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Senior Colloquium
CSS 391
Professor Marc Eisner
[ Top of Page ] [CSS Course List]
Marc Eisner
Fall 2009
W, F 2:40-4:00
CSS 391: Senior Colloquium: Political Economy
Political economy explores a wide range of issues, including the
ways in which publicpolicies and institutions shape economic performance
(growth, inflation, unemployment); the impact of public policies on the
evolution of economic institutions and relationshipsover time; and the ways in
which economic performance impinges upon governmental decision-making and
political stability. This course engages political economy from multiple
theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, ranging from the methodological
individualism of public choice to economic sociology. After exploring the
competing conceptualizations of the state, the economy, and political economic
dynamics, we will turn to examine the American political economy, with
particular emphasis on the rise and decline of the Keynesian welfare state and a
series of current challenges, including the role of demographics in the welfare
state and the causes of the current political economic crisis.
The readings for this course are available via downloads from
JSTOR, the internet, or blackboard. Some of the readings may change over the
course of the semester, and all changes will be announced via updates on
blackboard. Since all of the readings are downloads, you should save the
syllabus as an electronic document on your computer, so you can use the embedded
hyperlinks.
Composition of the Grade
Participants in CSS 391 will be required to form groups of 2 or
3 to present a critical introduction to course readings on one occasion during
the semester, accompanied by a set of questions to provoke discussion (maximum
length, 1 page) to be distributed to the class. You will be able to sign up for
presentations at the end of the first session.
In addition, each participant will be required to submit a
critical essay on the readings on three occasions during the semester (maximum
length, four pages, double spaced) on the readings assigned for the week.
There will be a final essay, not to exceed five pages, on a
question that will be submitted midway through the semester.
In each assignment, the grade will be based on the mastery of
the assigned readings and the analytical rigor of the critiques.
DRAFT SYLLABUS, p. 2/10
The composition of the grade for CSS 391 will be as follows:
-
20 percent, oral presentation
and participation
-
60 percent, analytical essays
-
20 percent, final essay
All written work must be submitted as electronic documents
(Microsoft Word attachments) to
meisner@wesleyan.edu.
For presentations and analytical essays, work will be due by 12:00 a.m. on
Wednesday of the week the readings are assigned. The final date for the last
essay will be 12:00 a.m. on the last day of class.
Work submitted late (beginning 12:01 a.m.) will be docked a full
grade per day.
Communications: I check my email at least once a day, usually
between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. My office hours (PAC 317) will be held on Wednesdays,
11-12, and Fridays, 9-11.
COURSE SCHEDULE
1. Introduction (9/9, 9/11)
Milton Friedman,
Capitalism and Freedom
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1962), Chapter 1, Blackboard.
F.A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society.”
American Economic Review,
35, 4 (1945): 519-30.
Download.
Charles E. Lindblom, “The Market as Prison.”
The Journal of Politics,
44, 2 (1982): 324-336.
Download
Leon N. Lindberg, “The Problems of Economic Theory in
Explaining Economic Performance.”
Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 459
(1982): 14-27.
Download
James M. Buchanan, “Afraid to Be Free: Dependency as
Desideratum.” Public Choice,
124, 1/2 (2005): 19-31.
Download
2. Competing Analytical Approaches to the State (9/16, 9/18)
James M. Buchanan, “Public Choice: Politics Without
Romance.” Policy,
19,3 (2003): 13-18.
Download
Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan,
The Reason for Rules:
Constitutional Political Economy,
chapter 4. Download
John F. Manley, “Neo-Pluralism: A Class Analysis of
Pluralism I and Pluralism II.”
The American Political Science Review,
77, 2 (1983): 368-383.
Download
Karl Dusza, “Max Weber's Conception of the State.”
International Journal of Politics,
Culture, and Society, 3, 1 (1989):
71-105. Download
Stephen D. Krasner, “Approaches to the State: Alternative
Conceptions and Historical Dynamics.”
Comparative Politics,
16 (1984): 223-246.
Download
James G. March; Johan P. Olsen, “The New Institutionalism:
Organizational Factors in Political Life.”
The American Political Science
Review, 78, 3 (1984): 734-749.
Download
Robert Solo, “The Neo-Marxist Theory of the State.”
Journal of Economic Issues,
12, 4 (1978): 829-842.
Download
3. The Dynamics of Political Institutional Change (9/23, 9/25)
Stephen Skowronek, “Order and Change.”
Polity,
28, 1 (Autumn, 1995): 91-96.
Download
B. Guy Peters, Jon Pierre and Desmond S. King, “The Politics
of Path Dependency: Political Conflict in Historical Institutionalism.”
The Journal of Politics,
67, 4 (2005): 1275-1300.
Download
Mark Blyth, “Structures Do Not Come with an Instruction
Sheet: Interests, Ideas, and Progress in Political Science.”
Perspectives on Politics,
1, 4 ( 2003): 695-706.
Download
Robert Higgs, “Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological
Change: Two Hypotheses on the Ratchet Phenomenon.”
Download.
Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, “Agenda Dynamics
and Policy Subsystems.” The
Journal of Politics, 53, 4 (1991):
1044-1074. Download
Optional: Paul Pierson, “Increasing Returns, Path
Dependence, and the Study of Politics.”
The American Political Science
Review, 94, 2 (2000): 251-267.
Download
4. Competing Analytical Approaches to the Economy (9/30, 10/2)
Mark Granovetter, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The
Problem of Embeddedness."
American Journal of Sociology, 91,
3 (1985): 481-510.
