International Relations and Political Regimes

The purpose of this seminar is to familiarize participants with the ongoing developments in international political economy and political science theorizing that is necessary to understand the contemporary developments observed since the mid-1980s.

The three decades since the mid-1980s can be characterized as a period in which political liberalization (i.e. the third wave of democratization) and market liberalization (i.e. economic globalization) have spread geographically, probably to its limits of late. Such parallel changes can be ascribed to newly democratizing regimes adopting open-market economic reforms to promote growth under the auspices of international economic arrangements and organizations. Noteworthy of this process is the fact that: (a) Western developed democracies had pioneered neoliberal economic reforms prior to developing countries; (b) their dominance of international organizations— the GATT-WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank—and use of extensive trade agreements dictated the terms of integration into the global economy by developing economies: and that (c) the diffusion of international neoliberalism was bounded by domestic resistance within developed democracies and international hostility of authoritarian leaders towards open-market reforms and international arrangements dictated by Western democracies.

Ongoing theoretical developments help us understand these closely interrelated developments by providing cues as to: (a) why international businesses within developed democracies the expansion of international arrangements that promote trade and investment, and how such initiatives by developed democracies are hindered by unskilled workers and uncompetitive businesses; (b) how political regimes determine their foreign economic policy as part of their developmental strategy, and why only liberalizing political regimes can credibly commit to open-market reforms requested by developed democracies; and (c) how the spread of Western international arrangements forces illiberal authoritarian leaders to choose between loosening their grip on the economy at the risk of strengthening political challenges or explore revisionary development strategies and seek economic cooperation and security alliances with non-Western regimes.

By reviewing the analytical frameworks that help us answer these questions, this course enables us to understand the aforementioned developments in the global political economy.