M.A. Political Economy and International Relations

In recent times, the scope for democratic politics to act and shape policy has increasingly been called into question:

Citizens' expectations of the state go far beyond the production of internal, external and social security; rather, the focus is on the distribution of wealth, the regulation of markets and the production of a variety of other public goods such as consumer, environmental and data protection. Policy decisions are therefore made under conditions of high complexity and in the face of a multitude of competing interests that need to be taken into account.

Moreover, due to globalization processes and increasing intergovernmental interdependence, nation states can de facto be understood less and less as sovereign actors that regulate their internal affairs and their external relations in a self-determined manner. Rather, we must conceive of them as interlinked and in many respects interdependent actors whose scope for decision-making is diminishing in a complex web of inter- and supranational relations.

These obvious limits to the state's room for maneuvering point to a central question: What possibilities do political actors on this side and beyond national borders have for shaping and steering a politically and economically globalized and interconnected world?

In the M.A. Political Economy and International Relations, you will address this question in a theory-guided and methodologically sound manner on the basis of the latest research findings.