PECO 5000 Rianne Mahon Fall 2009 Loeb A 817 Wednesdays: Office Hours: 11:30-2:30 Wed. 2:30 4:00, and by appointment THEORIES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY Course Overview This course examines contemporary and historical theoretical perspectives on capitalism, the modern state and changing relations of power at the global, the national and the local levels. Contending views of the dynamics governing economic, political and cultural changes in the modern era, and of modernity itself, will be explored. What light do these theories shed on processes of socio-economic change and on the complex relationship between the economic, the cultural and the political? How do various theorists identify the collective actors engaged in making these changes, the sites of their interaction, and the processes through which collective identities are constituted? Were classes important, and are they still? What of gender, race and other bases of oppression (and identity formation)? Does the nation-state still constitute one of the central organising principles of the world system or does it make more sense to think local and global and forget the national? Does neo-liberal globalisation involve governance by the logic of capitalist markets or are we witnessing a revival and deepening of imperialism? The course takes a doubly historical approach to these questions. We will listen to voices from the past as well as examining contemporary efforts to understand the historical roots of the present (dis-)order. This approach gives us a chance to reflect on the elements of change and continuity that mark the modern era. It also provides us an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of the founding fathers of political economy. The latter have indeed left a rich intellectual legacy, on which subsequent generations of political economists have drawn - and continue to draw. Yet the nature of the legacy is by no means simple. Old ideas are lost, rediscovered and reinterpreted as new generations attempt to grapple with the challenges of their times and places. Required Readings: Required readings have been placed on reserve at the main library or are available online through the library or a special course posting. Those not available online have been compiled for a course pack. Assignments and Grading: You are required to write two essays. The first is a brief essay in which you address the question of why (or why not) contemporary students of political economy should be exposed to the work of classical theorists like Karl Marx, Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci, Joseph Schumpeter and Karl Polanyi. This essay is to be no more than 2000 words in length (including notes, but excluding bibliography) and is due on 27 October. It will be worth 30% of your final grade. The
2 second essay, of approximately 4,000 words, must deal with some aspect of the theoretical debates examined in this course. This does not mean that you must pick one of the topics identified in the course outline. In fact, I would encourage you to use the opportunity to begin to formulate the research question you hope to explore in your Master s thesis or research essay. I would be glad to help you in this. The earlier you come to see me, the more opportunity I have to assist you. The essay is due 14 December 2009. It is worth 50 percent of the final grade. Neither essay can be submitted by email. The remaining 20 percent of your grade will be awarded for seminar participation. You are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the required readings. No one will be penalised for being quiet, but informed participation on a regular basis could help to raise your final grade. At some time between 21 October and the end of term, you, along with at least one other student, will be expected to take responsibility for animating the week s discussion. This does not mean reading aloud long précis of the week s required readings. Rather, I want you to help us to see how the debate embedded in that week s readings, enriches our understanding of the core concerns that run through the course. You should come to class on 23 September prepared to indicate your preferred topic/week. If you want to substitute certain readings for some of those that I have assigned, please consult with me in advance. A grade of B or B+ normally indicates that you have shown an adequate understanding of, and some ability to work with, the theory and concepts you have chosen. A grade of A - to A normally is given on papers in which students have demonstrated an ability to begin really to use concepts to develop their own analyses. A grade of A+ suggests that you have produced a virtually publishable piece of work. At the graduate level, a grade of less than B- is a failure. It is given when the paper reflects a poor grasp of theory, an inability to develop a basic argument and/or poor research skills. The University has a policy on instructional offences, such as plagiarism. For details, consult the 2002-2003 Graduate Calendar. Course Schedule Week 1 - Introduction (16 September) Part A - Voices from the Past Week 2 - Initial Theorisations: Classical Political Economy (23 September) Robert Heilbroner, Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy (New York: Norton, 1996), pages 55-105, 137-157 Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (www.bartleby.com/144/index.html) chapters 2 and 3
