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Marxism and Constructivism in IPE

This document outlines theories of international political economy from Marxist and constructivist perspectives. It discusses key concepts of Marxism like class struggle and historical materialism. Marxist IPE theories covered include imperialism, dependency theory, and world systems theory. Constructivism is then introduced, focusing on how ideas, identities, norms, and knowledge shape IPE. Constructivist IPE theories examined include epistemic communities, norms and their impacts, and the role of identity. The document concludes with an overview of feminist approaches to IPE.

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82 views14 pages

Marxism and Constructivism in IPE

This document outlines theories of international political economy from Marxist and constructivist perspectives. It discusses key concepts of Marxism like class struggle and historical materialism. Marxist IPE theories covered include imperialism, dependency theory, and world systems theory. Constructivism is then introduced, focusing on how ideas, identities, norms, and knowledge shape IPE. Constructivist IPE theories examined include epistemic communities, norms and their impacts, and the role of identity. The document concludes with an overview of feminist approaches to IPE.

Uploaded by

Muzamil
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Theories of International Political Economy II:

Marxism and Constructivism

Min Shu
Waseda University

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 1


An outline of the lecture

 The basics of Marxism


 Marxist IPE theories

 Constructivism at a glance
 Constructivist IPE theories

 Feminist approaches to IPE

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 2


The basics of Marxism

 Class struggles
 The relationship to the means of production defines one’s
(initial) membership of a class
 Ruling class vs. working class (e.g., bourgeoisie vs. proletariat)

 Historical materialism
 Economic structure, legal and political superstructure, and
social consciousness
 Primitive communism  ancient (slave) society  feudalism
 capitalism ( socialism  communism)
 ‘Cultural hegemony‘

 Marxist interpretations of capitalism


 The exploitation of labor
 Chronical economic crisis
 Capitalist world system
2018/5/8 International Political Economy 3
Marxist IPE theories: Imperialism

 The imperialism analysis of IPE


 Domestic conflicts between the working class and the
capitalist class
 Overseas colonial expansion
 Imperialist wars over colonial territories

 Imperialist wars and the two world wars


 Small-scale regional conflicts
 The first world war
 The second world war…

 Socialist revolution
 Economic production and socialist revolution
 Class struggles and socialist revolution

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 4


Marxist IPE theories: Dependency theory

 Time and cases


 Between 1960s and 1970s
 Failed independent economic development in Latin America

 Dependency theory
 The centre and the periphery in world economy
 International economic order under attack
 ‘International division of labor’
 Poor states: natural resources, cheap labor, old technologies
 Rich states: advanced technologies, highly value-added
products, dominating the international politico-economic order
 Reproduction of dependency
 trade, finance, politics, technology, media, education, and
culture

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 5


Marxist IPE theories: World System

 Wallerstein and his works


 Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-)
 The Modern World System (4 Vols: 1974, 1980, 1989, 2011)

 The theories of World System


 Rejecting the third-world argument, and claiming instead ‘a
complex network of economic exchange relationships’
 The structure of capitalist world economy
 Core: the centre of business, industries and finance
 Semi-periphery: providing the semi-finished products
 Periphery: supplying raw materials, agricultural products and
cheap labour
 Possible transition from the semi-periphery to the core

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 6


Three theoretical frameworks compared

 The interaction between politics and economy


 Liberalist: politics and economy as two interacting spheres
 Marxist: economy determines politics
 Realist: politics determines economy

 Analytical focuses and explanatory variables


 Liberalism: individual actors  economic efficiency
 Realism: state actors  geo-strategic considerations
 Marxism: unequal relationships  class conflicts

 The overlapping of alternative theories


 The role of national interests: Realism, Marxism
 The emergence of IOs: Liberalism, Realism
 Explaining inter-state conflicts: Marxism, Realism

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 7


Constructivism at a glance

 Some basic assumptions of constructivism


 Constructivism or social constructivism
 The national/state interests are relative
 ‘Anarchy is what states make of it’ (Wendt, 1992)
 ‘The logic of appropriateness’ (March and Olsen, 1989)

 The social construction of IPE


 Ideas
 Identities
 Values
 Norms
 Knowledge

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 8


Constructivist IPE theories:
Epistemic Community

 What is an epistemic community?


 The network of knowledge-based professionals in scientific
and technological areas that have an impact on policy-making

 The features of epistemic community


 Experts who share the common knowledge and beliefs
 The coordination between policy-makers and policy experts
 A global network beyond state borders

 The influences of epistemic community


 Environmental protection
 Financial regulation
 Trade in service

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 9


Constructivist IPE theories:
Norms and their impacts
 What are the norms in IPE?
 Norms: standards of behavior that are typical of, or accepted
within, a particular group or society
 Norms in IPE: sets of accepted rules of appropriate practices
in international political economy
 Examples: anti-dumping, anti-child labor, trade restrictions
based on health concerns

 ‘Norm entrepreneurs’
 Actors that are able to prioritize certain norms (at the expense
of others) in international politico-economic interaction
 Politicians, diplomats and experts
 State or a group of states (G7, G20, etc.)
 International organizations
 Network of international NGOs

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 10


Constructivist IPE theories:
Norms and their impacts

 Creation and acceptance of international norms


 The basis of norm internationalization
 The internationalization of domestic politico-economic
problems
 The contagious nature of financial, environmental and
healthy issues

 The acceptance and internalization of norms


 The 'boomerang effect’: five stages
 Negligence
 Resistance
 Strategic concession
 The roles of domesticized rules
 Domestic rules as given
 Norm diffusion and localization
2018/5/8 International Political Economy 11
Constructivist IPE theories: Identity

 Identity in international political economy


 How does one identify herself, her job, her daily life, her country and
her region…?
 How does one identify other people, their jobs, their lives, their
religions, their countries and their regions…?

 The multi-layered structure of identity


 Overlapping identities
 Possible conflicts between multiple identities
 The dominant identity and its impact

 The formation and transformation of identity


 Identity formation
 education, socialisation, emulation
 Identity transformation
 International political or economic crisis: incentives for change
 External pressures: reward, coercion, persuasion…

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 12


Constructivist IPE theories: Identity

 Self-identification
 Race, nation, culture, and ethnicity…
 Self-identification and interest calculation in IPE
 Self-identification and policy formation in IPE

 Spatial Identities in IPE


 Small vs. big
 Local vs. global
 Domestic vs. international

 Everyday life, identity consolidation and transformation


in IPE: a grassroots perspective

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 13


Feminist approaches to IPE

 What is feminism?
 Three waves of feminist thoughts
 Pursuing gender equality (in public life)
 Opposing gender discrimination (in personal domain)
 Opposing essentialist definitions of femininity (in cross-cultural
context)

 The roles of female in international political economy

 Reforming the masculinized international relations


 The masculinity of IPE: power, interest, conflict…
 The femininity of IPE: coordination, compromise, consensus…

2018/5/8 International Political Economy 14

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