The Governance of Markets in Challenging Times: From Classic Authors to New Approaches

This syllabus was originally taught at the Hertie School of Governance Summer Semester 2019.
Instructor: Lukas Graf

Session 5 Historical Perspectives – Gerschenkron, Hobsbawn

Content: 

• The historical perspective on markets is richly descriptive and usually positions itself against monocausal explanations of market relations based on specific variables. In addition, students will explore why historians usually study long(er) historical periods to find explanations for the studied market phenomena.

Literature: 

• Gerschenkron, A. (1961) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Chicago, The University of Chicago, pp. 5‐30.
• Hobsbawm, E. J. (1999[1968]) Industry and empire: from 1750 to the present day. New York, New Press; preface and introduction, pp. i‐xx.

Optional Literature:

• Rostow, W. W. (1960) The Stages of Economic Growth, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Landes, D. S. (1998) The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, New York, W. W. Norton & Company.

Session 6 Political Science and Political Economy – Lindblom, Hall

Content: 

• A central joint interest of political scientists studying markets is the relationships of power among the relevant market actors. This is often linked to a focus on understanding the key role of state and business actors in shaping markets. We will also explore why this perspective is often fruitfully linked to the systematic comparison of different national economies.

Literature: 

• Lindblom, C. E. (2008 [2001]) The Market System. IN Barma, N. H. & Vogel, S. K. (Eds.) The Political Economy Reader. Markets as Institutions. New York, Routledge, pp. 243‐258.
• Hall, P. A. (1986) Governing the economy: the politics of state intervention in Britain and France. New York, Oxford University Press; Chapter 1: Economic policy and the paradigms of politics (pp. 1‐22)

Optional Literature:

• Johnson, C. (1982) MITI and the Japanese Miracle, Palo Alto, Stanford University Press.
• Hall, P. A. & Soskice, D. (2001) An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism. IN Hall, P. A. & Soskice, D. (Eds.) Varieties of Capitalism ‐ The Institutional Foundation of Comparative Advantage. New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 1‐68.

Session 7 Supranational market governance

Content: 

• In this session, students study supranational market governance at the example of European integration project and its socio‐economic consequences. Drawing from the classic authors introduced before, we discuss whether European integration undermines market‐correcting capacities of European Union member states.

Literature: 

• Scharpf, F. (2009) The asymmetry of European integration, or why the EU cannot be a ‘social market economy’, Socio‐Economic Review, 8, 211‐250.
• Zeitlin, J. & Vanhercke, B. (2018) Socializing the European Semester: EU social and economic policy co‐ordination in crisis and beyond, Journal of European Public Policy, 25:2, 149‐174.

Optional Literature:

• Hien, J. and Joerges, C. (eds. 2018) Responses of European Economic Cultures to Europe’s Crisis Politics: The Example of German‐Italian Discrepancies. Proceedings from the Villa Vigoni Conference. E‐Book. Robert Schumann Center, EUI, Florence.
• Habermas, J. (2015). The lure of technocracy. Cambridge: Polity Press. Hermann, C. (2017). Crisis, structural reform and the dismantling of the European Social Model(s). Economic and Industrial Democracy, 38(1), 51‐ 68.
• Maricut, A. and Puetter, U. (2018). Deciding on the European Semester: the European Council, the Council and the enduring asymmetry between economic and social policy issues. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(2), 193‐211.
• Seeliger, M. (2018). Why Do (Some) European Trade Unions Reject Minimum Wage Regulation? Culture, Practice & Europeanization, 3(1), 37‐ 46.

Session 8 Solidarity economy and commons‐based approaches

Content: 

• Solidarity economy is an analytical lens on options to reform the capitalist market principle and to put the people first. Similarly, commons‐based approaches move beyond the discourse that markets are the best solution to organise social and economic relations.

Literature: 

• Bollier, D. & Helfrich, S. (2012) Introduction: the commons as a transformative vision. IN Bollier, D. & Helfrich, S. (Eds.) The wealth of the commons. A world beyond market and state. Amherst, Levellers Press. http://www.wealthofthecommons.org/contents
• Kawano, E. (2018) Solidarity Economy: Building an Economy for People & Planet. Washington, D.C.: The Democracy Collaborative.

Optional Literature:

• Miller, E. (2009) Solidarity Economy: Key Concepts and Issues. IN Kawano, E., Masterson, T. N. & Teller‐Elsberg, J. (Eds.) Solidarity Economy I: Building Alternatives for People and Planet. Amherst, MA USA, Center for Popular Economics, 25‐41.
• Kawano, E. (2009) Crisis and Opportunity: The Emerging Solidarity Economy Movement. IN Kawano, E., Masterson, T. N. & Teller‐Elsberg, J. (Eds.) Solidarity Economy I: Building Alternatives for People and Planet. Amherst, MA USA, Center for Popular Economics, 11‐23.
• Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Ostrom, E. (2010). Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems. American economic review, 100(3), 641‐72.

