Dr Robert Hancke COW 2.09

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

This course forms the core course of the Executive MSc Political Economy of Europe. It tries to understand how the relation between state and economy in both Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe has evolved over the post-war period. Key debates in this regard include the demise of Keynesianism as fiscal intervention by government and of real existing socialism, as well as the crisis of monetarism. We also examine how the operation of the EU as a whole, the Single Market and the monetary union in particular, interact with the political economy of European states inside and in the neighbourhood of the Community. The course aims to provide students with both an analytical understanding of and a systematic treatment of empirical issues related to the evolution of the European political economy.

Topics include: State and economy in European economies; Economic theory and policy in Europe; The political economy of European integration; EU membership as a reform lever in post-communist Europe and in mature Western welfare states; EU enlargement; Monetary union and its crisis; the evolution of the Single Market.

27 hours of seminars in the MT. 27 hours of seminars in the LT.

One 2,000 word individual essay, one project, plus a trial examination.

Barry Eichengreen, The European economy since 1945: coordinated capitalism and beyond (Princeton University Press, 2007); Paul De Grauwe, The Economics of Monetary Union (Oxford University Press 2012, 7th ed.); Gérard Roland, Transition and Economics: politics, markets and firms (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press 2000); Ben Rosamond, Theories of European Integration, (New York: St Martin’s Press 2000); Helen Wallace, Mark A. Pollack and Alasdair R. Young (eds.). Policy-making in the European Union (Oxford University Press 2010, 6th ed.); Bob Hancké, Martin Rhodes and Mark Thatcher, Beyond Varieties of Capitalism (Oxford University Press 2007). 

Exam (50%, duration: 3 hours) and essay (50%, 2000 words).