Undergraduate Course: Economic Nationalism and Business Power (PLIT10187)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Comparative political science views private business as a powerful political actor. This course explores how the resurgence of economic nationalism is reshaping corporate power, and how corporate power in turn channels economic nationalism. |
| Course description |
The first half of the course will provide students with the conceptual and theoretical tools to understand the interplay between business power and rising economic nationalism in key countries around the world (e.g. United States, China, EU member states, India). We will differentiate economic nationalism from related concepts such as economic protectionism and state capitalism. We will then explore the forms of political power exercised by private enterprise, including structural, instrumental, structuring, and institutional varieties.
In the second half of the course we will deploy these tools to understand real-world interplay between business power and economic nationalism. This will include examples of nationalist mobilization constraining or facilitating the political influence of private enterprise; and instances of business power limiting and fostering nationalist goals.
The course fits primarily within the sub-field of comparative political science, but will be of interest to students of international political economy and international relations as well.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least four Politics/IR courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). Only university/college level courses will be considered. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 9,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
167 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
30% Applied Analysis (1500 words)
70% Research Paper (3000 words)
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| Feedback |
Feedback on all assessed work shall normally be returned within three weeks of submission. Where this is not possible, students shall be given clear expectations regarding the timing and methods of feedback. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand main features of economic nationalism and distinguish it from related concepts
- Understand and be able to differentiate between different forms of business power in politics
- Identify specific mechanisms of business power in real-world cases
- Explain the interplay between economic nationalism and business power in contemporary politics
- Present in written form coherent, balanced arguments about key issues in the study of economic nationalism and the political power of private business
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Reading List
Culpepper, Pepper D. 2011. Quiet Politics and Business Power: Corporate Control in Europe and Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Farrell, Henry, and Abraham Newman. 2023. Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy. New York: Holt.
Helleiner, Eric. 2021. The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kaur, Ravinder. 2020. Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India. 1st ed. South Asia in Motion. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Lei, Ya-Wen. 2023. The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China. First edition. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course will foster students' enquiry and lifelong learning by equipping them with analytical skills and conceptual tools required to understand fundamental socio-economic and political forces they will continue to encounter throughout their lives as citizens and in their work.
It will further their outlook and engagement by familiarizing them with a broad range of historic and contemporary instances of economic nationalism and exercise of business power around the world, helping them contextualize their own experiences.
The broad and interdisciplinary approach deployed in the class, along with the combination of theoretical and case knowledge, will foster research and inquiry, equipping the students with analytical skills to identify and tackle problems independently. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Karlo Basta
Tel: (0131 6)50 6372
Email: Karlo.Basta@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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