Dr Claire Gordon COW G0.5

Compulsory on the Executive MSc Political Economy of Europe. Not available to students on other programmes.

The course applies concepts of political economy, economics and political science to its investigation of Central and Eastern Europe’s evolution through post-communist transition to highly open, FDI-dependent emerging markets with ‘European’ expectations of welfare. Placing the region in the comparative context of both the EU15 and comparable emerging markets, the course investigates the ongoing challenges of political and institutional consolidation and the developmental consequences of the liberalization and FDI-led growth model of the 1990s/2000s. The course examines the emerging strengths and persistent weaknesses of these political economies and considers their implications for the region’s emerging varieties of capitalism, relative international competitiveness and political stability.

27 hours of seminars in the LT.

The course is taught between 24-28 March 2014.

One 2,000 word essay.

N Barr (ed.) (2005) Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Accession and Beyond, Washington DC: The World Bank; H. Grabbe (2006) The EU's Transformative Power: Europeanization through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave; J Kornai (1992) The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism, Princeton University Press; G Roland (2000) Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets and Firms, Cambridge MA: The MIT Press; G Schopflin (1993) Politics in Eastern Europe 1945-1992, Blackwell; Alfred Stepan and Juan Linz (1996) Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America and Post-Communist Europe, London: Johns Hopkins University Press; Sharon L. Wolchik and Jane L. Curry (eds) (2008) Central and East European Politics: From Communism to Democracy, London: Roman and Littlefield; Gil Eyal, Ivan Szelenyi and Eleanor Townsley (1998) Making Capitalism Without Capitalists: The New Ruling Elite in Eastern Europe, London: Verso; Anna Grzymala-Busse (2007) Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press; Stephen Haggard and Robert R. Kaufmann, (2008) Development, Democracy and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Journals often cited: East European Politics and Society, Journal of Democracy, Economics of Transition and Europe-Asia Studies

One 2,000- 2,500 word summative essay (50%) and a take-home exam (50%), both due in the Summer Term.