| Research Abstract |
International Political Economy is an emerging discipline, which tries to analyze "interactions between politics and economics." It does not, however, suppose none of politics or economics maintains principal priority. "Politicization of economic issues" these days are promoting to form the discipline. In consequence, methodology must be complex, multi-principled, and multi-determinant. In contrast to conventional International Relations theory, we must pay attention not only to states but also to non-state actors such as MNCs and NGOs, and we should think much of functions of international regimes and norms in anarchical inter-state relations.
Neorealists, derived from nationalist tradition, have produced outstanding works in IPE.Hegemonic stability theory, a typical example of neorealst theory of IPE, is not based on the assumption that only the state holds power, but tries to analyze interactions between politics and economics. We can expect a great development of such a theory by modifying the concept of state power. On the other hand, liberalism has contributed the development of IPE, producing international regime theory and interdependence theory. Marxism, located in the opposite side of realism and liberalism, has also worked out many theories, such as center-periphery model, world-system theory, arid neo-Gramiscian theory. We could make methodological agenda clear by surveying these variety of theories, and analyzed interactions between politics and economics by doing positive researches on MNCs, intellectual property rights, Japan-US trade friction, currency integration, industrial policy in Europe, development strategy of developing countries, and so on.
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