TAMUK—Summer 2001
Latin American Political Economy
POLS 4370/5340
Jesús A. Treviño
Monday through Friday, 10:00-11:50 AM
Rhode Hall 309
Office hours: 12:00-1:30
PM, and by appointment
Phone: 593-3501
Email: [email protected]
Course Website: http://www.geocities.com/lape_summer/
Background. The world economic system after The
World War II, in a way, is a new beginning.
Most of the productive infrastructure in the industrialized world
(excluding the USA) had to be reconstructed; world population divided in two
dominant social systems; new technologies were developed or tuned up in order
to be applied to production of goods and services. In the last two decades,
technological innovations increased faster than ever, the market economies
expanded because of the fall and fragmentation of socialism, and patterns of
production, commerce and investment changed their nature and shifted their
location. World changes at a high speed and the literature that tries to
explain it multiplies every day. World changes from one stage to another at a
speed rate that we do not have time to understand it. Most of us were taught
that we have to understand the world to change it; now that it has changed we
need to understand it.
How
do we need to understand the world in International Political Economy (IPE)?
Montesquieu wrote that every time he arrived to a city he always went to the
highest tower to have a complete view at glance. In this way he could
simultaneously see everything and weight every element considering its location
in the whole urban set. Thus, every single element is only seen to evaluate the
whole context. From heights, the sequence of demonstration is not relevant
because every detail fits by its own in the common order. Many IPE textbooks
follow dark labyrinths or go through secondary and narrow streets of
argumentation instead of going up to the tower and have a quick look of
everything. In IPE it is necessary to fly from one point to another to identify
most relevant relations at a bird’s
eye. But when we try a general vision our attention bifurcates. It is easy to
neglect topics in the general framework if we track specific details. The
secret is to see the horizon watching out the immediate steps (remember Thales
of Miletus, the Presocratic philosopher that fell into a hole while observing
planets).
In IPE you do
not have anything if you do not hold the complete chain.
The “barbarian specialization”, to use Ortega y Gasset’s expression, of
disciplines provides us with great “pearls of knowledge.” These pearls do not
make a necklace, unless a thread joins them. The big secret is to join them,
without loosing anyone, at the time the other hand holds the filament. The
great difficulty in IPE is to make transitions between different topics. We
have brilliant lectures in the “news at five o’clock” style. We may also call
it “the front page” style that provides us a disarticulated knowledge. They
deliver us “pearls” of knowledge. When we try to understand or explain our
world today, we realize we do not have the necklace we thought we had. They are interesting and provide detailed
information on different issues, but these data are unarticulated “light spots”
in a dark landscape. Mass media and international reports (International
Monetary Fund, International Transparency, United Nations) also present long
and detailed compilations of “First Impact” facts but they do not provide any
framework to understand them. There is a rule in design: When the system image
is incoherent or inappropriate, the user cannot use the device. If the system
image does not make the design model clear and consistent, then the user will
end up with the wrong mental model. In IPE we need a “system image” to frame
and make sense of fragmentary and unarticulated knowledge we receive every day.
Objective. To present a flexible framework to
systematically analyze Latin American Political Economy (LAPE) theories and
concepts. Specifically, the course suggests a theoretical-conceptual framework
to classify current literature and facilitate our understanding of recent
changes in the international scenario. The final aim of the course is to equip
the students with an analytical framework with which to make informed analyses
on public policy and corporate strategy in the light of board trends of
globalization in Latin America.
Description. The course will be taught with a
mixture of lectures and class discussions, for which students should prepare by
reading the required texts. Each session will begin with a formal lecture,
followed by questions, and will conclude with an open discussion that requires
a thorough understanding of the readings.
Every
Monday, at the beginning of the class, all students must hand in a 5 pages
summary of all classes in the previous week. The final section in this summary
must contain 2 questions and their respective answers in a multiple-choice
format. Graduate students, additionally, are required to add a two or three
paragraph personal commentary in a separate page (a good commentary will
evaluate the readings and discuss which class arguments make the most sense,
which are the least convincing, and why). All
students must keep their files in a floppy disk to hand them in at the end of
the course.
Every
Monday, at beginning of the class, all students must hand in a selection of
editorial cartoons in three newspapers from a Latin American country previously
selected. This selection will go from Monday to Friday of the previous week and
it will be reported in a specific format.
Requirements. Grades will be
based on 1) Class summary (and commentary for graduate students), due every
Monday at the beginning of the class, 2) Editorial cartoons, due every Monday
at the beginning of the class, 3) Class presentation, including the research
paper on one of the selected topics in the course (only graduate students), 4.
Final exam based on quizzes and crosswords. This class requires Internet and
email access.
You may anonymously send your comments to the
instructor to suggest changes or tune up details you would like to include in
the next session(s). You may use the email [email protected] (pwd:
anonimo) to send your suggestions to [email protected]
|
Activity |
Graduate Students |
Undergraduate Students |
|
1. Class summary (and
commentary for graduate students), due every Monday at the beginning of the
class |
35% |
35% |
|
2. Editorial cartoons, due every Monday at the beginning of the class |
15% |
15% |
|
3. Class presentation, including the research paper on one of the
selected topics in the course |
15% |
— |
|
4. Final exam based on
quizzes and crosswords: July 6th |
35% |
50% |
Grades are calculated on a
100-point scale, converted to letter grades as follows:
|
93-100 A |
90-92 A- |
87-89 B+ |
83-86 B |
80-82 B- |
77-79 C+ |
73-76 C |
70-72 C- |
60-69 D |
Below 60 F |
—Balaam,
David N. and Michael Veseth. 1996. Introduction to International Political
Economy. USA: Prentice Hall.
