Dr Claire Gordon KSW 5.04

This course is compulsory on the Executive MSc in Political Economy of Europe. This course is not available as an outside option.

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.

The course will run between 6-10 July 2015. 

One 2,000 word essay.

J Kornai (1992) The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism, Princeton University Press; 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;; G Roland (2000) Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets and Firms, Cambridge MA: The MIT Press; Anna Grzymala-Busse (2007) Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press; Bohle, Dorothee and Bela Greskovits (2012) Capitalist Diversity on Europe’s Periphery, Ithaca: Cornell 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

Essay (50%, 2000 words).
Take home exam (50%) in the MT.