Leonard Seabrooke International Business in the International System Eleni Tsingou

Course Objectives: To examine the changing environment for businesses within the international political economy. To engage critically with the key approaches of International Political Economy in explaining multinational and other business activities and debating their role and influence in the international system. To develop a critical understanding of the emerging international business agenda

Assessment Requirements: Two 5,000 word essays. 15 minute presentation for discussion. 5 minute role as a discussant on a presentation Essay questions to be distributed or negotiated

Readings: Reading is essential. Otherwise class will be awkward. Noted core reading that must be read every week. Everything is online from a Warwick login. Supplementary reading from independent searches. Use journals as well as books. Use the library databases.

Course Format: Theories – how do we understand what actors are relevant and how they behave across cases and contexts? Contexts – in which arenas do these actors operate? Cases – why do particular theories help us to understand how actors and context interact in particular cases.

Theories: Government – studies of state rivalries Governance – studies of non-state coordination Markets – studies of the grounds for behaviour within markets All are relevant for the contexts and cases. They ask us to specify the different actors and forms of authority, control, and market influence

1THEORIES - Principals and Agents5/6 October 2THEORIES – Fields of Governance12/13 October 3THEORIES – Actors and Markets19/20 October 4CONTEXT – Private Power and Law26/27 October 5CONTEXT – International Organizations and Business *5 November 6READING WEEK9/10 November 7CONTEXT – MNCs and Global Networks16/17 November 8CONTEXT – Business Lobbying23/24 November 9CASES – Sovereign Debt Standards in the World Economy *3 December 10CASES – Accounting Standards7/8 December 11CONCEPTUAL EXTENSIONS11/12 January 12CASES – The Business of Private Security and Surveillance18/19 January 13CASES – Drugs25/26 January 14CASES – Corporate Social Responsibility1/2 February 15CASES – International Utilities Markets8/9 February 16READING WEEK15/16 February 17CASES – Business and the Environment *25 February 18CASES – Financial Risk Management1/2 March 19CASES – Carbon Trading8/9 March 20CONCLUSION AND REVIEW15/16 March

Principal Agent Models of Change: Peter A. Gourevitch and James Shinn (2005), Political Power and Corporate Control, Princeton, Chapter 1. Walter Mattli and Tim Büthe (2003) ‘Setting International Standards: Technological Rationality or Primacy of Power?’, World Politics, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp World Politics Daniel W. Drezner (2001) ‘Globalization and Policy Convergence’, International Studies Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp International Studies Review

Principal Agent Models of Change: Stress on strategic interest – actors know what they want. Stress on public authority as ultimately in charge. Coalitions fights, domestically or internationally, over how to achieve their pre-defined goals Institutions exhibit high degrees of path dependence. Theories of delegation to international regimes International regimes merely reflect the interests of dominant states.

Fields of Governance: Marie-Laure Djelic and Kerstin Sahlin-Andersson (2005) ‘Transnational Governance in the making – Regulatory Fields and their Dynamics’ 3rd ECPR Conference, Budapest, September A. Claire Cutler (1999) ‘Locating "Authority" in the Global Political Economy’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp Doris Fuchs (2005) ‘Commanding Heights? The Strength and Fragility of Business Power in Global Politics’, Millennium - Journal of International Studies Vol. 33, No. 3, pp

Fields of Governance: “Governance is also about dense organizing, discursive and monitoring activities that embed, frame, stabilize and reproduce rules and regulations” “We need to find ways to combine and integrate studies of individual behaviors, studies of interactions and processes, together with studies of institutional and cultural forces – the latter shaping and structuring both patterns of behaviors and patterns of interactions” Marie-Laure Djelic and Kerstin Sahlin-Andersson..

Fields of Governance: Governance across and between nations. Allocation of responsibility is fluid, not public or private Shared authority, or rise of private authority. Spatial and relational ‘topographies’ of governance. Translation and hybridization governance processes Networks underpin governance by class or knowledge. Cultural and institutional frames matter but change Instrumentalist, structuralist and discursive types of power in transnational business communities.