International Political Economy and External Economic Policy Decisions
Keywords:
international political economy, public policy, foreign investment, trade opennessAbstract
This teaching document introduces the main concepts of International Political Economy (IPE) in order to analyze the conditions under which States define their insertion into the global economy. From this perspective, the international economy is not conceived as a neutral or exclusively technical sphere, but as a space of political interaction in which economic exchanges generate differentiated distributive effects, producing winners and losers and giving rise to conflicts of interest.
First, the conceptual positioning of IPE is presented, highlighting its interdisciplinary character and its questioning of the separation between the economic and the political, as well as between the national and international levels. Within this framework, a working definition is proposed, centered on the relationship between social interests, political institutions and external economic policy decisions.
Next, globalization is analyzed as a politically constructed process that intensifies interdependencies and reshapes state action. Decisions on economic openness result from the interaction between external pressures, international institutions and domestic political dynamics. Finally, the distributive effects of trade, the formation of interest coalitions, and the role of the State vis-à-vis foreign direct investment and its implications for public policy autonomy are examined.
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