Debate, Macmillan: London, 183-203.
Harvey, D. (2001) “The Marxian Theory of the State” in D.Harvey, Spaces of Capital, Towards a Critical Geography, Routledge, New York, 267-283.
Held, D. (1983) “Introduction: Central Perspectives on the Modern State” in D.Held (ed.) States and Societies, New York University Press: New York, 1-55.
Jessop, B. (2006) “Poulantzas’ State, Power, Socialism as a Modern Classic”, paper presented at the Historical Materialism Annual Conference, London.
Levi, M. (1981) “The Predatory Theory of Rule”, Politics and Society, Vol.10, No.4, 431-465.
Mann, M. (1994) “A Theory of the Modern State” in Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Vol.II, The Rise of Classes and Nation-States, 1760-1914, Cambridge University Press, 44-91.
Miliband, R. (1992) “State Power and Class Interests” in A.Levine, The State and Its Critics, Vol.II, Edward Elgar, 57-68.
North, D.C. (1994) “A Framework for Analyzing the State in Economic History” in J.A.Hall (ed.) The State, Critical Concepts, Vol.I, Routledge: London and New York, 325-334.
Weeks 5 and 6 (26 October-2 November)
Topic 2: State from a Historical Perspective (2 papers)
Berger, M.T. (2001) “The Nation-State and the Challenge of Global Capitalism”, Third World Quarterly, Vol.22, No.6, 889-907.
Carnoy, M. (1984) “The Dependent State” in M.Carnoy, The State and Political Theory, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 172-207.
Clarke, S. (1992) “The Global Accumulation of Capital and the Periodisation of the Capitalist State Form” in W.Bonefeld, R.Gunn and K.Psychopedis (eds.) Open Marxism, Vol.I, Dialectics and History, London, Pluto Press, 133-150.
Cox, R. (1987) “Part 2: States, World Orders, and Production Relations” in R.Cox, Production, Power, and World Order, New York, Columbia University Press, 105-267.
Gerstenberger, H. (2007) “The Rise of Bourgeois States: Preconditions for an Explanation” in H.Gerstenberger, Impersonal Power, History and Theory of the Bourgeois State, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 3-36.
Grew, R. (1984) “The Nineteenth-Century European State” in C.Bright and S.Harding (eds.) Statemaking and Social Movements, Essays in History and Theory, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 83-120.
Poulantzas, N. (1979) “The Nation State” in N.Poulantzas, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism, Verso, 70-84.
Wood, E.M. (1995) “The Separation of the ‘Economic’ and the ‘Political’ in Capitalism” in E.M.Wood, Democracy against Capitalism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 19-48.
Weeks 7 and 8 (16/23 November)
Topic 3: The Neoliberal State (2 papers)
Bonefeld, W. and J.Holloway (1996) “Conclusion: Money and Class Struggle” in W.Bonefeld and J.Holloway (eds.) Global Capital, National State and the Politics of Money, Palgrave Macmillan, 210-227.
Evans, P. (1992) “The State as Problem and Solution: Predation, Embedded Autonomy, and Structural Change” in S.Haggard and R.R.Kaufman (eds.) The Politics of Economic Adjustment: International Constraints, Distributive Conflicts, and the State, Princeton University Press, 139-181.
Gamble, A. (1979) “The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Rise of the Social Market Economy” in R.Miliband and J.Savile (eds.), The Socialist Register, London, The Merlin Press, 1-25.
Gamble, A. (2006), “Two Faces of Neo-Liberalism” in R.Robison (ed.), The Neo-Liberal Revolution: Forging the Market State, London: Palgrave, 20-35.
Harvey, D. (2006) “Neo-liberalism as Creative Destruction” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 88, No. 2, 145-158.
Manzetti, L. and C.H.Blake (1996) “Market Reforms and Corruption in Latin America: New Means for Old Ways”, Review of International Political Economy, Vol.3, No.4, 662-697.
Naim, M. (2000) “Fads and Fashion in Economic Reforms: Washington Consensus or Washington Confusion?”, Third World Quarterly, Vol.21, No.3, 505-528.
Week 9 (30 November)
Topic 4: Depoliticization of Economic Management (1 paper)
Burnham, P. “Globalisation, Depoliticization and Modern Economic Management” in W. Bonefeld and K.Psychopedis (eds.) (2000) The Politics of Change: Globalisation, Ideology and Critique, Palgrave, 9-30.
