Bachelor of Arts (BA)

El avance que tuvo lugar en la teoría económica a lo largo de estos últimos años permite el análisis de la dinámica entre las esferas política y económica. Un estudio interesante es el pertinente a las instituciones políticas y su potencial influencia sobre el diseño e implementación de las políticas económicas conducentes al crecimiento económico. Simultáneamente, el análisis estructural permite un análisis desde una faceta complementaria. El institucionalismo y el análisis estructural se conjugan de este modo para el análisis de las condiciones del crecimiento. Por tiempo, el crecimiento se ha considerado un proceso embebido en factores puramente económicos. En la teoría tradicional se asumía que el proceso es el resultado de la implementación de las políticas adecuadas. Sin embargo, la realidad pone de manifiesto que los países no siempre implementan las políticas adecuadas o que, de hacerlo, los resultados observados presentan una clara desviación de los resultados esperados. Asimismo, se puede agregar un tercer punto, el de la implementación de políticas sub óptimas desde el punto de vista del bienestar del largo y muy largo plazo. De las investigaciones sistemáticas se desprende que las instituciones no serían inocuas, instituciones que no sólo conciernen a las formas de gobierno sino también a las reglas que hacen al sistema partidario, la relación entre los poderes y, en los últimos años, se ha incluído a las instituciones del poder Ejecutivo en los sistemas presidencialistas. Diversos estudios empíricos afirman la relación existente entre los sistemas políticos y económicos, dejando al descubierto un feed back entre ambas esferas. De allí, se observa un riesgo potencial entre las instituciones y las políticas desde que la interacción entre ambas esferas determinaría muchas veces los resultados. Sin embargo, la dinámica entre instituciones y políticas económicas es compleja porque existe una elevada correlación entre ambas. Asimismo, las instituciones cambian lentamente mientras que las políticas tienden a comportarse con variabilidad significativa en el tiempo. De este modo, ha surgido un conjunto de conocimiento denominado Political Economy, un área fronteriza entre la economía, la ciencia política y algunas otras disciplinas. Subyacente en la disciplina se halla la noción de la no automaticidad de los procesos sociales y, en particular, la no independencia del sistema económico. En este contexto, el objetivo de este trabajo de investigación es analizar la incidencia de las instituciones políticas sobre los resultados económicos, con especial énfasis en el proceso del crecimiento económico. Según lo expuesto, la complejidad de los temas amerita un tratamiento exhaustivo de la problemática considerada. Por lo tanto, el trabajo se desarrolla a lo largo de ensayos independientes, cada uno concerniente con tópicos específicos de Political Economy. En términos generales, los resultados indicarían que la calidad institucional tendría un impacto significativo en la performance económica de un país; las instituciones débiles impedirían el crecimiento y subvertirían la implementación y estabilidad de firmes políticas macroeconómicas. En este contexto, y dada la performance económica de los países latinoamericanos, surge la necesidad de ahondar en las investigaciones para comprender las causas últimas del fenómeno del crecimiento. / The progress which took place in economic theory in recent years allows the analysis of the dynamics between the political and economic spheres. An interesting study is pertinent to the political institutions and their potential influence on the design and implementation of economic policies conducive to economic growth. Simultaneously, structural analysis enables an analysis from a matching side. Thus, the institutionalism and structural analysis are combined for the analysis of the conditions of growth. For a time, growth has been considered a process embedded in just economic factors. In the traditional theory it was assumed that the process is the result of the implementation of the proper policies. However, actually the countries do not always implement appropriate policies or that, in doing so, the results presents a clear deviation from the expected results. Also there’s a third point, the implementation of sub optimal policies from the point of view of the long and very long term well-being. Systematic investigations point out that the institutions would not be harmless; institutions concern not only the forms of Government but also the rules of the party system, the relationship between the branchs of government and, in recent years, it has been included the institutions of executive power in presidencialist systems. Various empirical studies assert the relationship between political and economic systems, revealing a feed back between them. So, there exists a potential risk between the institutions and policies since the interaction among both spheres may determine the results many times. However, the dynamics between institutions and economic policies is complex because there is a high correlation among them. Also, institutions change slowly while policies tend to experiment significant variability through time. In this way, a set of knowledge has emerged, a set called Political Economy, a border area between the economics, political science and some others disciplines. Underlying in the discipline is the notion of the non automaticity of social processes and, in particular, the non independence of the economic system. In this context, the objective of this research is to analyze the incidence of political institutions on economic performance, with special emphasis on the process of economic growth. According to the above, the complexity or the issues warrants a thorough treatment of the considered problems. Therefore the work is developed throughout independent essays, each concerned with specific topics of Political Economy. In general terms, the results would indicate that the institutional quality would have a significant impact on the economic performance of a country; weak institutions would prevent the growth and may disturb not only the implementation but also the stability of well-built macroeconomic policies. In this context, and given the economic performance of Latin American countries, arises the need to delve into the research to understand the root causes of the phenomenon of the economic growth.

