The course aims to offer a general overview of the new international economic order following the end of Cold War. Questions to be raised go from the role of the State in globalization process to the new international division of labor, from the rise of the emerging countries to the deep restructuring of the most advanced economies, from the financialization process to the new balance between commodities producers and consumers. Merging together different approaches methodological and theoretical approaches, from the business history approach (to understand the role of big firms and multinational enterprises in the last decades) to the international political economy approach (to evaluate the interaction of different economic and institutional actors, both at the national and/or supranational level) the course will familiarize students with the complexity of a changing world, where old hierarchies are continuously challenged, and apparently unexpected results are vice-versa the concrete effect of the new balance of power in the world markets.
Samuel P. Huntington, The U.S. - Decline or Renewal ?, in “Foreign Affairs”, Winter 1988/89
I. Schmidt, European Capitalism: Varieties of Crisis, in “Alternate Routes. A Journal of Critical Social Research, Vol. 22 (2010), 71-86
T. Ito- H. Patrick, Problems and Prescription for the Japanese Economy, MIT Press, pp.
1-33
V. Dobrynskaya- E. Turkisch, Is Russia sick with the Dutch disease?, CEPII, November 2009
A. Booth, Initial Conditions and Miraculous Growth: Why is South East Asia Different From Taiwan and South Korea?, in “World Development”, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1999, pp. 301-321
C. Dittrich, Bangalore: Globalization and Fragmentation in India's High-tech-Capital, in “ASIEN”, 103 (April 2007), pp. 45-58
Justin Yufu Lin, Demystifying the Chinese Economy, Cambridge, CUP, 2011, pp. 1-19; pp. 222-233
M. Wolf, Fixing Global Finance. How to Curb Financial Crisis in the 21st Century, New
Haven-London, Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 28-57
M. Wolf, Will the Nation-State Survive Globalization?, in “Foreign Affairs”, January/February
2001
J. A. Frieden, Global Capitalism. Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, W. W. Norton,
New York, 2006, pp. 457-472
G. Garrett, Globalization's Missing Middle, in “Foreign Affairs”, November/December 2004
Learning Objectives
The course aims to offer a general overview of the new international economic order following the end of Cold War. Questions to be raised go from the role of the State in globalization process to the new international division of labor, from the rise of the emerging countries to the deep restructuring of the most advanced economies, from the financialization process to the new balance between commodities producers and consumers. The course will merge different approaches methodological and theoretical approaches, from the business history approach (to understand the role of big firms and multinational enterprises in the last decades) to the international political economy approach (to evaluate the interaction of different economic and institutional actors, both at the national and/or supranational level). Students will familiarize with the complexity of a changing world, where old hierarchies are continuously challenged, and apparently, unexpected results are vice-versa the concrete effect of the new balance of power in the world markets
Teaching Methods
Front lectures, students' presentations, seminaras with foreign guests
Type of Assessment
Oral presentation at the end of the course of one of the topics discussed during the course; written exam
Course program
• 1. What do they have in common
• 2. An overview of the international economic scenario at the end of Cold War and the unexpected recovery of the US
• 3. Japan. The cost of the challenging and the lost decades
• 4. The European Hybrid. Varieties of Capitalism in the Old Continent
• 5. After Saigon’s fall: the triumph of capitalism in Asia
• 6. B for Brazil or for bluff?
• 7. Russia: from socialism to authoritarian capitalism via de-industrialization?
• 8. India between poverty and high-tech
• 9. China: the new giant or the partial power?
• 10. The world of commodities: producers vs. consumers?
• 11. The financialization of the world economy