SPRING and FALL 2006


Europeans, Integration and the World

In the summer of 2005 voters in France and the Netherlands firmly rejected a proposed Constitutional Treaty for the European Union. The European Union is a democracy project. What then is the ‘democratic deficit’ and why does it exist? Why does European integration seem so natural to some and so threatening to others? Why does the European Union seem so inevitable and yet so difficult? Who is European and who is not? What sort of polity is the EU, and what is its role in the world? The next global hegemonic power? Specialist in peacemaking and peacekeeping? What does European integration teach us about possibilities for democracy? This course investigates the controversial project of European integration.

The course is divided into four parts. First we review aspects of identity theory and theories of integration. We then review the history of Europe’s integration and the evolution of the European political and economic institutions, including the European Union and other pan-European bodies such as the OSCE, Council of Europe and the European Courts. In the third part we examine institutions and policies of the European Union and other pan-European organizations. We conclude by exploring the emerging foreign and security policies of the EU as Europe seeks to find and define a new role for itself as a new type of polity in the global political economy. What are the principal threats, challenges and opportunities that the EU faces in the world, and what are their prospects for addressing them successfully?

Trade, Money and Empire

How have two large imperial powers, Britain in the 19th and early 20th Century, and the United States since World War II, been able to dominate the global economy and global society? How do the experiences of the British and American empires inform what we understand ‘empire’ to be? Can empire be sustained through economic (trade and monetary) policies alone? How, if at all, does empire differ from hegemony? Does every empire contain the seeds of its own destruction? What strategies of resistance are open to those who are the objects of imperial rule? The course will explore these and related questions through readings of contemporary texts on empire, such as Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri’s Empire and Multitude and Niall Ferguson’s Empire; How Britain Made the Modern World and Colossus; the Price of America’s Empire.

We will look in depth at the history of the British and American empires, focusing on the use of trade and monetary instruments of global governance, such as free trade, the gold standard and lender of last resort facilities. We shall consider the social, cultural and political implications of the economic policies of hegemonic governments. Indicative readings include Two Hegemonies, O’Brien and Clesse, eds.; Cain & Hopkins, British Imperialism; Innovation and Expansion 1688-1914; Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game; David Calleo, The Imperious Economy; Jeffrey Garten, The Big Ten; Madeline Albright, The Indispensable Nation; Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire.

Political Economy of Democratization

What is democratization? What is being democratized? Who instigates and carries out processes of democratization? How is it being done? Why is democratization problematic? Should democratization be undertaken at all? If so, how might it be done better? How is democratization linked to economic development? What are the relationships between democratization of a polity and the development of capital markets and a liberal capitalist economy? The course examines the politics and economics of processes of democratization in the contemporary period as they affect both developing countries and former Socialist-governed or other command economies. Both types of polities are often described as ‘emerging markets’. How, if at all, do the processes and outcomes of democratization differ between ‘former Socialist’ states and ‘developing’ countries?

Among the applied questions that the course asks is what is the actual work of democratization? Who does it, and how? Who gains, and who loses from the work of democratization? Much of the work of democratization, it emerges, is done by private actors, often under contract to international public bodies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the UN Development Program, or to governmental bodies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID). This work is wide ranging: running a government department; organizing a process for eliminating corruption across several government departments; supervising and monitoring elections; organizing a political party or civil society movement and running its campaigns; setting up and operating a stock market.

Thus one of the objectives of the course will be to understand the nature of work that consultants do. Who decides to hire a consultant, and why? Who pays? How does a consultant ‘sell’ work to a client? Once a contract is signed, how does a consultant meet a client’s needs? Whose interests are served when the consultant delivers (or fails to deliver) the work product to the client?