yes / This article supports growing calls to ‘take small states seriously’ in the international political economy but questions prevailing interpretations that ‘smallness’ entails inherent qualities that create unique constraints on, and opportunities for, small states. Instead, we argue that discourses surrounding the ‘inherent vulnerability’ of small states, especially developing and less-developed states, may produce the very outcomes that are attributed to state size itself. By presenting small states as a problem to be solved, vulnerability discourses divert attention away from the existence of unequal power structures that, far from being the natural result of smallness, are in fact contingent and politically contested. The article then explores these themes empirically through discussion of small developing and less-developed states in the Commonwealth and the World Trade Organization (WTO), considering in particular how smallness has variously been articulated in terms of what small states either cannot or will not do.

yes / This themed section takes as its starting point the premise that the body matters in International Political Economy (IPE) and presents four original articles which support and illustrate this ontologically critical and, perhaps, provocative position. Although feminist scholarship has undoubtedly gained a place at the table in IPE, it is curious that one of the most important concerns, and contributions, of feminist IPE – that global capitalism is marked upon, and forged through, bodies – has not emerged as a major preoccupation for the discipline more broadly. In what follows we present what we believe is a strong corrective to that inattention and, in so doing we hope to begin to set out an exploratory agenda for the body to be both foundational and fundamental to contemporary IPE.

no / In a growing number of countries diplomatic systems are being overhauled so that the commercial activities of diplomatic services have been centralised, the commercial activities of diplomats have been extended, and business interests have been formally integrated within diplomatic systems. These changes result directly from the tendency of governments to reorganise, and in many cases merge, their trade and foreign ministries, as well as the strategy of building formal business–government links within diplomatic institutions. While none of these features is unfamiliar to previous diplomatic systems, what is exceptional is the relative neglect of the commercial aspects of diplomacy within diplomatic studies. This lack of attention to the commercial and business elements of diplomacy in traditional theories of diplomacy means that we find ourselves trying to analyse contemporary changes to diplomatic organisation and practice without a suitable conceptual and analytical framework. Highlighting the significance of a political economy approach to diplomacy, and also engaging with orthodox approaches to diplomacy, this article begins to develop some analytical and conceptual tools to better identify, explain and understand changes in diplomatic systems as well as the increased influence of private interests in diplomatic practice now under way.

This dissertation seeks to reengage the field of political economy to establish a political response to financial crisis, as well as the resulting social crisis of everyday life, using the political economy of Hyman P. Minsky. As an academic field, political economy is in a strange kind of limbo. The separation of politics and economics is easy enough to see, and even within economics, there is another cleavage between economics proper and the history of economics. This yields some very strange conjectures about what it means to be an "economist," and how things can be a matter for either economic "policy" or "political economy" as if these categories were all jumbled up in a grab bag of available methodologies. This dissertation seeks to carve out some intellectual terrain in what can be called political economy by engaging in an interdisciplinary way, inspired by Minsky, in order to offer a cogent political analysis of financial crises. Minsky gives five possible definitions for political economy: the discipline of Economics, a code name for Marxism, rational choice theory of profit maximization, the management of macroeconomic policy, and finally an interdisciplinary view of political economy that works in concert with other social sciences and humanities in order to identify and remedy social ills such as unemployment and poverty. The reading of Minsky in this dissertation is thus in an explicitly political way in order to bridge the gap between various kinds of economics and the various social sciences. By analyzing and critiquing each of these possible definitions of political economy, it becomes clear that a properly social definition of political economy is the final, interdisciplinary one. This dissertation argues that Minsky had a "preanalytic vision" of the kind of society he wished his political economy to yield, and is a first step in fleshing out a political program for that vision. / Ph. D.

