Course Handbook - Faculty of History - University of Cambridge

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4) International Political Economy since 1945: Bargaining over Ideas and Interests Prof. M. Daunton This course provides a unique, original, and interdisciplinary lens onto the subject of International Political Economy that draws primarily on existing analytic frameworks of historical institutionalism and negotiation analysis. It begins with the assumption that the current economic system cannot be understood without a close analysis of the institutional bargains that underpin the system. These bargains are not one-off deals; most international institutions have formal and informal flexibility provisions that facilitate re-negotiation to adapt to new international imperatives, domestic interests and ideas. In this course, we will analyze the intersection between international and domestic factors, and the processes of renegotiation and adaptation, to explain the evolution of the international economic system from the post-war years to the present day. Key features of the course include a) the use of original sources (ranging from the key intellectual and policy debates over the creation and maintenance of the post-war international economic institutions, to the agreements, proposals and declarations that form the workings of these institutions today) b) the use of theories of IPE and negotiation c) an enhanced historical and theoretical understanding of “process” as an explanatory mechanism for stability and change in the global economy and d) a clear understanding of the interaction between the domestic and international levels of the economic system, based on the often divided worlds of theoretical versus historical approaches to IPE. The following topics are covered in the course. If there are any additional topics that students wish to cover, they should consult with Professor Daunton and Dr Narlikar. I. Introduction Theoretical Approaches: Bringing together IPE and History II. The Bretton Woods System: Creation, Crisis, Evolution The Bretton Woods System: Creation and Collapse The Evolution of Bretton Woods System: 1974/75-2000 Currency stability and Global Imbalances III. The Multilateral Trading System: ITO, GATT, WTO The Construction of the Post-War Economic System (I): the Multilateral Trading System From the failed ITO to the GATT: A second-best solution The WTO: Creation and Crisis IV. Mainstreaming Development Competing visions and institutions V. Managing Globalization Globalization: New phenomenon or Déjà vu The Global Economy: Opportunities and constraints New Actors in the International Political Economy Managing Globalization: Building and reforming institutions Revision Session 5) The origins and spread of financial capitalism Dr. D'Maris Coffman and Dr. David Chambers Historical studies of financial capitalism from the nineteenth century onwards are most often concerned with moments of spectacular boom and bust from whence moral lessons are drawn for contemporary audiences. Charles Mackay's classic, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, has left generations of readers convinced of the irrational greed behind Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble, and the Mississippi Scheme. This course takes these three early modern “bubbles” as case studies in market failure. In the first part of the course, we will investigate what, if any, market fundamentals drove investor behavior and will study the contemporary polemical literature which followed in the wake of each speculative disaster. As an alternative approach, we will investigate the role of legal and regulatory regimes in increasing leverage and will explore the place of new 11
technological and financial innovations as focal points of asset-price bubbles. By bringing new capital into markets, asset-price bubbles serve first to foster and then, by their collapse, to resolve what economists describe as the ‘lemons problem.’ Those who cannot tell good wine from bad will overpay for the latter but reject the former as commanding too high a price. Yet this is also how untested ideas attract financing. In Weeks 4, 5 and 6, students will learn about the development of international capital markets and their role in financing both state and private ventures. Students will decide for themselves what both behavioral finance and closely historicized studies of market microstructure can offer historians of financial capitalism. Students will learn why modern financial and economic historians consider interpretations of asset-price bubbles pivotal to theoretical debates about rational and efficient markets. In the second half of the course, we will apply these models to three nineteenth and twentieth-century financial bubbles. Students will then develop their own research projects in which they interrogate the market realities behind a financial bubble of their choosing. General Reading • Eichengreen, Barry. Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Princeton University Press, 2008). • Kindleberger, Charles. Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crisis. (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). • Michie, Ranald. The Global Securities Market (Oxford University Press, 2008) • Vogel, Harold. Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes (Cambridge University Press, 2009). 6) Language and society (a course taught by the MPhil in Early Modern History) Dr P Withington This course invites students to think about what words meant in early-modern Europe – not merely to social and intellectual elites (though they are certainly part of the mix) but also ordinary men and women. In so doing it encourages reflection about the implications of these meanings – and their changes and continuities over time – for social attitudes, relationships, and practices. These aims reflect not only the impact of the infamous ‘linguistic turn’ on early modern studies, but also that some of the most interesting recent work on language and meaning has been done at the intersection between literary, intellectual, and social history. To this end students will discuss the way historians have approached language and discourse over the past forty years and consider the cultural movements that transformed European vernaculars from the later fifteenth century. They will be introduced to the kinds of evidence available to historians and the possibilities of interpretation. They will also think about particular words and vocabularies that have attracted especial historical attention. In the final week they will research a word of their own choice. The focus will be on English, though there will be opportunities for students to consider words in other vernaculars if they so wish. There will be a moderate amount of preparation for each class, and students will be expected to give a short presentation over the course of the term. Assessment will be by an essay on one aspect of the course (title agreed with the tutor) and by evidence of satisfactory participation. Classes are likely to cover: • Approaches to language and society • Humanism and vernacularization • Sources and interpretation • Economic vocabularies • Political language • Language and social identity • Personal research Some Suggestions for Introductory Reading Robert M. Burns, ed., Historiography. Critical Concepts in Historical Studies (New York, 2005), Part One. 12
Page 1 and 2: 0 Course Handbook MPHIL IN ECONOMIC
Page 3 and 4: INTRODUCTION Welcome to the MPhil i
Page 5 and 6: Senior Secretary, History Degree Co
Page 7 and 8: M. Foucault, Power/Knowledge (ed. C
Page 9 and 10: 2.2.4 MPhil Classes and Lectures Th
Page 11 and 12: methods. The student should also de
Page 13: Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and
Page 17 and 18: Bosworth, R. J. B. (1998), The Ital
Page 19 and 20: APPENDIX A: LIST OF ACADEMIC STAFF
Page 21 and 22: APPENDIX B: MPHIL IN ECONOMIC AND S
Page 23 and 24: 4.2 Research Methods (10%) Research
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Course Handbook - Faculty of History - University of Cambridge

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