Last update: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)
The course introduces students to the key issues of contemporary global economic governance. These pertain, broadly speaking, to three areas. The first (1) is institutional effectiveness and performance, and the functional ability of institutions to deliver on their tasks. The second (2) is survival of the institutions in environment permeated by power considerations and by the desire of the most powerful states to maintain control over international agendas. Finally, the third (3) is the need of institutions for legitimation in the eyes of various constituencies, including non-state actors, and against the criteria of democratic governance. The course discusses how global economic governance bodies (institutions and organizations) deal with the often contradictory pressures of these three desiderata. It does so by investigating, among other things, two hot contemporary agendas related to global economic governance: contested multilateralism and power shifts, and the politicization of global (economic) governance.
Aim of the course
Last update: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)
The general aim of the course is to provide students with new insights into, and ways of thinking about, the nature of international economic governance in a partially globalized world. The specific objectives of this course are:
to introduce the major challenges faced by today's international institutions, in particular the economic ones
to offer students new conceptual/theoretical as well as methodological tools for the analysis of these challenges
to present the results of scientific inquiry into these problems of global economic governance
to motivate students for further study of the subject.
Course completion requirements
Last update: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)
Successful completion of the course requires first and foremost active participation and interest in the subject matter. On the formal level, this means you will need to:
regularly attend, and actively participate in, the seminars
for each class, read carefully all the required readings and answer the questions on the course Moodle site and/or in a short in-class presentation (in total 40% of the grade)
submit a final written essay (3000 words) on a topic agreed upon with the lecturer in advance (60% of the grade)
Literature
Last update: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)
Barnett, Michael, and Martha Finnemore. Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
Held, David, and Mathias Koenig-Archibugi. Taming Globalization: Frontiers of Governance. Cambridge: Polity, 2003.
Hooghe, Liesbet, Tobias Lenz, and Gary Marks. A Theory of International Organization. Transformations in Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Reinicke, Wolfgang H. Global Public Policy: Governing Without Government? Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998.
Rittberger, Volker, Bernhard Zangl, Andreas Kruck, and Hylke Dijkstra. International Organization. 3rd ed. London: Red Globe Press, 2019.
Tallberg, Jonas, Thomas Sommerer, Theresa Squatrito, and Christer Jönsson. The Opening Up of International Organizations: Transnational Access in Global Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Woods, Ngaire. The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Zürn, Michael. A Theory of Global Governance: Authority, Legitimacy, and Contestation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Teaching methods
Last update: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)
The 80-minutes seminars are arranged in several blocks the content of which may differ for the individual classes. The core of the seminars revolves around the concepts related to what international institutions are and how they function, and around various theoretical models that describe why institutions are what they are, why they function the way they do, and perhaps how they could be made function better. These insights are captured (not only) in the texts students read for homework. The purpose of the seminars is to elaborate and (critically) reflect on the concepts and theories we discuss and provoke thinking.