Session 9 Degrowth: a pluralist perspective on market‐driven growth

Content: 

• Students will analyse and discuss degrowth as a pluralist school of thought centred on the democratically‐led shrinking of market production and consumption to enhance social and ecological sustainability.

Literature: 

• D'Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (2015) Introduction: Degrowth. IN Kallis, G., Demaria, F. & D’Alisa, G. (Eds.). Degrowth: a vocabulary for a new era. New York, Routledge, pp. 1‐17.
• Muraca, B. (2013) Decroissance: A Project for a Radical Transformation of Society. Environmental Values, 22(2): 147‐169.

Optional Literature:

• Demaria, F., Schneider, F., Sekulova, F. & Martinez‐Alier, J. (2013) What is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement. Environmental Values, 22(2): 191‐215.

Session 10 The social‐ecological transformation perspective

Content: 

• In this session, we contrast market‐conform green economy approaches to more transformative socio‐ecological perspectives. In this context, we also discuss why the social‐ecological transformation has not yet occurred – and what the obstacles are to policy change.

Literature: 

• Brand, U. (2016) “Transformation” as a New Critical Orthodoxy. The Strategic Use of the Term “Transformation” Does Not Prevent Multiple Crises. GAIA ‐ Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 25(1): 23–27.
• Fischer‐Kowalski, M. & Haas, W. (2016) Toward a Socioecological Concept of Human Labor. IN Haberl, H., Fischer‐Kowalski, M., Krausmann, F. & Winiwarter, V. (Eds.) Social Ecology. Society‐Nature Relations across Time and Space. Basel, Springer International Publishing, pp. 169‐196.

Optional Literature:

• Brand, U., & Wissen, M. (2015). Strategies of a Green Economy, contours of a Green Capitalism. In: Handbook of the international political economy of production. Edited by K. van der Pijl. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 508–523.
• OECD/Martinez‐Fernandez, C., Hinojosa, C., Miranda, G. (2010). Green jobs and skills: The local labour market implications of addressing climate change, Working document, CFE/LEED, OECD, www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/43/44683169.pdf?contentId=44683170.

Session 11 Gender perspectives in political economy

Content: 

• Gender perspectives in political economy ask how economics (including markets) influence gender relations and how gender relations influence the economy. Our focus today is on relations between gender and economic power. In addition, a key question we address is how dominant knowledge about economic processes is created and legitimated.

Literature: 

• Çağlar, G. (2010) Multiple meanings of gender budgeting: gender knowledge and economic knowledge in the World Bank and UNDP. IN Young, B. & Scherrer, C. (Eds.) Gender Knowledge and Knowledge Networks in International Political Economy. Baden‐Baden, Nomos, 55‐74.
• Yeates, N. (2009). Production for export: the role of the state in the development and operation of global care chains. Population, Space and Place, 15(2), 175‐187.

Optional Literature:

• Elson, D. (1998) The economic, the political and the domestic: businesses, states and households in the organization of production, New Political Economy, 3(2), 189–208.
• Hartmann, H. I. (1979). The unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism: Towards a more progressive union. Capital & Class, 3(2), 1‐33.
• Mellor, M. (1997). Feminism & ecology. New York: New York University Press.
• Picchio, A. (2003) A macroeconomic approach to an extended standard of living. IN Picchio, A. (Ed.) Unpaid Work and the Economy. A gender analysis of the standards of living. London, Routledge, 11‐28.

Session 12 Postcolonial theories and the Global South

Content: 

• Postcolonial perspectives critically analyse traditional economic schools of thought. In this perspective, deviance from the Western “ideal” of market governance is not treated as a problem but rather as an opportunity to gain new insights. In this context, students will also debate Western “linear” perceptions of development or progress.

Literature: 

• Pollard, J., McEwan, C. & Hughes, A. (2011) Introduction: Postcolonial Economic Lives. IN Pollard, J., McEwan, C. & Hughes, A. (Eds.) Postcolonial Economies. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, pp. 1‐20.
• Ziai, A. (2017). ‘I am not a Post‐Developmentalist, but…’ The influence of Post‐Development on development studies. Third World Quarterly, 38(12), 2719‐2734.

Optional Literature:

• Manzano, M., Salas, C. & Santos, A. (2015) Brazil in the last 20 years: searching for a new accumulation regime. IN Gallas, A., Herr, H., Hoffer, F. & Scherrer, C. (Eds.) Combating Inequality. The Global North and South. London, Routledge, pp. 163‐179.
• Kohli, A. (2012) State‐Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Doner, R. F. (2009). The politics of uneven development: Thailand's economic growth in comparative perspective. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Kurtz, M. J. (2013). Latin American state building in comparative perspective: Social foundations of institutional order. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Reinert, E. S. (2008). How Rich Countries Got Rich‐‐and why Poor Countries Stay Poor. New Delhi: Anthem Press.
• Wade, R. (2004). Governing the market: Economic theory and the role of government in East Asian industrialization. Princeton, Princeton University Press.