Globalization, Organizations and the State

Corporate actors today operate in rapidly changing environments, which move established boundaries between the public and the private sectors and bring together global processes and local cultural contexts. With ever more complex regulation, public spending surpassing 50 per cent of GDP in many rich countries and an increasing density of global governance structures, decision-makers ignore the public sector at their peril. It is therefore essential that tomorrow’s managers are familiar with key public actors, institutions and public policies and their role both at the domestic and at the global level. The course introduces the students to how the public sector and public policies differ in various types of market economies – notably within the OECD, club of rich countries – and how the state has been shaped by and is shaping the process of globalization. In this context, we will look at policy areas such as tax policy, economic regulation and social policy. In addition, the course explores how this is embedded in the institutions, norms, and actors of global governance. Global governance manifests itself as a dense set of rules and norms of transnational scope, which is produced and managed by a thickly-networked range of organizations operating on different scales.

Building on an introduction into the concept of the modern state and its history, we address the question to what extent and in what ways globalization has led to convergence of public sector organization and public policies. We will discuss theories predicting convergence as well as persistent differences and assess their empirical relevance. In doing so, the course aims at providing an understanding of how economics and politics interact in shaping the public sector and public policies. In particular, the course aims at providing an understanding of how responses to globalization can differ by country and by institutional legacy. In addition, students become familiar with some of the key processes and actors shaping global governance, the rules of the game of this new world order and discuss implications for justice and democracy. 

• Global governance
• Normative perspectives on global governance
• Key actors in global governance
• The concept of the modern nation state
• Size and functions of the public sector
• Public sector reforms
• Globalization and policy convergence
• Policy diffusion theory

• Knowledge about national differences in the size and dynamics of the public sector and about the effect of globalization on public policies; knowledge about institutions of global governance, their role and the prospect for democratization at the global level. 
  

• Skills to outline the key characteristics of modern states and their historical development; discuss different theoretical perspectives on how public sectors and public policies are adapted to globalization and to assess the results of public sector reforms in different types of Western capitalism; identify the strengths and weaknesses of global governance

• Competences to distinguish between various socio-political settings and to identify ways and means to act within them; also to orient themselves in a cross-disciplinary environment and communicate the opportunities and challenges of global governance to a wide audience of non-specialists

The reading material will be drawn from research-based articles at a high international level and classic works on globalization and domestic policymaking, global governance and international organizations. The literature will be provided in the form of a reader and electronic articles.

In total: about 800 pages

Scheduled classes:
The course includes 2-hour lecture sessions offered during 15 weeks and tutorials for 2 hours per week.

Workload:

A 10 ECTS course entails a total workload of 270 hours. These are divided between the different learning activities and below follows an estimation for the average student:

Face-to-face lectures: 30 hours
Tutorials: 30 hours
Preparation for lectures and tutorials: 125 hours
Preparation for exam: 80 hours
Exam: 5 hours
Total: 270 hours

This corresponds to an average weekly workload of 13 hours during the semester, including the exam.