International Trade and Political Institutions: Instituting Trade in the Long Nineteenth Century

by Fiona McGillivay, Iain McLean, Robert Pahre, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

Overview

It is a widely held view that politics plays an important role in determining international trade policy. Defining precisely why, and how, politics matters is more difficult. Despite the benefits of trade, few nations have wholeheartedly adopted free trade policies, and when they do so it is by managing trade through international institutions and multi- or bilateral trade treaties.

International Trade and Political Institutions broadens the public choice theory of trade politics to allow for the study of ideas and institutions within a longer time horizon. The authors use theoretically rigorous historical analysis of international political economy and four important case studies to help untangle the role of ideology, institutions and interests. This illuminating book connects the fields of economics, political economy and history to shed new light on trade theory.

Scholars of political science and economy, economics and history will all find this book fascinating and worthwhile reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781840646900
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	01/28/2002
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

The late Fiona McGillivray, formerly of the Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University, US, Iain McLean, Professor of Politics, Oxford University and Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford, UK, Robert Pahre, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, US and Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Senior Lecturer in Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface 1. Tariffs and Modern Political Institutions: An Introduction 2. Agreeable Duties: The Tariff Treaty Regime in the Nineteenth Century 3. Trading Free and Opening Markets 4. Irish Potatoes, Indian Corn and British Politics: Interests, Ideology, Heresthetic and the Repeal of the Corn Laws 5. The Strategic Use of Ideas: Nationalizing the Interest in the Nineteenth Century 6. A Unifying Theory of Interests, Institutions and Ideas? Concluding Remarks References Index

Editorial Reviews

'This fascinating volume should be read by political scientists, economists, and historians interested in the political formation of trade policy. The papers consider a rich set of historical examples and never fail to be provocative and interesting.'

Douglas Irwin

'This stimulating and well-written volume is based on the papers originally presented at a mini-conference held at Washington University in St. Louis . . . I do not exaggerate in saying that this should be standard reading for international relations theorists as well as economists and economic historians interested in the political economy of trade reform.'

John V.C. Nye

'In International Trade and Political Institutions, four leading young scholars of comparative and international political economy come together to analyse aspects of trade policy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Combining theoretical sophistication with empirical depth, they provide cogent arguments about the interaction of interests, institutions, and ideas in a period of crucial importance to those who would like to understand the sources and implications of global economic integration. This exciting volume will be of great interest for scholars concerned with international trade, political economy, and the history of the nineteenth-century world economy.'

Jeffry A. Frieden