Policy decisions at the domestic level—whether relating to currency rates, tariffs on certain goods, or labor protection—factor heavily on such issues as trade, monetary policy, foreign debt, and development. How can we best understand the way those decisions and events at the national level affect outcomes and policy at the international level? A focus on one over the other paints an incomplete picture for students. Sobel contends that we must focus on the individual preferences, strategies, and choices of political-economic policymakers in order to fully understand the larger, macro view of international political economy. With the aim of linking the two, Sobel helps students develop analytic skills for describing both what happens in the international political economy, and why policymakers make the choices they do.

In this groundbreaking new text, Sobel presents—in a lucid and intuitive way—the core assumptions of scarcity, political survival, and rationality which form the basis of the book’s “micro-level” approach. Individuals—not nations—make choices. With constraints as to what resources and opportunities are available, policymakers choose among alternatives that are most in sync with their self-interest. If students understand market failure and social traps, as well as how collective action problems affect interest group and institutional performance, they will be able to answer questions about a wide spectrum of events that start at the domestic level and spill over into global economic markets.

To add context, Sobel presents a concise but detailed historical overview of globalization that demonstrates the shortcomings of common macro-level models in the field, from realism to liberalism to hegemonic stability theory. Your students will be equipped with a set of analytic tools that better explain individual behavior and social outcomes in areas such as trade liberalization, institutional bargains, factor endowments, currency exchange systems and convertibility, and development.

Special features:

• Exercises at the end of each chapter encourage students to apply the concepts they’ve just read about.
• A suggested reading list for each chapter provides rich sources for further study.
• Valuable figures and tables as well as highlighted key terms and a glossary help students grasp important concepts and aid in study.
• Photos enliven the book’s presentation and provide visual examples to help students understand core concepts.

Every chapter ends with Exercises and Further Reading sections.

Part I: Building Blocks
1. Introduction: Concepts, History, and Social Science
A Puzzle and an Agenda
Globalization and Global Capitalism
Past as Prologue
An Approach to Social Research: Goals, Assumptions, and Frameworks
Plan of the Book

2. Assumptions, Rationality, and Context
What Is Political Economy?
Three Core Assumptions
Rationality, Preferences and Self-Interest Explored
Context and the Interdependence of Choices
Game Theory: Modeling Context and Interdependent Choices
Outcomes Versus Choice and Backwards Induction
Conclusion and Some Other Pitfalls

3. Structure of the International System
The Context of International Versus Domestic Political Arenas
Nation-States
The Treaty of Westphalia and Sovereignty
Anarchy: Conflict, Competition and Cooperation
Conclusion

4. Power and Hierarchy in the International System
Looking for Order and Predictability
Power Defined as a Relative Concept
Tools of Statecraft
Cost Calculations and the Tools of Statecraft
Finding Order in Anarchy: Attributes and Capabilities
Conclusion

5. Economic Liberalism and Exchange in the Global Arena
Baseline Evaluation
Liberal Economic Exchange
Theoretical Prerequisites for Efficient Competitive Markets
Money: A Functional Approach
Mechanisms at the Core of Global Liberalism
Conclusion: Expectations of the Baseline Economic Framework

6. Baseline Framework: Political Markets and Exchange
Market Exchange in the Political Arena
Mechanism of Political Exchange
Revisiting Theoretical Conditions for Efficient Markets
An Example: The Median Voter and Political Exchange
Conclusion

Part II: Context
7. Around the World in Eighty Days: The Advent of Globalization
Globalization Is Nothing New
Intellectual Change: Comparative Advantage, Efficiency, and Welfare
Shifts in Public Policy
Risk and Uncertainty
The Gold Standard
More Collective Goods and Globalization
Technology
Dark Side of Globalization and Colonialism
Conclusion

8. The World Between the Wars: A Breakdown in Globalization
Why the Shift?
Allocating Costs of Adjustment
The Legacy of Rapid Change in the 1800s
The Unsettling Legacy of World War I on the Inter-War Years
Conclusion

9. The Bretton Woods System: The Rebuilding of Globalization
Past Mistakes
Lessons from the Inter-War Years and the Post-War Dilemma
Post-War Domestic Strategy and Mechanism Design
Post-War International Strategy and Mechanism Design
Active Engagement and the Truman Doctrine
Breakdown in Bretton Woods Monetary Arrangements
Conclusion

10. The World Post–Bretton Woods: Globalization Advances
Fundamental Shifts in Global Finance
Post-Bretton Woods Monetary Arrangements
Financial Globalization and Liberalization
Implications of Financial Globalization
Going Forward: The IMF and the Washington Consensus
Conclusion