—Selected on-line and photocopied readings indicated in every topic.
Since some on-line readings
are in PDF, click here
to get the Acrobat Reader for free
Part I. General knowledge of Latin America
and, first of all, learn your classmate names!
—LA according to Reagan
(only read the text in English)
Part II. What is going on out there? Fact Reports in the Globalization Age (Level I)
—What happened when it
happened? Previous discoveries and social changes (A selection of notes)
—United Nations Development Program (UNDP). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
REPORT 1999
CHAPTER ONE (PDF) Human
development in this age of globalization 25. The world has changed 28. Global
integration—rapid but unbalanced 30. Social fragmentation—reversals in progress
and threats to human security 36
What’s to be done? 43
CHAPTER TWO (PDF) New
technologies and the global race for knowledge 57. The race for knowledge
57. The new technologies—drivers of globalization 57. Access to the network
society—who is in the loop and on the map? 61. The new rules of
globalization—shaping the path of technology 66. Impacts on people 68. The need
to reshape technology’s path 72
—A Globalization index. Text
(PDF) and Country
rankings (PDF). Tables of components (PDF): FDI,
GDP, Income
Payments-Credits, International
passengers, Internet users,
Internet
hosts, Portfolio
investment, Telephone
traffic, Transfer
Credits, Goods
imports. Check the Latin American countries.
—NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF with EDWARD
WYATT. Who
Sank, or Swam, in Choppy Currents of a World Cash Ocean You must get a
Subscriber ID and Password from the NY Times (It is free of charge). Just read
the text related to charts in “Money on the Move: How the World Financial
Landscape Has Changed” Please carefully watch charts that appear when the mouse
arrow is on Money moves faster, More Money Borrowed, More to Emerging Markets,
More Investment Abroad, and Technology Cuts Cost
—Conferences by A. Guiddens on Globalization & Tradition (link). My summary
—Selected cartoons by Chappatte (1), Chappatte (2), Jim
Borgman
—Solve
the quiz
Part III. Definitions, Concepts and
Conflicting Perspectives in IPE
1. What is International Political
Economy?
—Balaam
and Veseth (1996, 3-13)
—notes
and comments in class and by email
2. What decides different mix in the proportional weight given to
wealth, order, justice, and freedom?
—Susan Strange (photocopies)
Questions:
§
TNC
and States or
Markets and Authorities, rather than States and Markets?
§
Who
makes politics?
§
Latin
American Political Economy (LAPE) or Latin America Political Economy [Political
Economy of Latin America (PELA)]?
§
What basic values human beings seek to provide and what
combination of them the society arranges? Provide some examples. Discuss How
Democracy and Markets are error discovery mechanisms for the combination of
values the society seeks in modern capitalism
—Solve
the quiz/crossword
3. Conflicting Perspectives in IPE
in LA
a. Mercantilism
b. Liberalism
—Interview with Arnold
Harberger
c. Historical Structuralism
and the Latin American Political Economy
d. The Rational Choice
Approach
e. Joseph Nye’s perspective
(Interview)
f. Peter
Dicken and his contribution from the Economic Geography (PDF) (Word 2000)
General reading: —Balaam and Veseth (1996, Chaps. 2, 3, 4, and 5, pp. 21-96)
—Susan Strange. 1996.The Retreat of the
State. UK: Cambridge University Press (Photocopies of pp. 41-43)
Questions:
—Which theoretical
explanations do you find more persuasive? Is an eclectic theory feasible or
useful?
—Solve
the quiz/crossword
Part IV. Who-gets-what? Main actors in the current world system
(Triangular Diplomacy in Level II)
—The nation state and the transnational firm
—¿Triangular or pentagonal Diplomacy?
Susan
Strange. 1997. “An
International Political Economy Perspective.” In J. Dunning (Ed.) Governments,
Globalisation and International Business.
_________.
1995. “States, Firma and Diplomacy.” In Jeffry A. Frieden and David A. Lake.
1995. International Political Economy. Perspectives on Global Power and
Wealth. 3rd Ed. London-Ney York: Routledge (Photocopies)
_________
and John Stopford. 1991. Rival States, Rival Firms. UK: Cambridge
University Press (Photocopies of pp. 19-31)
Part V. IPE Structures or Sources of
Power (Level III)
1. Susan Strange on “structural” and “relational” power and the sources of structural power
—Susan Strange. 1994 (1988). States
and Markets. 2nd Ed. UK: Pinter Publishers (photocopies of Chaps. 1 and 2)
2. Joseph Nye on "Soft" and
"Hard" Power
a. The Power We Must Not
Squander
b. (With R. Keohane)
Power and Interdependence in the Information Age (PDF)
Questions:
—Which typology do you prefer?
—Can we say that one structure dominates over the others? Or are there
times and circumstances in which one is more important in determining
outcomes—for societies, firms, individuals? Suggest some examples
—Solve
the quiz/crossword
Part VI. A “Historical-Structural-Functionalist Approach” in a
three level bookshelf
—Notes
by the instructor
—Identify FACTS, ACTORS and SOURCES OF POWER (approximated) in the
following editorial cartoons: Cartoon 1, Cartoon 2, Cartoon 3, Cartoon 4
—Protocol frivolity
-Dinner
table rules
-Rockfeller
—General
Butler. America' s Armed Forces (my highlights en Word
2000)
—The Soviet Missiles
in Cuba, Graham T. Allison analysis
of “13 days” and the related Site
—The Royal
Virus (Perfidious Albion)
—IBM (Photocopies)
—NAFTA (Balaam and Veseth 1996, selected pages)
—The
Development Dilemma and the Seven Sins of underdeveloped countries
—Energy and
Oil (Balaam and Veseth 1996, selected
pages)
