DAVID F. RUCCIO
Office: 410 Decio
Tel: 631-6434
Email: Ruccio.1@nd.edu
Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3 pm, and by appointment
There are three parts to this reading list and course. Part I is an introduction to some of the basic themes of the course, viz., the significant differences between political economy and mainstream economics and the existence both of different theories of political economy and of various ways of understanding those differences. Part II covers the basic concepts and methods of the principle "schools" encompassed by contemporary political economy: Marxian, classical, post-Keynesian, radical, institutionalist, Austrian, feminist, and postcolonial. Finally, in Part III we will discuss the different consequences of these theories by examining some specific issues and themes: justice, globalization, politics, and alternatives to capitalism.
No textbook is required for this course. The only three books you need to purchase are The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy, by James Heintz et al.; Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical, by Richard D. Wolff and Stephen A. Resnick; and Deirdre McCloskey's Economical Writing (2d ed). All of the remaining readings are from 2 "course packets" available at the Copy Shop, O'Shaughnessy Hall.
The course will be conducted as a seminar. Therefore, it is important for all students to complete the assigned readings before each session and to participate in the discussions.
There will be no examinations in this course. Instead, students will prepare weekly papers, each approximately 1.5 to 2 pages, due each Tuesday in class. One of the purposes of the papers is to "grapple" with the readings—to formulate the main themes, to raise the interesting issues, to pose the key questions—in preparation for the classroom discussions. I will be looking for serious, thoughtful, and well-written engagements with the readings. The other purpose is to develop ideas for an 8-10-page final research paper. For that paper, students should choose a specific topic, concept, or theme from the readings and then explore it in more depth than is possible in the required readings and class discussions. Students should feel free to contact me—in person, by office telephone, or by email—to discuss paper topics, ways of investigating the topics, and possible references. An abstract and reading list for the paper are due on 23 November. The paper itself is due by 5pm on the regularly scheduled final exam day.
The following journals regularly publish articles in political economy:
Cambridge Journal of Economics New Left Review Capital and Class Political Economy Contributions to Political Economy Research in Political Economy Dollars and Sense Rethinking Marxism Economy and Society Review of Austrian Economics Feminist Economics Review of Black Political Economy International Review of Applied Economics Review of Political Economy Journal of Economic Issues Review of Radical Political Economics Journal of Post Keynesian Economics Review of Social Economy Monthly Review Studies in Political Economy
Here are some web sites relevant to political economy:
Alternative Information and Development Centre
24 and 26 August
J. Heintz et al., The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (New York: New Press, 2000)
31 August
Edward Fulbrook, ed., The Crisis in Economics: The Post-Autistic Economics Movement, 1-44 (New York: Routledge, 2003)
2 September
D. McCloskey, Economical Writing, 2d ed. (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 1999)
7, 9, 14, and 16 September
K. Marx, "The Commodity," in Capital, vol. 1, 125-77 (New York: Vintage, 1977)
S. Resnick and R. Wolff, "Marxian Theory," in Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical, 125-238 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987)
21 and 23 September
A. Roncaglia, "The Sraffian Contribution," in A Guide to Post-Keynesian Economics, ed. A Eichner, 87-99 (White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1979)
P. Lichtenstein, "Post-Keynesian Theories of Value and Price," in An Introduction to Post-Keynesian and Marxian Theories of Value and Price, 89-148 (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1983)
28 and 30 September
Michael Moore, Roger & Me (1989)
Mike Judge, Office Space (1999)
5 and 7 October
P. Arestis, "Post-Keynesian Economics," in The Post-Keynesian Approach to Economics, 86-115 (Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar, 1992)
P. Davidson, "The Role of Contracts and Money in Theory and the Real World," in Controversies in Post Keynesian Economics, 55-72 (Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar, 1991)
P. Kenway, "Marx, Keynes, and the Possibility of Crisis," in Keynes's Economics and the Theory of Value and Distribution, ed. J. Eatwell and M. Milgate, 149-66 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983)
12 and 14 October
S. Marglin, "What Do Bosses Do? The Origins and Function of Hierarchy in Capitalist Production," Review of Radical Political Economics 6 (1974): 33-60
D. M. Gordon et al., "Power, Accumulation, and Crisis: The Rise and Demise of the Postwar Social Structure of Accumulation," in The Imperiled Economy, ed. R. Cherry et al., 43-57 (New York: Union of Radical Political Economics, 1987)
M. H. Wolfson, "Neoliberalism and the Social Structure of Accumulation," Review of Radical Political Economics 35 (2003): 255-262
26 and 28 October
K. Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 43-76 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957)
C. K. Wilber and R. S. Harrison, "The Methodological Basis of Institutional Economics: Pattern Model, Storytelling, and Holism," Journal of Economic Issues 12 (March 1978): 61-89
W. M. Dugger, "Radical Institutionalism: Basic Concepts," in Radical Institutionalism: Contemporary Voices, ed. W. E. Dugger, 1-20 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989)
2 and 4 November
F. A. Hayek, "Economics and Knowledge," in Individualism and Economic Order, 33-56 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948)
I. M. Kirzner, "The Driving Force of the Market: The Idea of 'Competition' in Contemporary Economic Theory and in the Austrian Theory of the Market Process," in Why Economists Disagree: An Introduction to Alternative Schools of Thought, ed. D. L. Prychitko, 37-52 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998)
L. M. Lachmann, "From Mises to Shackle: An Essay on Austrian Economics and the Kaleidic Society," in Why Economists Disagree: An Introduction to Alternative Schools of Thought, ed. D. L. Prychitko, 53-64 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998)
9 and 11 November
U. Grappard, "Feminist Economics: Let Me Count the Ways," in Beyond Neoclassical Economics: Heterodox Approaches to Economic Theory, ed. F. E. Foldvary, 100-14 (Brookfield: Edward Elgar, 1996)
D. Strassman, "Not a Free Market: The Rhetoric of Disciplinary Authority in Economics," in Beyond Economic Man, 54-68 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)
L. Saunders and W. Darity Jr., "Feminist Theory and Racial Economic Inequality," in Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man, ed. M. A. Ferber and J. A. Nelson, 101-14 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003)
16 and 18 November
S. Charusheela and E. O. Zein-Elabdin, "Feminism, Postcolonial Thought, and Economics," in Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man, ed. M. A. Ferber and J. A. Nelson, 175-92 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003)
A. Callari, "Economics and the Postcolonial Other," in Postcolonialism Meets Economics, ed. E. O. Zein-Elabdin and S. Charusheela, 113-29 (New York: Routledge, 2004)
C. Danby, "Contested States, Transnational Subjects: Toward a Post Keynesianism Without Modernity," in Postcolonialism Meets Economics, ed. E. O. Zein-Elabdin and S. Charusheela, 253-70 (New York: Routledge, 2004)
23 November
G. DeMartino, "Distributive Justice and Economic Heterodoxy," in Global Economy, Global Justice: Theoretical Objections and Policy Alternatives to Neoliberalism, 91-124 (New York: Routledge, 2000)
30 November
L. Benería, "Economic Rationality and Globalization: A Feminist Perspective," in Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man, ed. M. A. Ferber and J. A. Nelson, 115-33 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003)
2 December
K. Phillips, "Afterword," in Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich, 405-22 (New York: Broadway Books, 2002)
7 December
A. Einstein, "Why Socialism?" Monthly Review 50/1 (May 1998): 1-8 (originally published May 1949)
D. F. Ruccio, "Capitalism and Industrialization in the Third World: Recognizing the Costs and Imagining Alternatives," in Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism, ed. R. Baiman et al., 203-9 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000)