3 Fred Block and Margaret Somers, In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law Politics and society 31:2 2003 Giovanni Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing Verso 2008, see especially chapter 3 Week 3 - Founding Fathers: Marx (30 September) Lewis Feuer, ed. Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Anchor Books, 1959). Read only Manifesto of he Communist Party 1-41; Selections from Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, pages 42-46; Excerpts from Capital, pages 133-167; Theses on Feuerbach, 243-245; The German Ideology, pages 243-261; The Eighteenth Brumaire 318-348; and pages 392-394 Sheila Rowbotham, Dear Dr. Marx: A letter from a socialist feminist Socialist Register 1998 http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/sr 1998 Robotham.pdf Anthony Giddens, Capitalism and modern social theory: An analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber (Cambridge University Press, 1971), Part 1: Marx Sheila Rowbotham, David Harvey, The Limits to Capital (Basil Blackwell, 1982) Anthony Giddens, A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (U. of California Press, 1981) Derek Sayer, Marx s Method: Science and Critique in Capital (Harvester, 1979) Derek Sayer, Capitalism and Modernity: an excursus on Marx and Weber (Routledge, 1991). Week 4 Founding Fathers: Weber (7 October) H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, 1958). Read only Politics as a Vocation, pages 77-128, Class, Status, Party 180-197 and from the section on bureaucracy, pages 196-204; 209-211; 221-228; 230-235 (E) Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Unwin Books) Read only chapter 11, The Spirit of Capitalism. http://site.ebrary.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/lib/oculcarleton/docdetail.action?docid =2002712&p00 Anthony Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Sociological Theory (Cambridge, 1971) section on Weber. Max Weber, Essays in Economic Sociology (edited by Richard Swedberg) Derek Sayer, Capitalism and Modernity: An Excursus on Marx and Weber Philip Abram, Historical Sociology Charles Tilly, Big Structures, Large Processes and Huge Comparisons (Sage, 1984)
4 Week 5 Reflections on the Foundations: The Rise of Capitalism and the Birth of Modernity (14 October) Robert Brenner, The Origins of Capitalist Development New Left Review 104, 1977. Read pages 25-53, 67-77 and 82-92. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Pantheon, 1977) Read Part Three, chapters two and three (E) Anthony Giddens The Nation-State and Violence, Volume II of A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (Polity Press, 1985). chapters 5 and 6. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 2 nd edition) chapters 1 and 10 (E) Week 6 - Wars, Crises and Reconstruction (21 October) Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (Lawrence and Wishart, 1971). Read Intellectuals, pages 5-14; Notes on Italian History, pages 52-57, 74-84, and 93-102; The Political Party, pages 147-157; Some Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Economism, pages 159-168; Analysis of Situations and Relations of Force, pages 175-185; and selections from Americanism and Fordism, pages 279-286, 301-313 and 316-318. (E) Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (Allen and Unwin, 1943). Read only chapters 6,7, 8 and 11-14. (E) Week 7 - Markets and Polyarchies: Postwar Debates (26 October) Friedrick Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (University of Chicago Press, 1944) Read Forward and chapters 3-5 (E) Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Beacon Press, 1957) Read chapters 6, 12, 13 and 21 (E) T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and social class in Sociology at the crossroads (Heinemann, 1963) Week 8 - Modern Capitalism, Modern Culture in Ferment (4 November) Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Bantam, 1961) Read only Introduction to Book One and chapter XXV. CUT this and replace with conclusion htt;://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2 nd-sex/index.htm
5 Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press, 1968) Read Concerning Violence. (E) Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (Beacon, 1964) Read only Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 (E) Week 9 - The Rediscovery of Marxism and Feminism (11 November) Leo Panitch, The role and nature of the Canadian state in The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power, Leo Panitch ed. (U of Toronto Press, 1977) Rianne Mahon, Canadian public policy: the unequal structure of representation in The Canadian State Mary McIntosh, The State and the Oppression of Women in Feminism and Materialism ed. A. Kuhn and A. Wolpe (Routledge, Kegan, Paul, 1978) Jane Jenson, Gender and Reproduction or Babies and the State Studies in Political Economy 1986 Week 10 - Neo-Foucaultian political economy, Varieties of Capitalism and Political Economy of Space (18 November) Peter Miller and Nikolas Rose, Governing economic life Economy and Society 19:1 1990 Peter Hall and David Soskice, An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism in Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage P. Hall and D. Soskice, eds. (Oxford, 2001) http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/oso/public/content/econom icsfinance/9780199247752/toc.html Wolfgang Streeck, Introduction: Explorations into the origins of non-liberal capitalism in Germany and Japan Origins of non-liberal capitalism: Germany and Japan in comparison, W. Streeck and Kozo Yamamura, eds. Cornell 2001 Rianne Mahon and Roger Keil A Political Economy of Scale: an Introduction, Leviathan Undone? Towards a Political Economy of Scale R. Keil and R. Mahon, eds. UBC Press 2009 Week 11 - Post-Colonialism (25 November) Edward Said, Orientalism Vintage Books, 1978 chapter 1 Quijano, Anibal. 1999. Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality. in Globalizations and Modernities, Goran Therborn, editor. Stockholm: FRN, 1999, 41-51 Escobar, Arturo 2008. Development. In Territories of Difference. Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Durham: Duke University Press. 156-199.
6 Rojas, Cristina. 2007. International Political Economy/Development Otherwise. Globalizations 4, no. 4:573-587. Week 12 Political Economy in an era of Globalisation (2 December) William I. Robinson, Gramsci and Globalization: From Nation-State To Transnational Hegemony Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 8: 4 2005 1-16 http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/robinson/assets/pdf/gramsci_globlpdf Penny Griffin "Refashioning IPE: What and how Gender Analysis Teaches International (Global) Political Economy" Review of International Political Economy 14:4 2007: 719 736 Peter Newell The Political Economy of Global Environmental Governance Review of International Studies 34:3. 2008. 507-29. Janet Conway, Geographies of Transnational Feminisms: The Politics of Place and Scale in the World march of Women Social Politics 15:2 2008