Globalization and Domestic Politics

POL 4410W - Globalization and Domestic Politics – Fall 2007

Professor Ben Ansell

, 1474 SocSci

This course provides a detailed overview of the impact of the global economy on domestic politics. Much of the newspaper is devoted to foreign affairs from terrorism to trade treaties. However, global forces impact all forms of politics, not just those we traditionally think of as ‘foreign policy’. For example, US labor markets are highly dependent on cheap immigrant labor, the housing market is financed by cheap foreign capital, and Walmart is dependent on cheap foreign resources to keep prices low. This course will help you understand how the ever more complex global market impacts politics from the international to the local level.

The course splits into three sections. We begin the first section by considering the global market from a historical perspective – from its modern genesis in the late nineteenth century through to World Trade Organization. We then examine four competing explanations of how globalization affects politics: the liberal, realist, Marxist, and cultural theories. We conclude the first section by examining directly the impact of globalization on domestic politics. The second section examines an array of global economic forces: trade, finance, aid, and multinational business – and examines their impact on domestic politics including monetary policy, development strategies, and the welfare state. Finally, the third section examines the impact a series of global political forces including the environment, crime, terrorism, public health, and mass immigration.

The subjects of this course are difficult to comprehend and, accordingly, the readings for this course are not simple. While we will average only around 100-150 pages of reading per week, the readings will be complex and require you to absorb a large amount of historical, economic, and political detail. However, the counterpart to this difficulty is that you will learn how to define a research problem effectively, argue your case clearly, and know what would constitute convincing evidence.

Like the readings, the course requirements of this course stress depth of knowledge. There will be a midterm worth 33% of the course grade and the final will take the form of an individual research paper of 15 pages, double-spaced, worth 67%. I expect you to think in detail and nuance when completing assignments, and initiative and creativity will be appropriately rewarded. So that you can produce as professional and stimulating a research paper as possible, I ask you to submit a draft of up to 10 pages, six weeks before the due date, which we will return to you with comments four weeks before the deadline.

What am I looking for in terms of writing? During the course we will have two lectures on how to research and then write a research paper. You should also consult the assigned readings by Baglione and Orwell on good writing. Effective writing should be structured, make a clear argument, match evidence to claims, understand the degree of uncertainty in one’s evidence and claims, and be able to move from specific research to more general conclusions.

Finally, a cautionary note. Plagiarism will be punished as severely as possible. You are graded on the strength of your work not on your ability to purchase essays online or to transcribe articles word for word. I will catch you if you plagiarize. Furthermore, you are expected to attend lecture, unless you have a medical or family emergency. I hope to learn all of your names during the course in order to facilitate discussion. Of course, this has the comforting side effect that I will know if you skip class. Be warned.

Books Required for Purchase

Frieden , Jeffry, Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century.

Lechner, Frank and John Boli (eds.), The Globalization Reader

Lomborg, Bjorn (ed.), Global Problems, Global Solutions

Wolf, Martin, Why Globalization Works

Baglione, Lisa, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science

Orwell, George, Politics and the English Language

Section A: Building a Framework to Understand Globalization

Week One – Introduction (100 pages)

• Wolf, Chapters One, Two, and Seven
• Lechner and Boli, Chapters 4, 25
• Frieden, Prologue; Chapters One, Two, and Five

Week Two – A Brief History of Globalization in the 20th Century (170 pages)

• Frieden, Chapters Six, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, Fifteen, Sixteen (140 pages)
• Wolf, Chapter Eight (30 pages)

Week Three –Theories about the International Economy

• Wolf, Chapters Three through Six
• Lechner and Boli, Chapters 1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11
• Gilpin, Robert, ‘Three Models of the Future’, International Organization, 1975.

Week Four – Parties, Domestic Politics, and the Welfare State

• Wolf, Chapter 12
• Lechner and Boli, Chapters 26-29
• Iversen, Torben and Tom Cusack, ‘The Causes of Welfare State Expansion: Deindustrialization or Globalization’, World Politics, 2000.
• Pontusson, Jonas, ‘The American Welfare State in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on Alberto Alesina and Edward L. Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe’, Perspectives on Politics, 2006 (4): 315
• Rudra, Nita, ‘Globalization and the Decline of the Welfare State in Less-Developed Countries’, International Organization. 2003.

