Berkeley Political Economy 100_ Reference Document DRAFT

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Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT

6/17/09 9:24 PM

Grasping Reality with Both Hands The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: A Fair, Balanced, Reality-Based, and More than Two-Handed Look at the World J. Bradford DeLong, Department of Economics, U.C. Berkeley #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720-3880; 925 708 0467; delong@econ.berkeley.edu.

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Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT Title: Classical Theories of Political Economy Prerequisites: NONE Sequence: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/05/berkeley-political-economy-100-reference-document-draft.html

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Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT

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Ideally students intending to major in Political Economy should complete PE 100 by the middle of their sophomore year. Objectives: Students must apply critical thinking skills to engage classical theories of political economy as they were originally written in primary sources. These primary sources may be bolstered, should the instructor choose, with some additional reading material explicating salient points of each text. The course should generally be chronological. Students should engage the writers and their ideas, and confront the ideas of one theorist with those of another, so that they can see hoq ideas grow out of other ideas in their particular historical contexts. Students should learn the basic historical thinking skills, among them analysis; argumentation; chronological reasoning; interpretation; contextualization; comparison; and synthesis. Students should also be given practice at other critical thinking skills, such as Inquiry, as the instructor sees fit. Topics: The principal aim of the course is to engage the students with the central question of political economy: the evolving relationship between the state and the economy as analyzed in the “classical” texts which discuss (1) connections between people and their rulers; (2) the nature and purpose of the state; and (3) linkages between states and their economies. The inevitable focus of the course is the rise of liberalism and the various responses to it Subjects that ought to be covered in each iteration of PE 100 include but are not limited to: mercantilism, capitalism, industrialization, liberalism, Marxism, socialism, imperialism, nationalism, and internationalization. Students should be constantly considering the applicability of the "classical" theories to the present day. Instructors follow their own judgment in assigning relative weight to these subjects and the degree of engagement of the course with current headlines. Authors: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan; John Locke, Two Treatises on Government; Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality and/or On Social Contract; Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women; Thomas Malthus, Essay on Population; David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy; Friedrich List, National System of Political Economy; Karl Marx, Das Kapital; Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation; Max Weber, “On Bureaucracy” and/or The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; V.I. Lenin, “Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism”; Joseph Schumpeter, Imperialism. In addition, students should be familiar with the work of J.M. Keynes Course Boundaries vis-a-vis PE 101: This course covers the early modern world (but may go back to antiquity or the middle ages) and the modern world ending with the Great Depression, which is where PE 101 will begin. At most a week should be spent on Keynesian political economy in this course, allowing students to see the ways in which he synthesized the classical theorists and set the stage for new kinds of theory to be discussed in PEIS 101. Assessments and Assignments: The material lends itself to in-class exams, take-home exams, and research papers. Each instructor cam generate those kind of assignments that work best with that instructor’s teaching. At least three written assignments/exams should be required over the course of the semester, in order to observe student improvement. Provide studente with as many opportunities as possible to reflect upon tbe course content: it will be new and strange to many Course Instructional Support This course has--until the next budget crisis--weekly GSI-led sections. Students find the material difficult, and having a regular weekly discussion section is usually the best way for them both to practice their critical thinking skills and internalize content.

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Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT

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Appendix: The Larger Barrington Moore Problematic: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Letter on Toleration Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, The Social Contract David Hume, Of Commerce, Of the Balance of Trade, Of the Original Contract, Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth Bernard de Mandeville, Fable of the Bees Albert Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests Adam Smith, Theory of the Moral Sentiments, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Thomas Paine, Common Sense James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, The Federalist Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women William Godwin, An Enquiry Considering Political Justice Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revoution in France, Letters on a Regicide Peace Joseph de Maistre, Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions Thomas Malthus, Essay on Population David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy Friedrich List, The National System of Political Economy Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, Democracy in America, Recollections Karl Marx, Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Justice, Communist Manifesto, Wage Labor and Capital, Class Struggles in France, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Capital, Critique of the Gotha Program Thomas Carlyle, Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question John Stuart Mill, Essay on Bentham, Essay on Coleridge, On Liberty, The Subjection of Women, Principles of Political Economy Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, Science as a Vocation, The Chinese Literati, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, The City, Class, Status, Party, Bureaucracy Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism Joseph Schumpeter, Imperialism Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Civilization and Its Discontents John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Essays in Persuasion Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy Be the first to rate this [? ]

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Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT

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Comments I'm glad to see Barrington Moore is still being taught. His chapter on the American Civil War was always my favorite. A short reading by Gramsci, Marcuse or Frank Luntz might be helpful. Posted by: kaleidescope | May 14, 2009 at 06:55 AM If you are going to include Carlyle, then you really ought to include Mill's "The Negro Question" too. The contrast would be interesting. I'd use Suicide for the Durkheim piece or, maybe better, The Rules of the Sociological Method. I'd also consider including something short by Spencer or Sumner. These guys had considerable influence in their day, at least academically. Finally, I hope you are kidding about assigning Capital in the main course. No one will read even the first volume. It's a great book, but these are undergrads. Wage Labor and Capital would do just fine; Marx wrote it for folks like them, after all. Posted by: Tracy Lightcap | May 14, 2009 at 10:20 AM Professor, Thank you for posting all these bibliography. As you know many can not afford to go to university, and posting all these lists of books will help us learn on our own. Thank you very much. Posted by: Aris | May 16, 2009 at 06:12 AM A political economy course without Henry George's Progress & Poverty? Really?? Henry George (b. Philadelphia, 1839; d. NYC, 1897) was among the best known and most read figures of the 1880s and 1890s. He was one of the classical economists, and he brought political economy to the ordinary man. He traveled widely, both before and after he started writing, and read widely. He pondered the question of why, despite the awesome technological progress of the first century of the US, we should have poverty. He laid out his analysis clearly and thoroughly, and provided "the remedy" whose logic, justice, efficiency and wisdom no one has successfully countered. Why do so few "educated" people know his work? Perhaps it didn't suit the interests of the powers that be, and in particular those who were funding the new universities of the day. When you read P&P, you can form your own opinion. "Progress & Poverty" is online, unabridged and in a modern-language abridgment -- see progressandpoverty.org To read what others had to say about George's ideas, search on "quotable notables" and "quotable nobels." You might also look for some of his other books --- Social Problems -- The Science of Political Economy http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/05/berkeley-political-economy-100-reference-document-draft.html

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Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT

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-- The Science of Political Economy -- Protection or Free Trade -- The Land Question or his speeches -- start at wealthandwant.com The subtitle to P&P was "An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions and of increase of want with increase of wealth ... The Remedy" Do you think it might have some relevance in 2009? Might your students have an interest in knowing that we CAN have progress WITHOUT poverty? Posted by: LVTfan | June 11, 2009 at 12:36 PM

The comments to this entry are closed. Me: Economists: Juicebox Mafia: Moral Paul Krugman Ezra Klein Philosophers: Mark Thoma Matthew Yglesias Hilzoy and Cowen and Spencer Friends Tabarrok Ackerman Crooked Timber Chinn and Dana Goldstein of Humanity Hamilton Mark Kleiman and Friends Eric Rauchway and Friends

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