DAVID
F. RUCCIO
Office: 410 Decio
Tel: 631-6434
Email: Ruccio.1@nd.edu
Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3pm, 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, and feminist. Finally, in Part III we will discuss
the different consequences of these theories by examining some specific issues
and themes: thics and justice, modernism/postmodernism, globalization,
households, enterprises, inequality, macroeconomic stabilization and
adjustment, and alternatives to capitalism.
No textbook is required for
this course. The only book that we will be using in the course can be purchased
at the bookstore: volume 1 of Marx’s Capital. 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 a 15-20-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 26 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
You should become thoroughly
acquainted with them during the course of the semester.
This syllabus is necessarily
selective. Here are some additional, general (print and online) resources that
you might find useful:
A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists, 2d ed., ed. P. Arestis and M. Sawyer (Elgar, 2001)
A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists, ed. R. W. Diamond et al. (Elgar, 2000)
Capitalism, Socialism, and Knowledge: The Economics
of F. A. Hayek, vol. 2, ed. M. Collona et al. (Elgar, 1995)
Capitalism, Socialism, and Radical Political
Economy, ed. R. Pollin (Elgar, 2001)
The Elgar Companion to Feminist Economics, ed. J. Peterson and M. Lewis (Elgar, 2000)
Encyclopedia of Political Economy, ed. P. Arestis (Routledge, 2001)
Heterodox Economics Portal [http://www.hetecon.com/]
Heterodox Economics Student Association, University of
Utah [http://www.econ.utah.edu/hesa/]
J. E. King, A History of Post Keynesian Economics
Since 1936 (Elgar, 2002)
P. A. O’Hara, Marx, Veblen and Contemporary
Institutional Political Economy (Elgar,
2000)
Money and Business Cycles: The Economics of F. A.
Hayek, vol. 1, ed. M. Collona and H. Hagemann (Elgar, 1995)
Post-Autistic
Economics Network
Post Keynesian Thought Internet Archive
And some upcoming
conferences:
“The History of
Heterodox Economics in the 20th Century” (3-5 October 2002,
University of Missouri-Kansas City)
“The Future of Heterodox Economics” (5-7
June 2003, University of Missouri-Kansas City)
And a couple of PE journals in which students are encouraged to publish:
Oeconomicus, sponsored by the Economics Club at the University of Missouri-Kansas City
The Post-autistic Economics Review, deadline for submissions extended to 15 November 2002
Part I:
INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL ECONOMY
3 September
A. A.
Bolbol and M. A. Lovewell, “Three Views of Stock Markets and Corporate
Behavior: Tobin, Veblen, and Marx,” Journal of Post Keynesian
Economics 23/2 (Spring 2001): 527-43
J.
A. Ocampo, “Rethinking the Development Agenda,” Cambridge
Journal of Economics 26 (2002):
393-407
J.
R. Vreeland, “The Effect of IMF Programs on Labor,” World
Development 30/1 (2002): 121-39
10 September
“The
Kansas City Proposal” (13 August 2001)
J.
A. Nelson, “Why the PAE Movement Needs Feminism,” PAE Newsletter, no., 9 (20 October 2001)
M.
C. Howard and J. E. King, “Where Marx Was Right: Towards a More Secure
Foundation for Heterodox Economics,” Cambridge Journal of Economics 25 (2001): 785-807
J.
Amariglio et al., “Division and Difference in the
‘Discipline’ of Economics,” Critical Inquiry 17 (Autumn 1990): 108-37
D.
A. Spencer, “The Demise of Radical Political Economics? An Essay on the
Evolution of a Theory of Capitalist Production,” Cambridge Journal of
Economics 24 (2000): 543-64
Part II:
THEORIES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
MARXIAN
17 and 24 September
K.
Marx, Capital, vol. 1 (New York:
Vintage, 1977), chaps. 1-6 (pp. 121-280) and chap. 25 (pp. 762-802)
B.
Roberts, “What Is Profit?” Rethinking Marxism 1 (Spring 1988): 136-51
S.
Resnick and R. Wolff, “A Marxian Theory of Classes,” in Knowledge
and Class, 109-63 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1987)
CLASSICAL
1 October
A. Roncaglia, “The Sraffian
Contribution,” in A Guide to Post-Keynesian Economics, ed. A Eichner, 87-99 (White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe,
1979)
A.
Bhaduri, “Economic Growth and the Theory of Capital: An Evaluation of
Joan Robinson’s Contribution,” in The Economics of Joan Robinson, ed. M. C. Marcuzzo, L. L. Pasinetti, and A.
Roncaglia, 200-206 (New York: Routledge, 1996)
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)
I.
Steedman, “Ricardo, Marx, Sraffa,” in The Value Controversy, 11-19 (London: Verso, 1981)
B.
Roberts, “Marx after Steedman: Separating Marxism from ‘Surplus
Theory’,” Capital
and Class 32 (Summer 1987):
84-103
POST-KEYNESIAN
8 October
P.
Arestis, “Post-Keynesian Economics,” in The Post-Keynesian
Approach to Economics, 86-115
(Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar, 1992)
J.
B. Rosser, Jr., “Alternative Keynesian and Post Keynesian Perspectives on
Uncertainty and Expectations,” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 23/4
(Summer 2001): 545-66
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)
RADICAL
15 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)
S.
Bowles and H. Gintis, “Contested Exchange: New Microfoundations for the
Political Economy of Capitalism,” Politics and Society 13 (1990): 165-222
J.
Roemer, “Should Marxists Be Interested in Exploitation?” in Analytical
Marxism, ed. J. Roemer, 260-82
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)
INSTITUTIONAL
29 October
C.