Section B: Global Economics and Domestic Politics

Week Five – Trade (1) Trade Barriers and Trade Treaties

• Wolf, Chapter 10
• C. Fred Bergsten, ‘Fifty Years of the GATT/WTO: Lessons from the Past for Strategies for the Future’, available at
• Ruggie, John, ‘Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order’ International Organization, Spring 1982. 194-230.
• Wallace, Helen, ‘Europeanisation and Globalisation: Complementary or Contradictory Trends?’, New Political Economy, 2000.
• Lomborg, Chapter 10F

Week Six – Trade (2) The Effects of Trade on Individuals and Politics

• Rogowski, Ronald, ‘Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade’, American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), pp. 1121-1137.
• Scheve, Kenneth and Matthew Slaughter, ‘What Determines Individual Trade Policy Preferences?’, Journal of International Economics, 2001.
• Wood, Adrian, ‘How Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers’, Journal of Economic Perspectives.
• Hiscox, Michael, ‘Class versus Industry Cleavages; Inter-Industry Factor Mobility and the Politics of Trade’, International Organization, 2003.

Week Seven – Finance (1) Capital Flows and MNCs

• Wolf, Chapters 11 and 13
• Lomborg, Chapter 5
• Lechner and Boli, Chapters 19, 20, 23, 24
• Vernon, Raymond, ‘International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1966.

Week Eight – Finance (2) Monetary Policy and Exchange Rates

• Frieden, Jeffry ‘Invested Interests: The Politics of National Economics Policies ina World of Global Finance’, International Organization, 1991.
• Broz, Jeffrey, ‘Political System Transparency and Monetary Commitment Regimes’, International Organization, 2003.
• Eichengreen, Barry, "European Monetary Unification," Journal of Economic Literature 31, pp.1321-1357, 1993.
• Eichengreen, Barry and Fabio Ghironi, ‘EMU and Enlargement’

Week Nine – Development (1) Debt, Aid, the IMF, and the World Bank

• Wolf, Chapter 9
• Frieden, Jeffry, ‘Classes, Sectors, and Foreign Debt in Latin America’, Comparative Politics, 1998.
• Przeworski, Adam and James Vreeland, ‘The Effect of IMF Programs on Economic Growth’, Journal of Development Economics, 2000.

Week Ten – Development (2) Different Strategies of Development

• Frieden, Chapters Nine, Ten, Thirteen, Fourteen, Eighteen, Nineteen
• Lechner and Boli, Chapter 21

Section C: Global Politics and Domestic Politics

Week Eleven – Immigration

• Roger Loewenstein, ‘The Immigration Equation’, New York Times, 2006.
• Lomborg, Chapter 8
• Rudolph, Chris, ‘Security and the Political Economy of International Migration’, American Political Science Review, 2003.

Week Twelve – Environmental Issues

• Lomborg, Chapter 1
• Kahl, Colin, ‘Demographic Change, Natural Resources, and Violence: The Current Debate’, Journal of International Affairs. 2002.
• Lechner and Boli, Chapters 47-50

Week Thirteen – Health, Hunger, and Education

• Lomborg, Chapters 2, 4, and 7
• Ghobarah, Hazem Adam, Paul Huth, and Bruce Russett, ‘Civil Wars Kill and Main People – Long After the Shooting Stops’, American Political Science Review, 2003.
• Ansell, Ben, ‘Teachers, Traders, and Tyrants’, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Working Paper, 2005.

Week Fourteen – Crime and Terrorism

• Lomborg, Chapter 3
• Lechner and Boli, 41-43, 46.
• Naim, Moises, ‘The Five Wars of Globalization’, Foreign Policy, 2003.
• Sandler, Todd, ‘Collective Action and Transnational Terrorism’, The World Economy, 2003
• Pape, Robert, ‘The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism’, American Political Science Review, 2003.