What is international political economy? It's a field of study which addresses and inquires tensions among different states, markets, and social actors and institutions. Keep in mind that the acronym of international political economy, IPE, is not associated with the same meaning exactly. IPE suggests methods of inquiry that are multidisciplinary. Multidisciplinary in a sense that it has a few antecedent fields that provide IPE with tools to analyze and explain the constantly changing relationships between states, markets, and societies in different time spans and areas across the world.
Some of the important elements in these antecedent fields included in IPE would be;
1- Political Dimension.
2- Economic Dimension.
3- Many notables in this field explain that IPE doesn't reflect much on societal dimensions of international problems. On the other hand, scholars argue that "states and markets do not exist in a social vacuum", meaning the social problems such as gender based exploitation, and migrant workers, play a big role in shaping politics and economy.
Let's hop into the three dominant perspectives in IPE:
1- Economic Liberalism.
2- Mercantilism.
3- Structuralism.
Nothing is simple, not only will I be briefing about each one now, but I will get into further detail about each perspective and their critics and so on in future posts.
Economic Liberalism is concerned with the study of market.
Divisions of this perspective;
1- Orthodox Economic Liberals.(OEL). Free market-free trade.
2- Heterodox Intervention Liberals (HIL). State regulations and trade protection, "markets are the source of many problems".
STORY TIME!
This is where I make uneducated attempts to memorize educational matter.
Once upon a time I was walking to the supermarket. The MARKET is quite far away so I ran all the way so may HETEROsexual parents don't notice that their 5 year old daughter went out without permission. I ran so quickly that I didn't notice the HILl that lead to the supermarket came to an end. So I fell down and broke my bones. When my HETEROsexual parents found out they INTERVened and STATEd REGULATIONS to PROTECT me from doing stupid things. They also blame the superMARKET for being located down a HILl they think that could be a SOURCE OF MANY PROBLEMS.
Heterodox Intervention Liberals (HIL).
Some thinkers I will keep coming across would be; Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Friedrich Hayek.
Adam Smith basically keeps saying "LEAVE THE ECONOMY ALONE" to the governments in his book, The Wealth of Nations.
In the liberal perspective, the absence of state intervention and social influence makes a pure market.condition. In this condition people are assumed to behave rationally. They will naturally desire to maximize their gains and minimize their losses by selling and producing. In a rational pure market, people with want to exchange and will face the pressure of competing with others in the market either locally or internationally.
Mercantilism otherwise known as "Economic Nationalism", is connected with political science. In mercantilism there is a philosophy named realism. This is why the term Realist Mercantilism is repeated over and over in my lectures. Realism, focuses on state efforts to accumulate wealth and power to protect the society from other states be it from physical harm or influence.
Since the 17th century, a state became a dominate actor in the international community based on the principle that it has the power and authority to practice sovereignty over its affairs. "Final authority."
A state has power no doubt, but they can be divided into two types;
1- Hard Power.
2- Soft Power.
Hard power physical military and economic assets meant to coerce, compel, influence, fend off, or defeat competition and enemies.
Soft Power is an accumulation of selected tools that project a country's values, ideals, and beliefs. Films, cultural exchange, information, and diplomacy that convinces others that they want to adopt your legitimate ideas. Soft power is connected with persuasion and it can be much more powerful than hard power.
Structuralism is related to the third element in IPE antecedent fields. Structuralists stress that markets have never existed in a social vacuum and that elements of social and economic political forces regulate and establish them. Structuralism looks at IPE issues based on how classes and class interests are formed by the dominant economic structure in a society.
Approaches that come with the structuralist thinking:
1- Marxism.
2- Dependency Theory.
3- World System Theory.
Structuralism is rooted in Marxism but not limited or exclusive to it.
Further details on structuralism in future posts.
Each of these three perspectives provide different solutions to different policy issues as well as shed light on a variety of values.
Term:
Economic efficiency; the ability to use and distribute resources effectively without waste; scarce resources put in their best use/
This is the basic Idea of what International Political Economy studies, and what IPE analyzes.
We will get into detail about each perspective before diving into less general topics.
