How and why institutional advantages are preserved in a global economy: a comparison of British and Swedish multilateral preferences

Summary in GermanAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, D-21400 Kiel W 764 (96.320) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

"Old divides, recent approaches, future bridges: Studying European economic and social policy"

In this paper, our ambition is to contribute to the integration of the international and comparative perspectives in the context of EU studies. However, we extend the former discipline to include both contemporary research in international political economy (IPE) and classic European integration theory, and extend the latter discipline beyond comparative politics to include insights from comparative sociology. By combining these perspectives we go beyond old divides in EU studies to provide some suggestions as to where new bridges can be fruitfully built and where they are likely to be strong and lasting. While making use of the existing literature on European integration, we are primarily concerned with ascertaining the value of a number of contributions outside the study of Euro-politics which we think can play pivotal roles in bridging conceptual divides in EU studies, as well as more generally between the international and comparative perspectives. Our primary observation is that there are a number of intellectual affinities between contemporary comparative politics and sociology of advanced capitalist countries and contemporary IPE which have rarely been explored in EU studies, and which can be fruitfully exploited to create richer and theoretically more rigorous accounts of Euro-politics

Globalism in Star Trek

Star Trek indicates three distinct politics resulting from the creation of a global society: (1) Federation; (2) Empire; and (3) Neoliberalism. The federation path to world government is predicated on the concept of justice known in the academic literature on Star Trek as “liberal humanism”—a classless society, free of gender/ethnic bias. The justice (i.e. liberal humanism) evident in federation inspires others to become part of the global polity. The Empire strategy of establishing global governance relies on national, religious (for Star Trek “species”) identity. Within Empire, a particular identity group seeks to politically impose themselves on other (species) societies. They do so through military (violent) means and deception—claiming racial/political superiority in the process. The proponents of neoliberalism argue for a global regime based on practical considerations—expanding trade relations and bolstering international security. Star Trek indicates that a political basis of neoliberalism is the WE/THEY distinction—à la Carl Schmitt. Utilizing these templates, as set out in Star Trek, it can be concluded that the American-led global hegemonic system contains characteristics from all three templates. Star Trek suggests, however, that only the federation route to global government is viable

How and why institutional advantages are preserved in a global economy a comparison of British and Swedish multilateral preferences

SIGLEUuStB Koeln(38)-971102510 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman