Undergraduate Course: International Politics of Money (PLIT10095)
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 | This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the political economy of international money and finance. We begin with a deceptively simple question: what is money? From there, we trace how money moves across borders, through financial systems both visible and hidden. We examine the tension between onshore money and the offshore world of tax havens and shadow finance. Central banks sit at the heart of modern monetary power. We study what they do, how they do it, and who they answer to. We then turn to the infrastructures that move money globally - the pipes and plumbing of international finance and consider their stability and instability. We examine US dollar dominance and the challenge posed by China's renminbi. We also look at how governments finance themselves through taxes, bonds, and credit creation, and what that means for sovereignty. The course also covers some of the most consequential actors in global finance: institutional investors and the giant pools of capital they manage. Cryptocurrencies have politicised money in new ways. The green transition requires substantial financial resources. Both raise urgent questions about who controls money, and in whose interests. No prior economics knowledge is required. |
| Course description |
The course will be composed of lectures and seminars that cover topics including IPE approaches to money; its creation and destruction; international and monetary financial relations and their evolution over time; the role and future of the dollar as the global reserve currency; the causes and consequences of financial crises; the politics of debt; the politicisation of monetary power in the context of war; and 'wildcat' approaches to money creation such as cryptocurrencies. The seminars will feature a mix of group discussion and group tasks, all of which require engagement with set readings, and some require additional preparatory tasks ahead of time.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Politics and International Relations 1A: Concepts and Debates (PLIT08017) OR
Politics in a Changing World: An Introduction for non-specialists (PLIT08012)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Successful completion of IPoM doesn't require any detailed knowledge of economics. However, students who are not undertaking degrees in Economics or joint degrees including Economics must have successfully completed the Honours International Political Economy course taught in semester 1 or have the course convenor's agreement that they have completed equivalent courses.
Students who lack these pre-requisites but have completed comparable courses should contact the Course Organiser to confirm if they are eligible to take this course. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 4 Politics/International Relations courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.
Successful completion of IPoM doesn't require any detailed knowledge of economics. However, students who are not undertaking degrees in Economics or joint degrees including Economics should contact the course convener to check if they have completed equivalent courses to International Political Economy (semester 1).
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course **
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
45 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
15 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Tutorial participation (15%)
Essay of 2000 words (40%)
Exam (45%)
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the main areas of study linked to the international politics of money, including debates surrounding the causes and consequences of different global financial crises and political economy issues arising from international financial integration.
- Understand the value of theoretical approaches drawn from International Political Economy, Comparative Political Economy, and economic sociology.
- Evaluate and apply knowledge of different components of the international financial and monetary system and how these have evolved over time.
- Analyse new developments and relate these to the structural features of the global monetary system.
- Communicate and engage with competing analytical arguments on the international politics of money in a clear and concise manner.
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Reading List
In this course, we will read mostly journal articles and book chapters (expect 2-3 readings per week). These will be listed on the course Learn page. If you wish to familiarise yourself with some of the key debates covered in this course, you could start with one of these books:
Starting with the most accessible:
. McWilliams, David. Money: a story of humanity. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2024.
A (much) more ambitious read:
. Aglietta, Michel. Money: 5,000 years of debt and power. London: Verso Books, 2018.
From academic publishers:
. Abdelal, Rawi. Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2007.
. Desan, Christine. Making Money. Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
. Pistor, Katharina. The Code of Capital How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.
. Eich, Stefan. The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.
. Downey, Leah. Our money: Monetary policy as if democracy matters. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024.
. Moschella, Manuela. Unexpected revolutionaries: how central banks made and unmade economic orthodoxy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2024.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
The course consists of 10 x 50 minute lectures and 10 x 50 minute tutorials, with the exception of week 10, which will use the whole time for the simulation. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Charlotte Rommerskirchen
Tel:
Email: Charlotte.Rommerskirchen@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Ethan Alexander
Tel: (0131 6)50 4001
Email: Ethan.Alexander@ed.ac.uk |
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