As modern political economy begins with the assumption that individuals make decisions in a social environment, it focuses on problems such as the individual’s role in group outcomes, free-riding, incentives to vote, interest group influence on the state, bureaucratic behavior and constitutional frameworks, among others.

 Specifically, the course reviews classical economic thought on political economy, including insights from Adam Smith and even Karl Marx, and then it considers a number of normative political theory positions, such as utilitarianism, contractarianism, and Rawlsianism. Following that, it explores private solutions to market failures/collective action problems, problems of citizen participation in democratic politics—including, for example, the many technical problems of voting—and finally theories of legislative and bureaucratic activity.

At the successful completion of this subject, students should:

-Be well acquainted with core concepts of modern political economy.

-Better understand the problems facing individuals in a social context, and apply the concepts of political economy to problems facing policy makers.

-Be able to communicate these concepts to others in written and oral forms.

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY

A significant portion of the overall mark is allocated to (positive!) contribution to class meetings/discussion (“positive class participation”). Thus, attendance at all classes is mandatory. Further, positive class participation means coming to class having done the day’s assigned reading and being prepared to ask and answer questions, work in groups, debate issues, and participate in the ongoing presentations. As such, examples of negative class participation would include (but are not limited to):

-being impolite, interrupting others, talking when someone has the floor, or talking simply for the sake of talking on topics outside the area of focus

-leaving early, consistently coming late, or leaving the classroom in the middle of class (except in case of genuine emergency)

-leaving cell phones turned on (or worse yet answering them!); it’s a good idea to leave cell phones turned off and put away

-attending without assigned classroom and reading materials

 The latter four points, among other negative externalities that violate the spirit of the classroom, will be grounds to lower participation marks.

You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________

Week 1

·         Introduction to the course; students required to review basic microeconomic concepts on their own

·         Review “big picture” state of the state (government stats on spending, etc.)

·         Early schools of thought: Smith, Marx

Week 2

·         Review simple concepts of taxation

·         Some review of “market failure”, including “tragedy of the commons”

·         Brief review of political theory: utilitarianism, empirical libertarian, contractarianism, Rawlsianism

Week 3

·         Political theory continued

·         Voluntary/private solutions to collective action problems (Olson’s “Logic,” Coase, Ostrom, etc.) 

Week 4

·         Participatory government (voting, constitutions, logrolling, median voter theorem, etc.)

·         Legislative government (representative government, interest groups, rent seeking, etc.)

·         Bureaucracies in government

Week 5

·         Bureaucracies continued

·         Final presentation projects on specific topics in political economy

·         Final exam