Article,
State, Market, and Global Political Economy: Genealogy of an (Inter-?) Discipline
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 76 (4): 805--824 (October 2000)
Abstract
International Political Economy (IPE), as a diverse and fragmented field of inquiry, has often had trouble situating itself in the social sciences. This article argues that IPE belongs firmly in the broader tradition of political economy in the social sciences and begins by summarizing the emergence of IPE in its contemporary context, starting with the late I96os and early 1970s debates among IR scholars on the nature and meaning of interdependence, of the importance of `high' versus `low' politics, and of `transnational' versus `international' relations. The article goes on to demonstrate that IPE has emerged in a far from coherent fashion, though this diversity and ecumenism is not to be deplored. The second section of the article argues that the core conceptual issue in IPE remains the nature of the state-market relationship. The way this relationship is viewed has a considerable impact on how the prospects for change in the structures-the normative and material underpinnings-of world order are to be u...
