Political Economy: Major Themes (YorkU, GS/POLS 6272 3.0, Graduate, Fall Term, 2008-9)

At the dawn of the 21st century, more and more people realize that ‘economics’ and ‘politics’ are intimately related. And yet, these two aspects of social existence are usually studied as separate ‘disciplines,’ each with its own categories, language and theories. Can this departmentalization be overcome? Should it? And if so, how? The seminar deals with these questions by critically examining major themes of political economy. Topics are divided into two major categories: elements and aggregates. In the first part, the seminar examines the origins and implications of concepts such as supply and demand, equilibrium, utility and productivity, market organization, and the role of power. Part two, focusing on aggregates, covers the issues of national accounting, theories of prosperity and crisis, money and finance, economic policy, stagflation, welfare/warfare, and the global formations of trade, capital flows and currency regimes. Throughout the seminar, the emphasis is not only on the ‘how,’ but also on the ‘why.’ Where have the concepts and theories come from? Why have they risen to prominence and what brought them down? Who benefited from them and who paid the price? Do they help us understand the world, or do they serve to conceal it? In these explorations, special emphasis is put on methodology, as well as the importance of empirical/historical analysis