International Political Economy

1
International Political Economy
SIS 401 Summer 2005
Wolfram Latsch

• Presentation 1.
• Expanding Horizons
• Four Phases of Political Economy

2
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Non-human primates
• Human foraging
• Sedentary agriculture
• Industrial society

20-12 m.y.a.
100,000 y.a.
Anatomically modern humans H. sapiens sapiens
10,000 y.a.
250 y.a.
3
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Non-human primates (monkeys, apes)
• Evolution of human behavioral traits
• Reciprocity, reciprocal altruism (tit-for-tat)
• Division of rewards, rejection of unfair offers,
• inequity aversion
• Balancing of individual and group interest

4
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Non-human primates (monkeys, apes)
• Evolution of human behavioral traits
• Coalition-building, short-term and long-term
  relationships
• Marketplace of services
  (grooming, sex, food, babysitting, support in
  fights)
• Cooperation, punishment of cheats (free riders)
• Respect of possession

5
Four Phases of Political Economy

Earliest anatomically modern human, Ethiopia, c.
160,000 y.a.
6
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Human foraging (hunting and gathering)
• Mobile bands
• Small groups (lt100)
• Low degree of economic and political
  specialization
• Limited status differences, low inequality
• Egalitarian division
• Few private possessions or personal property
• Low fertility

7
Four Phases of Political Economy
The Fertile Crescent Birthplace of Agriculture
and Urban Society
8
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Sedentary agriculture (farming)
• Domestication of plants and animals
• Selective breeding
• Hybridization

9
Factors Underlying the Broadest Pattern of History

• Ultimate Factors

• Suitable Ease of
• wild species Spreading
• Domesticated species
• Food surpluses/storage
• Large, dense, sedentary, stratified societies
• Technology
• Steel Increase in Social
  Complexity
• Ships
• ..
• Diamond (1997) 87

Proximate Factors
10
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Sedentary agriculture (farming)
• Domestication of plants and animals
• Extensive growth (Lucas)
• Intensification of subsistence agriculture
• Decrease in ambiguity of possession (esp. land,
  livestock, animal products, stores, treasure)
• Increase in private possessions, esp. land
• (the first property rights revolution)

11
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Sedentary agriculture (farming)
• Increases in inequality
• Increase in group size
• Increase in economic and political specialization
• Emergence of the state as specialists in
  violence (exclusive state)
• Emergence of the state as manager of works and
  projects (e.g. irrigation, monuments)

12
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Sedentary agriculture (farming)
• Increase in social stratification (two classes,
  owners and non-owners, based on access to land)
• Owners of land low fertility
• Non-owners (tenants, peasants) high fertility
• Beginnings of urbanization
• Achievements of civilization available to few
• Accumulation of human capital derived from land
  wealth

13
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Sedentary agriculture (farming)
• The exclusive state
• Political markets Access to political power is
  limited
• Economic markets The state limits access to
  markets for goods and services, limits
  competition in return for support
• Property rights The state limits protection of
  PRs to a small group of supporters (owners)
• Non-owners are kept close to subsistence

14
Four Phases of Political Economy
15
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Industrial society (manufacturing, services,
  ideas)
• Increasing role of capital and investment
• Intensive growth (sustained growth in per
  capita real incomes)
• Increasing role of useful knowledge (scientific
  revolution)
• Spread of factories, wage labor
• Use of fossil fuels (coal, oil)

16
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Industrial society (manufacturing, services,
  ideas)
• Growth of literacy and education (human
  capital, HK), HK network externalities, ?
  in returns to HK
• Changes in the role of children (quality v.
  quantity, fertility reductions)
• Changes in social structure emergence of the
  middle class, importance of non-land assets
• Merchants, traders, bankers
• Craftsmen
• Scholars

17
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Industrial society (manufacturing, services,
  ideas)
• Spread of competitive markets
• Growth of international trade
• Spread of ownership, changes in concepts of
  ownership (e.g. intellectual property)
• A more open access political regime (inclusive
  state)

18
Four Phases of Political Economy

• Industrial society (manufacturing, services,
  ideas)
• The inclusive state
• Political markets Access to political power is
  broadened (franchise)
• Economic markets The state widens access to
  markets for goods and services, markets become
  more competitive
• Property rights The state expands protection of
  PRs, broadening of PRs
• Ownership expands
• (labor power, intellectual property, human
  capital etc.)

19
Key terms

• Property, property rights, control rights
• Specialization, division of labor
• Exchange
• Reciprocity, reciprocal altruism
• Extensive growth and intensive growth
• Networks, network externalities
• Human capital, middle class