Chinese Politics and Economy Syllabus, Fall 2014

Course Syllabus, Fall 2015

GSIS, Korea University

Multinational Corporations and Foreign Direct Investment

Instructor: Dr. Hong Hwa LEE

Email: . (My preferred mode of communication.)

Prerequisites: None

Office Hours: I am unable to hold regular office hours. I can, however, stay behind after class to answer any questions you might have if they have not been resolved. Also, I would answer any email queries as soon as possible.

Course Description and Goals:

“Multinational Corporations” and “Foreign Direct Investment” have existed since the dawn of modern capitalism—perhaps even earlier. It is, however, the emergence of a new brand of global political economy—which again is nothing new—since the end of the World War Two that has greatly magnified the significance of the two concepts and the relationship between the two. Needlessly to say, the two go hand in hand—i.e. almost all FDI is carried out by MNCs. Also, there are myriad different ways to approach the subject.

Rather than trying to cover all the different approaches, which I think is not feasible to do in any meaningful way, my strategy is to treat topics and issues of “MNCs and FDI” that revolve around what I believe is the core concept that binds everything together. It is, I believe, “globalization.” It is in this sense the most appropriate subtopic for this course perhaps is “Political Economy of Globalization.” It is this act of confinement that allows us to explore the essential topics and issues of “MNCs and FDI.” In another important sense, the phrase is very much pregnant with the view that the subject has to a thoroughly interdisciplinary one—the one that straddles between economics and international relations/politics.

The main topics and issues that will be treated are as follows:

1  Introduction to Definitions & Theories

2  Historical Views:

2.1  A short history of capitalism

2.2  Post-WWII global political economy: A new age of globalization

2.3  Perspectives on development and crisis

3  Global Political Economy of “MNCs and FDI”

3.1  Economics

3.2  Politics

3.3  Global governance

4  A Potpourri of Issues/Topics in “MNCs and FDI”

4.1  Strategic behavior of MNCs in making FDI decisions.

4.2  Do/Can/Should MNCs promote human rights?.

4.3  Do/Can/Should MNCs promote sustainable development?.

4.4  The East Asian trajectory in “MNCs and FDI”

5  Assessment of “MNCs and FDI”

After successfully completing the course, one is expected to be able to the following with a high degree of competence:

• To be able to appreciate the main theoretical and practical issues discussed in the course of the semester.

• To acquire analytical and critical skills needed to assess many different sources of information and filter them to form one’s critical view on “MNCs and FDI.”

• To write an in-depth essay on a topic of “MNCs and FDI.” The experience could be a fundamental exercise that leads to a better understanding of one of the most important topics in the area of global political economy.

Texts and References:

There are three different ways to gain access to the texts and references to be used throughout the semester: 1) Some essential textbooks have been put on reserve; 2) most journal articles and some books are available in the digital form that could be easily accessed from databases subscribed by the KU library; 3) many other articles and pamphlets are available online for free.

Required textbooks:

Cohen, S. D. (2007). Multinational Corporations and Foreign Direct Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Reserved; consider purchasing a hard copy.)

Jensen, N. J. (2006). Nation-States and the Multinational Corporation. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Reserved; e-book available on Google app store.

Specific articles and/or chapters will be assigned for each week. As stated above, many of them will be available online and even the URLs will be provided. You are required to read them and be ready to discuss (sometimes present them) in class.

Course Requirements:

The elements of the course are as follows:

• Lectures and class participation: The second half of a weekly session will be devoted to lectures on the selective textbook readings and other assigned academic readings. (These lectures will be bases for the presentation/discussion session that is to take place during the first half of the next week’s session. (See below)) To make these lectures effective, one has to come prepared—i.e., you have to actively participate in class discussions, ask and answer questions.

• Presentations and reaction papers: The first half of a weekly session will be devoted to presentation/discussion. Groups of 4 (more or less) will be formed and a group will be asked to make a presentation on one of the articles. (Presentations start on Week 3.) The rest of the (presentation) session will be devoted to discussion involving the whole class on the topic presented led by the presenting group. (Each group will be asked to do this twice during the semester, and each member will be asked to write a reaction paper after each presentation that is around 5 pages long. A typical reaction paper is a combination of summary, analysis and criticism. While there is no magic formula as to what the right balance is, I suggest that the summary part should be as succinct as possible. Also, the readability is an important issue. It does not just mean that what one is trying to say should be easy to understand but please try to make it as engaging as possible.)

• Attendance policy: My attendance policy is simple. It is mandatory. Given the fact that we meet only once a week, it takes on extra importance. Even if there is no generous incentive for good attendance (which in turn means that attendance could actually adversely affect your final grade), you are not going to take the full benefit of the learning experience. If one cannot attend a session please let me know beforehand—if possible. In addition: i) Arriving (or leaving) after the first half session is considered to be absent; ii) students are responsible for making up any course work missed due to an absence; iii) one will receive zero for attendance after the third absence. I am going to allow ONE unexcused absence—i.e., no questions asked—but additional excused absences will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances.

• Midterm and final Exams: There will be written, in-class mid-term and final exams. The mid-term exam will be given on the 8th week session and the final exam on the 16th week..

• Final term paper: There is a final term paper (actually, an essay) that is worth

15% of the final grade. It could be on any topic that we have discussed during the semester.. It has to be 3,000-word long (+/- 300 words; excluding the cover and references pages.) Late submissions will be accepted only if extraordinary valid excuses are offered. There will be a 10-point penalty for each day of ‘unexcused’ late submission

(Note: Both a print copy and a digital copy of the final term paper has to be submitted. There will be an automatic downgrade of a letter grade if this is not done.)

• Academic honesty and plagiarism policy: Academic dishonesty and plagiarism have no place any educational setting, but perhaps especially so in graduate school. (That is, one should know very well what is acceptable and what is not when one has arrived at this stage.) Since academic dishonesty and plagiarism are most unethical/egregious academic offences, they cannot and will not be tolerated. If a student is found cheating or submitting plagiarized content, he/she will receive a zero (0) grade for that work—at the very least. At the end of the day, I would question if it is worth it even if you could get away with it, as it were. You would always know that you have received something that you did not deserve. (Among many different web sites on writing/research, this Purdue site is the best I have seen: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/writinglab/.)

Grading:

These are the constituents of the assessment mechanism:

Assessment Mechanism Weights Attendance 10% Class Participation 10%

Reaction Papers (2) 5% each

Presentations (2) 5% each

Exams:

Mid-term 20% Final 25%

Final Term Paper 15%

• The weights are self-explanatory. I will give clear guidelines as to how each assignment/activity will be assessed, and I will provide feedback as promptly as possible.

•  I pledge that marking of assignments/tests and activities will be done as transparently as possib

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Weekly Course Schedule and Readings/Assignments:

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