International Political Economy in Context—Individual Choices, Global Effects

This text for a course in analytical political science emphasizes explanatory frameworks for social behavior that are based on a rational choice approach to political economy. The text is designed to be accessible to beginning students, with limited use of footnotes, less emphasis on historical background, and more emphasis on theories and frameworks. The author includes micro approaches, with special focus on liberalism and realism, as a means of demonstrating the weaknesses of micro approaches. The first part of the text introduces the intersection of political economy, rationality, and social science and offers an overview of structure, nation-states, power, and order in an international context. It also looks at economic liberalism and market exchange in the global arena. Part 2 delves into micro level conditions and mechanisms that influence political and economic outcomes, and Part 3 examines changes in the global political economy over the past 200 years. In addition to the book's chapter key concepts and exercises, the student website contains chapter summaries, quizzes, and flashcards. The text can be used as a core text for a range of courses in international political economy, and as a core or supplementary text in an introductory international politics course. This second edition offers new chapters on the role of hegemonic leadership and its micro foundations, and political and economic market failures and threats to globalization. Sobel teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. CQ Press is an imprint of SAGE Publications. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)