J. Whalen, “The Institutional Approach to Political Economy,” in Beyond
Neoclassical Economics: Heterodox Approaches to Economic Theory, ed. F. E. Foldvary, 83-99 (Brookfield: Edward Elgar,
1996)
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)
G.
M. Hodgson, “Institutional Economic Theory: The Old Versus the
New,” in Why Economists Disagree: An Introduction to Alternative
Schools of Thought, ed. D. L.
Prychitko, 155-77 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998)
AUSTRIAN
5 November
B. Tieben
and W. Keizer, “Introduction: Austrian Economics in Debate,” in Austrian
Economics in Debate, ed. W. Keizer,
B. Tieben, and R. von Zijp, 1-21 (New York: Routledge, 1997)
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)
FEMINIST
12 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)
L.
Benería, “Towards a Greater Integration of Gender in
Economics,” World Development
23 (November 1995): 1839-1850
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)
R.
Williams, “Race, Deconstruction, and the Emergent Agenda of Feminist
Economics,” in Beyond Economic Man, 144-53 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)
W.
Waller and A. Jennings, “On the Possibility of a Feminist Economics: The
Convergence of Institutionalist and Feminist Methodology,” Journal of
Economic Issues 24 (June 1990):
613-72
Part III:
ISSUES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
19 November
T. Burczak, “Ellerman’s Labor Theory of
Property and the Injustice of Capitalist Exploitation,” Review of
Social Economy 59/2 (June 2001):
161-83
H. Bortis, “Notes on the Surplus Approach in
Political Economy,” in Capital Controversy, Post-Keynesian Economics
and the History of Economic Thought,
ed. P. Arestis et al., 11-23 (New York: Routledge, 1997)
MODERNISM/POSTMODERNISM
19 November
J.
Amariglio and D. F. Ruccio, “Keynes, Postmodernism, Uncertainty,”
in Keynes, Knowledge, and Uncertainty, ed. S. Dow and J. Hillard, 334-56 (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1994)
E.
Zein-Elabdin, “Contours of a Non-Modernist Discourse: The Contested Space
of History and Development,” Review of Radical Political Economics 33 (2001): 255-63
T.
Burczak, “The Postmodern Moments of F. A. Hayek’s Economics,”
Economics and Philosophy 10
(1994): 31-58
26 November
• abstract and reading
list due
P.
Davidson, “Globalization,” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 24/3 (Spring 2002): 475-92
J.
Crotty, “Structural Contradictions of the Global Neoliberal
Regime,” Review of Radical Political Economics 32/3 (2000): 361-68
I.
Bakker, “Engendering the Economics of Globalization,” in Power,
Employment, and Accumulation: Social Structures in Economic Theory and Practice, ed. J. Sanford et al., 219-37 (Armonk, NY: M. E.
Sharpe, 2001)
HOUSEHOLDS
26 November
N.
Folbre, “The Black Four of Hearts: Toward a New Paradigm of Household
Economics,” in A Home Divided: Women and Income in the Third World, ed. D. Dwyer and J. Bruce, 248-62 (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1988)
H.
Fraad et al., “For Every Knight in Shining Armor, There’s a Castle
Waiting to Be Cleaned: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis of the Household,” Rethinking
Marxism 2 (Winter 1989): 9-69
ENTERPRISES
3 December
J.
K. Gibson-Graham and P. O’Neill, “Exploring a New Class Politics of
the Enterprise,” in Re/presenting Class: Essays in Postmodern Marxism, ed. J. K. Gibson-Graham et al. 56-80 (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2001)
D.
F. Ruccio and J. Amariglio, “The (Dis)orderly Process of Capitalist
Competition,” in Marxian Economics: A Centenary Appraisal, vol. 1, ed. R. Bellofiore (London: MacMillan, 1998)
3 December
C.
Tilly, “Falling Wages, Widening Gaps: U.S. Income Distribution at the
Millenium,” in Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism, ed. R. Baiman et al., 114-23 (Armonk, NY: M. E.
Sharpe, 2000)
E.
N. Wolff, “Recent Trends in Wealth Ownership,
1983-1998,” Working Paper 300, Jerome Levy Economics Institute (April
2000)
G.
A. Cornia, “Liberalization, Globalization, and Income
Distribution,” Working Paper 157, World Institute for Development
Economics Research (March 1999)
STABILIZATION AND
ADJUSTMENT
10 December
I. Grabel, “Speculation-led Economic Development: A
Post-Keynesian Interpretation of Financial Liberalization Programmes in the
Third World,” International Review of Applied Economics 9/2 (1995): 127-49
D.
F. Ruccio, “When Failure Becomes Success: Class and the Debate over
Stabilization and Adjustment,” World Development 19 (October 1991): 1315-34
D.
Elson, “Male Bias in Structural Adjustment,” in Women and
Adjustment Policies in the Third World,
ed. H. Afshar and C. Dennis, 46-68 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992)
ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM
10 December
K.
I. Vaughn, “Economic Calculation under Socialism: The Austrian
Contribution,” Economic Inquiry 18 (October 1980): 535-51
S.
Cullenberg, “Socialism’s Burden: Toward a ‘Thin’
Definition of Socialism,” Rethinking Marxism 5 (Summer 1992): 64-83
T.
E. Weisskopf, “Toward a Socialism for the Future, in the Wake of the
Demise of the Socialism of the Past,” Review of Radical Political
Economics 24 (Fall and Winter 1992):
1-28
J.
Matthaei, “Beyond Racist Capitalist Patriarchical Economics: Growing a
Liberated Economy,” in Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism, ed. R. Baiman et al., 48-55 (Armonk, NY: M. E.
Sharpe, 2000)
• final paper due