Theoretical Foundations of International Political Economy

International Political Economy expands the perspective of Comparative Political Economy to include transnational economic relations, foreign economic policy, and international economic institutions. Chapter 5 outlines the establishment of IPE as a sub-discipline in the 1970s and refers to the subsequent differentiation of theoretical development. The chapter distinguishes roughly between four strands: (1) theories that were developed in direct reference to the major theories of International Relations; (2) theories that go back in various forms to Karl Marx and can be described as generic theories of capitalism; (3) theories that bring together Comparative and International Political Economy and thus different levels of analysis; and (4) theories whose origins lie primarily in the humanities and were then applied to questions of IPE.