Centeno, M.A. (1993) “The New Leviathan: The Dynamics and Limits of Technocracy”, Theory and Society, Vol.22, 307-335.
Cerny, P. (2001) “From “Iron Triangles” to “Golden Pentagles”? Globalizing the Policy Process”, Global Governance, Oct-Dec, Vol. 7, Issue 4, 397-410.
MacLeod, D. (2005) “Privatization and the Limits of State Autonomy in Mexico”, Latin American Perspectives, Issue 143, Vol.32, No.4, 36-64.
Polillo, S. and M.F.Guillén (2005) “Globalisation Pressure and the State: The Worldwide Spread of Central Bank Independence”, American Journal of Sociology, Vol.110, No.6, 1764-1802.
Teichman, J. (1997) “Mexico and Argentina: Economic Reform and Technocratic Decision Making”, Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol.32, No.1, 31-55.
Weeks 10 and 11 (7/14 December)
Topic 5: Law and the New Constitutionalism (2 papers)
Bonefeld, W. (2006) “Democracy and Dictatorship: Means and Ends of the State”, Critique, Vol.34, No.3, 237-252.
Buchanan, J.M. (1985) “Chapter 23: Constitutional Democracy, Individual Liberty, and Political Equality” in J.M.Buchanan, Liberty, Market and State, Political Economy in the 1980s, New York, New York University Press, 248-260.
Ercan F. and Ş. Oğuz (2006) “Rescaling as a Class Relationship and Process: The Case of Public Procurement Law in Turkey”, Political Geography, Vol. 25, No.6, 641-656.
Gill, S. (2002) “Constitutionalizing Inequality and the Clash of Globalizations”, International Studies Review, Vol.4, Issue 2, 47-65.
Hayek, F. (1992/1979) “Majority Opinion and Contemporary Democracy” in A.Levine (ed.) The State and Its Critics, Vol.I, Aldershot, England, Edward Elgar, 231-249.
Picciotto, S. (1979) “The Theory of the State, Class Struggle and the Rule of Law” in B.Fine, R.Kinsey, J.Lea, S.Picciotto and J.Young (eds.), Capitalism and the Rule of Law, London, Hutchinson, 164-177.
Picciotto, S. (1991) “The Internationalisation of the State”, Capital and Class, No.43, 43-63.
Price, D. (2002) “How the WTO extends the rights of private property”, Critical Public Health, Vol.12, No.1, 55-64.
Weiss, L. (2005) “Global Governance, National Strategies: How Industrialized States Make Room to Move under the WTO”, Review of International Political Economy, Vol.12, No.5, 723-749.
Weeks 12 and 13 (21/28 December)
Topic 6: Coercion, Discipline, and the State (2 papers)
Avant, D. (2005) “Private Security Companies”, New Political Economy, Vol.10, No.1, 121-131.
Cheeseman, G. (2008) “Globalization and Military Force(s)” in R.Devetak and C.W.Huges (eds.), The Globalization of Political Violence, London and New York, Routledge, 27-45.
Ellison, G. and C.O’Reilly (2008) “‘Ulster’s Policing Goes Global’: The Police Reform Process in Northern Ireland and the Creation of A Global Brand”, Crime, Law, Social Change, Vol.50, No.4-5, 331-351.
Neocleous, M. (2006) “The Problem with Normality: Taking Exception to ‘Permanent Emergency’”, Alternatives, Vol.31, 191-213.
O’Reilly, C. (2010) “The Transnational Security Consultancy, A Case of State-Corporate Symbiosis”, Theoretical Criminology, Vol.14, No.2, 183-210.
Özkazanç, A. (2007) “Biyo-politik Çağda Suç ve Cezalandırma: Denetim Toplumunda Neo-liberal Yönetimsellik”, Toplum ve Bilim, No.108, 15-51.
Sanchez, R.M. (2006) “Insecurity and Violence as a New Power Relation in Latin America”, Annals, AAPSS, Vol.606, 178-195.
South Nigel (1997) “Control, Crime and ‘End of Century Criminology’” in P.Francis, P.Davies and V.Jupp (eds.) Policing Futures, The Police, Law Enforcement and the Twenty-First Century, Macmillan Press, pp.104-123.
Wacquant, L. (2001) “The Penalisation of Poverty and the Rise of Neoliberalism”, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, Vol.9, 401-412.
Week 14 (4 January)
The Neoliberal State after the 2008 Global Capitalist Crisis (no paper)
Articles to be assigned.
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