This thesis seeks to understand the relationship between government influence and market forces pertaining to the introduction of new technologies in the market. The thesis will do this by utilizing electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) in California and Virginia as a historical analysis case study to determine the historical catalysts for change in the public EVSE market since its introduction in 1995. Comparing the rate of change to historical timelines for both states, "market tendencies" and "government involvement" played the greatest role in EVSE growth, with there being a distinct shift from "market tendencies" to "government involvement" over time. Results show that California has fully embraced the interventionist role, with state and local actors playing a part. Virginia, on the other hand, has just begun to allow state intervention, so much of the change in the state has come from economic or business events. Data shows, however, that this could be changing, and that Virginia could be on the verge of allowing for market intervention based on equitable development and future economic opportunity. / Master of Arts / The 21st century is ripe with innovative technologies and ideas that influence the future of the world, but not all these ideas are fully embraced in the private market. This thesis looks to understand the different roles that the government can play in assisting with the development of markets by analyzing the introduction of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) for public use in California and Virginia. Using a historical-analytic approach, I gathered data on the rate of increase in EVSE and compared that to the historical timelines to determine the variables with the most influence. After identifying four "pivotal moments" in the timeline, I discovered that the major catalysts for change were "market tendencies" and "government involvement." Looking at the progression, I determined that there is a distinct trend shifting from market tendencies, at the beginning of the timeline, to government involvement in modern changes. Evidence shows that not only is this trend embraced in California, with many state and local bodies working on the issue, but it also shows that Virginia, the laggard of the two states, could be on the verge of straying from its ideals of "free markets" to embrace change.

Deemed "The Chilean Miracle," President Pinochet under a campaign of violence and terror effectively transitioned the socialist Chilean economy to one of South America's most prosperous capitalist economies. Most recently, Chilean entrepreneur, Sebastían Piñera, won the country's executive office on a campaign of neoliberal expansion in hopes of economic growth and the elimination of poverty. If this election is an indication of Chile's acceptance of aggressive neoliberal policies, then how has the memory of neoliberalism become detached from its violent beginning? Has Pinochet's legacy been (re)constructed in Chilean collective memory? This paper aims to explore this question in two ways. First, it examines ideological formations in Chilean political rhetoric that serve to conceal and transform political memory through discursive structures. Second, it investigates how political rhetoric transformed state violence through a re-narrativization of neoliberalism, which effectively detached neoliberalism from its violent initiation and (re)constructed it as a means of reconciliation and recovery. The findings of this paper suggest that Chilean memory has been (re)constructed for political and economic purposes, which conceal reality and deny alterity. / Master of Public and International Affairs

This dissertation focuses on how distributive politics influences the geographic allocation of federal grants to state and local governments. A secondary focus is the role of social trust in the growth of government. In the first essay, I test the degree to which the earmark ban of 2011 prevented legislators from directing federal competitive grants to their home congressional districts and whether earmarking distorted equality in the distribution of federal grants across demographic groups. I find that earmarking skewed the distribution of federal grants toward wealthy congressional districts and away from poor congressional districts. This is a groundbreaking finding, considering that no literature has addressed the impact of earmarking on economic inequality. In the second essay, I estimate the returns to lobbying for local governments in terms of federal earmarked grants, and I find that local governments in counties with higher levels of income per capita were more likely to engage in lobbying. I also find evidence of a causal link between lobbying and federal earmarks to local governments. Given that local governments in wealthy areas tend to have larger tax bases, which allows them to more easily fund public infrastructure projects, my findings imply that lobbying and earmarking hampered the ability of federal grant programs to promote equality in the distribution of federal funds. The third essay utilizes time series econometrics to examine the relationship between government regulation, spending, interest group activity, and social trust in government.

This dissertation provides a particular Marxian class analytical political economy critique of post-Marxism. The dissertation demonstrates the ways in which different positions within post-Marxism continue to essentialize the conceptualizations of class and capitalist economy. What distinguishes this dissertation from other dominant critiques of post-Marxism is the anti-essentialist epistemological and ontological position it adopts. By adopting an anti-essentialist epistemological position the dissertation is able to demonstrate the discontinuities and continuities between post-Marxism and the Marxian tradition. The dissertation does this by reading the heterogeneous and disparate post-Marxian approaches as so many different ways to "resolve" the central tension of the Althusserian mode of production debate of the 1960s and 1970s: The tension between the desire to think the overdetermination of social reproduction and transformation and the effort to explain the stability of class domination . The dissertation argues one of the effects of this tension to be the lapse of the Althusserian mode of production problematic into reproductionism .Drawing extensively on the scholarship of Ernesto Laclau and Étienne Balibar, the dissertation substantiates the ways in which the post-Althusserian post-Marxism has developed a critique of the reproductionist tendency of this problematic and constructed a theory of the social that allows for conceiving social reproduction to be both provisionally stable and overdetermined. The dissertation argues, however, that such "resolutions" have failed in different ways to dislodge the constitution of class and capitalist reproduction from essentialist narratives, with the effect of restaging the ontological duality of the mode of production problematic (i.e., overdetermination vs. determinism qua reproductionism ) in a new form: The contingency of politics and the necessity of class and capitalist reproduction. After showing the limitations of some of the prominent positions within post-Althusserian post-Marxism, the dissertation concludes with an alternative post-Althusserian Marxian perspective, initially developed by Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff, that provides an overdetermined understanding of social and economic reproduction from the entry point of class qua surplus.