17.100J | Spring 2016 | Graduate

Political Economy I

Readings

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction: Paradigms and Social Science Kuhn, Thomas. Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780226458083.
2 Theories of the Liberal State and Politics

Locke, John. Chapters 1–5 and 7–9 in Second Treatise on Civil Government. The Editorium, 2010. ISBN: 9781434103055.

Berlin, Isaiah. “Two Concepts of Liberty.” In Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780192810342.

Madison, James. Federalist Paper 10. Friday, November 23, 1787. 

Condorcet, and Keith Michael Baker. “Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind: Tenth Epoch.” Daedalus 133, no. 3 (2004): 65–82.

3 Neo-Classical Theories of the Economy

Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. University of Chicago Press, 2002, pp. 1–55, 108–37, and 161–90. ISBN: 9780226264219. [Preview with Google Books]

Becker, Gary. Chapters 1, 8, 12, and 13 in The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Dobb, Maurice. Theories of Value and Distribution Since Adam Smith: Ideology and Economic Theory. Cambridge University Press, 1975. ISBN: 9780521099363. [Preview on Google Books]

4 Liberal and Neo-Classical Approaches

Olson, Mancur. Chapters 1–4 in The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Harvard University Press, 1971. ISBN: 9780674537514.

Hayek, Frederich. Chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5 in Individualism and Economic Order. University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780226320939.

Harsanyi, John. “Rational-Choice Models of Political Behavior vs. Functionalist and Conformist Theories.” World Politics 21, no. 4 (1969): 513–37.

5 The Keynesian Revolution

Keynes, John Maynard. “The Great Slump of 1930,” “Economy,” and “The End of Laissez-Faire.” In Essays in Persuasion. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2009. ISBN: 9781441492265.

———. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1965. ISBN: 9780156347112.

6 Marxist Politics

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. “The Manifesto of the Communist Party.” In The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. W.W. Norton, 1978, pp. 469–500. ISBN: 9780393090406.

———. Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. In The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. W.W. Norton, 1978, pp. 3–6. ISBN: 9780393090406.

Marx, Karl. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon. Translated by D. D. L. CreateSpaceIndependent Publishing Platform, 2013. ISBN: 9781461072270. (Read in entirety, NOT in Tucker version).

Gramsci, Antonio. Selections From the Prison Notebooks. Edited by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. International Publishers Company, 1971, pp. 1–276. ISBN: 9780717803972.

7 Marxist Economics and Value Theory

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. “Capital.” In The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. Norton, 1978, pp. 294–465. ISBN: 9780393090406.

Howard, M. C., and J. E. King. The Political Economy of Marx. New York University Press, 1988, pp. 1–180. ISBN: 9780814734537. [Preview with Google Books]

Rubin, I. I. Introduction and chapters 1, 8, and 18 in Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value. Black Rose Books, 1973. ISBN: 9780919618183.

8 Sociological Theories of Capitalism (I) Weber, Max. Introduction and chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5 in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780199747252.
9 Sociological Theories of Capitalism (II) Polanyi, Karl. Chapters 3–14 in The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Beacon Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780807056431. Except chapters go from 1–14.
10 Sociological Theories of Capitalism (III) Boltanski, Luc, and Eve Chiapello. “Conclusion: The Force of Critique.” In The New Spirit of Capitalism. Verso, 2007, pp. 485–524. ISBN: 9781844671656.
11 Crisis and Capitalism

Review relevant passages from Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Capital. Review Keynes.

Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008, pp. 81–163. ISBN: 9780061561610.

Buy at MIT Press MacKenzie, Donald. Chapters 1 and 9 in An Engine Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. MIT Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780262633673. [Preview with Google Books]

Akerlof, George A., and Robert J. Shiller. Preface and chapters 1–4, 6, and 7 in Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism. Princeton University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780691145921.

Bernanke, Ben. “Reflections on a Year in Crisis.” Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Jackson Hole Speech. August 21, 2009.

Rajan, Raghuram. “Let Them Eat Credit.” In Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy. Princeton University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780691152639.

Lo, Andrew W. “Reading About the Financial Crisis: A Twenty-One Book Review.” Journal of Economic Literature 50, no. 1 (2012): 151–78.

12 Institutionalism

North, Douglas. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780521397346. [Preview with Google Books]

Hall, Peter, and David Soskice. Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1–68. ISBN: 9780199247752.

Course Info

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