Varieties of Capitalism

Varieties of Capitalism
Bachelor in International Studies
ECTS Credits: 6.0
Semester: 2

COMPETENCES AND SKILLS THAT WILL BE ACQUIRED AND LEARNING RESULTS

BASIC AND GENERAL COMPETENCES
BASIC COMPETENCES
CB1 Be able to show that they possess and comprehend facts and contents in an area of study which, based on a previous general secondary school level, have been extended to those included in advanced textbooks and in some aspects proceed from the most advanced studies in this area.
CB2 Be able to show that they have learned how to apply their knowledge professionally to their future jobs or tasks and that they possess the competences needed to develop and defend arguments and solve problems in that area of study.
CB3 Be able to show that they are capable of collecting and interpreting the relevant data (normally within their area of study) needed for formulating judgments which require critical thought on social, scientific and ethical topics of relevance.
CB4 Be able to show that they are able to transmit information, ideas, problems and solutions both to specialized and non-specialized publics.
CB5 Be able to show that they have developed the learning skills required to perform further studies with a high degree of self-dependence.

GENERAL COMPETENCES
CG1 Understand social, political, legal and economic realities from a comparative perspective.
CG3 Know quantitative and qualitative research techniques and possess the ability to choose which is most adequate to apply in the field of Social Sciences.
CG4 Be able to manage information: identify, organize and analyze relevant information critically and systematically within the context of international relations.
CG5 Be able to debate and formulate critical reasoning, using precise terminology and specialized resources, when analyzing international and global phenomena, employing both the concepts and knowledge from different disciplines as well as the methods of analysis, paradigms and concepts pertaining to the Social Sciences.
CG6 Be able to apply scientific method to the economic, social and political questions of a global society; be able to formulate problems in this context, identify a possible explication or solution, and a method to contrast them by sensibly interpreting the data.

OVERLAPPING COMPETENCES
CT1 Acquire the capacity to communicate knowledge in oral and written form, both to specialized and to non-specialized publics.
CT2 Acquire the capacity to establish good interpersonal communication and to work both in interdisciplinary and international teams.
CT3 Acquire the capacity to organize and plan workloads, taking correct decisions based on the available information, collecting and interpreting relevant data in order to provide assessments in that area of study.
CT4 Develop the motivation and capacity to perform independent continuous learning for life, with an endowment to adapt to change and new situations.

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES
CE8 Understand the structure of markets and the impact of public intervention on markets.
CE9 Be familiar with and comprehend the relevance of technological change for economic and social development.
CE10 Be able to discern the differentiating elements in international problems in accordance to the development stages of a country.
CE13 Be familiar with the principles of cost-benefit analysis and its application to basic problems.

LEARNING RESULTS
· Knowledge of the essential characteristics of capitalism, their institutional variation, their historical development and their political and institutional role in contemporary States.
· Applied knowledge to analyze the principal components of the capitalist system in the framework of globalization and the interaction (complementarity) between both: relations between labour markets, collective negotiation, technology innovation, human capital and productive skills, firms, unions, and Welfare state.

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS: PROGRAMME

Capitalism and globalization. Institutional and economic characteristics of capitalism. Capitalism in developed and developing countries. The Chinese path to capitalism. The capitalism of the former comunist countries. The concept of the varieties of capitalism. The elements which constitute the types of developed capitalism: labour markets, human capital, firm governance structure, force and size of unions, innovation regimes, the role of State. The key concept of complementarity in different characteristics which define the types of capitalism. Liberal capital markets and coordinated capitalist economies. Varieties of capitalism and the European Union.

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

- 40% Continuous work (assingments, labs, practicals, etc.)
- 60% End-of-term exam