Course Catalogue

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Relations between business and government are generally regarded to have become closer but remain multifarious, complex and vary widely around the world. This course will explore this diversity through exploration of various key thematic aspects of these relationships.

2 hours per week over 10 weeks.

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1000-word essay outlining the nature of business-government relations in one country and analysing one key feature of those relations in that country (30%)

3000-word essay from a list of supplied questions (70%)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to a range of aspects of, and debates about, relations between business and governments from a global perspective. In particular, they will be exposed to a range of political economy theories about business-government relations and interactions, learn to apply those theories in different empirical contexts, gain understanding and knowledge of the diversity of such relations around the world, extending from state capitalism to liberal forms of regulation, to compare these diverse relationships and to learn how these have developed and changed over time.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Apply theoretical approaches to business-government relations and interactions appropriately to empirical experiences 

■ Evaluate and compare different national experiences of government intervention in business, business-government relations and business-government interactions

■ Analyse the particular relationship and interactions between business and government in one country

■ Demonstrate the complexity and diversity of business-government relations and interactions in the global economy

■ Compose sophisticated arguments in both written and oral form on both secondary and primary source material

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.