Political Economy (POEC) 483
International Political Economy:
Power, Production, and Global Order

>> Overview | Outline | Evaluation | Course Materials | Course Fees | Course Availability

Overview

POEC 483 will develop students' means of investigating global power relations and economic change through a theoretical focus on the interaction of social classes, states, and the international political economy.

This course will initiate the student into a newly emerging and reflexive corpus of thought. The approach of POEC 483 is grounded in the many quantitative and qualitative changes in the post-World War II era.

As such, the course will examine issues such as global debt, the changing nature of women's role in the increasingly globalized production process, the debate about the "decline of the U.S.," the "newly industrializing countries," and Canada's place in this quickly changing world.

Outline

The course consists of the following ten units.

• Unit 1 Introduction
• Unit 2 Theories of International Relations and Global Political Economy
• Unit 3 General Issues
• Unit 4 Women in the World Economy
• Unit 5 American Hegemony in Decline?
• Unit 6 Japan and the Asian "NICs" (Newly Industrializing Countries)
• Unit 7 The Global Debt Crisis and the "Third World"
• Unit 8 Canada and the Global Political Economy: Clinging to the Emperor's Disappearing Coat-tails?
• Unit 9 The New Europe: Will the Twain Between East and West Meet?
• Unit 10 Conclusion: Critiquing a History of the Twenty-First Century

Evaluation

To receive credit for POEC 483, students must complete the exam and enough assignments to achieve a grade of at least 50 per cent. The weighting of the assignments is as follows:

Course Materials

Textbooks

Gill, Stephen, and David Law. 1988. The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems, and Policies. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Miliband, Ralph, and Leo Panitch, eds. 1992. New World Order? Socialist Register 1992. London: Merlin Press.

Mitter, Swasti. 1986. Common Fate, Common Bond: Women in the Global Economy. London: Pluto Press.

The New Internationalist. Debt: A Campaign Comic, no. 243 (May 1993).

Other Material

The course materials include a study guide, a student manual, and two books of readings.

Three-year BA concentration in Political Economy
Four-year BA major in Political Economy

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice.
Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.


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This page was updated by G. Zahara