11. Détente and the End of the Cold War: Globalization During Transition
Cold War to Post-Cold War Transformation
The Command Economies Gradually Join the Global Economy
Détente and Shifts in the International Political-Military Context
Domestic Shifts in the Eastern Bloc and China
Conclusion

Part III: Micro Tools
12. Political and Economic Market Failure and Social Traps
Revisiting Theoretical Market Frameworks
Reviewing Expectations of Baseline Models
Conditions for Efficient Markets
Understanding Market Failure
Social Traps
Conclusion: Opportunities for Strategic Behavior

13. Dilemma of Collective Goods, Solutions, and Hegemonic Stability
The Individual and the Group
A Paradox
Dismantling the Social Trap
A New Paradox: Collective Good Provision Despite the Social Trap
Mechanisms to Overcome Barriers to Collective Action
A Special Case of Hegemonic Stability
Conclusion

14. Interest Groups and International Economic Foundations of Political Cleavage
A Macro Puzzle
Building Alternative Explanations Grounded in Micro Political Economy
Interest Groups
Cleavage: Biological and Social Foundations
International Economic Sources of Cleavage
Conclusion

15. Institutions
Further Exploration of Constraining Social Traps and Market Failure
Institutions as Rules of the Game
Important Institutional Considerations
Conclusion

“This is one of the most comprehensive learning resources for introducing students to international political economy I've seen. Most impressively, Andrew Sobel's book provides a rigorous introduction to both national and systemic theories, and the links between the two. This is one-stop-shopping for any instructor who want to provide her students with the tools, concepts, and historical background to understand political economy in its international context.”

“I have been waiting for Sobel's book since I started teaching international political economy over ten years ago. There is no comparable book, or set of books, that introduces the student to the theoretical perspectives, analytical tools, and historical detail covered by Political Economy and Global Affairs. I will use it and will recommend that others do the same.”

“Students will love this book. Andy Sobel offers students a clear explanatory framework well-grounded in positivist social science, where if policy choices are taken out of line with the logic of the world economy, this does not mean that they are without logic. They must be reinterpreted as rational decision-making of individuals within policy-making environments. The text is written with a light-touch and in a lively and no-nonsense style that students will find engaging, and the text is well-supported by an admirable range of pedagogical tools. This book will not only provide the student with a helpful counterpoint to structural IPE, but is an important addition to any IPE course.”

“With this book, Andrew Sobel fills a big hole in the international political economy textbook market. He does a superb job explaining the transaction costs approach to undergraduates, and provides the tools they need to understand the choices made by policymakers in the political market. With a strong balance between description, examples, and analysis, Sobel makes difficult concepts easy to understand.”

“An innovative public choice theme sets this IPE text apart. Sobel presents a well written and sophisticated discussion that challenges students by emphasizing historic context and serious analysis. This text sets a high standard and makes a significant contribution to the field.”

“In a time of rapid changes and information overload, I have long awaited an IPE textbook that would teach our students to systematically apply the rational choice approach to explain the past of the global political economy and to anticipate its future. Andy Sobel's Political Economy and Global Affairs does just that. It is not about teaching historical facts, but is centrally concerned with giving students a coherent set of analytical tools to make sense of events, policies, and institutions in international political economy. Political Economy and Global Affairs is refreshing and unrivaled in the expanding list of IPE textbooks.”

"Professor Sobel has designed an intriguing and refreshing new approach to teaching IPE that effectively links micro and macro, and domestic and international problems in a most readable work. His creative conceptual framework addresses puzzles and solutions to thorny global economic questions more successfully than is generally the case in the mainstream IPE texts. And he accomplishes this feat without slighting economic history, institutions and the central concepts and tools of the field. I am excited to try this new text in my IPE classes this Spring."

Andrew C. Sobel holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He is associate professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Political Science Department at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also resident fellow in the Center in Political Economy at Washington University and serves on the board of the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences. He specializes in the politics of international finance with a focus on domestic explanations of international behavior. His books include Domestic Choices, International Markets (1994) and State Institutions, Private Incentives, Global Capital (1999). Sobel's current research is comparing globalization in the late 1800s and late 1900s and its relationship to the modern social welfare state, and investigating the linkages between democracy and growth.

http://college.cqpress.com/sobel
To help students study and master the book’s concepts, a robust companion website includes:

• practice quizzes with immediate grading and the option for students to email quiz results to instructors
• vocabulary flashcards that offer students an easy way to view, and practice their mastery of, key terms and their definitions
• research web links that send students to an array of useful resources for further information

• a test bank with approximately 450 multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions, preloaded in our flexible and easy-to-use CQP Test Writer software; also available in Word or WordPerfect
• PowerPoint® lecture outlines with approximately 20 slides per chapter
• the book’s figures and tables in versatile PowerPoint® and PDF formats
• handy solutions to the book’s end-of-chapter exercises