Download
Fred Block, “Political Choice and the Multiple ‘Logics’ of
Capital.” Theory and Society,
15, 1/2 (1986): 175-192.
Download
John L. Campbell and Leon N. Lindberg, “Property Rights and
the Organization of Economic Activity by the State.”
American Sociological Review,
55, 5 (1990): 634-647.
Download
John Lie, “Sociology of Markets.”
Annual Review of Sociology.
23, (1997): 341-346.
Download
Neil Fligstein, “Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural
Approach to Market Institutions.”
American Sociological Review,
61, 4 (1996): 656-673.
Download
Optional: Greta R. Krippner, “The Elusive Market:
Embeddedness and the Paradigm of Economic Sociology.”
Theory and Society,
30, 6 (2001): 775-810.
Download
5. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism
5.1 Economic, Historical, and Sociological Approaches to the
Firm (10/7, 10/9)
Herbert Simon, “Organizations
and Markets.” Journal of
Economic Perspectives. 5, 2
(1991):25-44. Download
Ronald Coase, “The Nature of the Firm.”
Economica,
4, 16 (1937): 386-405.
Download
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., “The Emergence of Managerial
Capitalism.” Business
History Review. 58,4 (1984):
473-507. Download
Oliver E. Williamson, “The Logic of Economic Organization.”
Journal of Law, Economics, &
Organization, 4, 1 (1988): 65-93.
Download
William W. Bratton, Jr., “The New Economic Theory of the
Firm: Critical Perspectives from History.”
Stanford Law Review,
41, 6 (1989): 1471-1527.
Download
Michael Useem, “The Social Organization of the American
Business Elite and Participation of Corporation Directors in the Governance
of American Institutions.”
American Sociological Review, 44,
4 (1979): 553-572.
Download
Mark S. Mizruchi, “Berle and Means Revisited: The Governance
and Power of Large U.S. Corporations.”
Theory and Society,
33, 5 (2004): 579-617.
Download
David Vogel, “Why Businessmen Distrust Their State: The
Political Consciousness of American Corporate Executives.”
British Journal of Political
Science, 8, 1. (1978): 45-78.
Download
Optional: Oliver Hart, “An Economist’s Perspective on the
Theory of the Firm,”
Columbia Law Review, 89, 7 (1989),
pp. 1757-1774.
Download
Optional: Ronald Coase, “The New Institutional Economics.”
The American Economic Review,
88, 2 (1998): 72-74.
Download
5.2 Finance (10/14)
Ross Levine, “Financial
Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda.”
Journal of Economic Literature,
35, 2. (1997): 688-726.
Download
John T. Woolley, “Monetary Policy Instrumentation and the
Relationship of Central Banks and Governments.”
Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science,
434(1977): 151-173.
Download
Adam Harmes, “Institutional Investors and the Reproduction
of Neoliberalism.” Review of
International Political Economy,
5, no. 1 (1998): 92-121.
Download
Greta R. Krippner, “The Financialization of the American
Economy .” Socioeconomic
Review, 3, 2 (2005): 173-208.
Download
5.3 Labor (10/16)
Allan G. Gruchy, “Organized Labor and Institutional Economics.”
Journal of Economic Issues,
15, 2 (1981): 311-324.
Download
James B. Rebitzer, “Radical Political Economy and the
Economics of Labor Markets.”
Journal of Economic Literature,
31, 3 (1993): 1394-1434.
Download
Christopher L. Tomlins, “The New Deal, Collective
Bargaining, and the Triumph of Industrial Pluralism.”
Industrial and Labor Relations
Review, 39, 1. (1985):
19-34. Download
Jack Barbash “Trade Unionism from Roosevelt to Reagan.” Annals
of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
473 (1984): 11-22.
Download
6. The Varieties of Capitalism (10/21, 10/23)
Chris Howell, “Review: Varieties of Capitalism: And Then There Was One?”
Comparative Politics,
36, 1 (2003): 103-124.
Download
Douglass C. North, “Economic Performance Through Time.”
The American Economic Review,
84, 3 (1994): 359-368.
Download
Geoffrey M. Hodgson, “Varieties of Capitalism and Varieties
of Economic Theory.” Review
of International Political Economy,
3, 3 (1996): 380-433.
Download
Richard Whitley, “Internationalization and Varieties of
Capitalism: The Limited Effects of Cross-National Coordination of Economic
Activities on the Nature of Business Systems.”
Review of International Political
Economy, 5, 3 (1998): 445-481.
Download
David Levi-Faur, “The Global Diffusion of Regulatory
Capitalism.” Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science,
598 (2005): 12-32.
Download
Optional: Marc Schneiberg, “What’s on the Path? Path
Dependence, Organizational Diversity and the Problem of Institutional Change
in the US Economy, 1900-1950.”
Socio-Economic Review, 5
(2007): 47-80.
Download
7. The Keynesian Welfare State
7.1 Making Sense of the Welfare State (10/28)
Goran Therborn, “Karl Marx Returning: The Welfare State and
Neo-Marxist, Corporatist and Statist Theories.”
International Political Science
Review / Revue internationale de science politique,
7, 2 (1986): 131-164.
Download
Jill Quadagno, “Theories of the Welfare State.”
Annual Review of Sociology,
13, (1987): 109-128.
Download
John L. Campbell, “The State and Fiscal Sociology.”
Annual Review of Sociology,
19 (1993): 163-185.
Download
David Brady, “The Welfare State and Relative Poverty in Rich
Western Democracies, 1967-1997.”
Social Forces,
83, 4 (2005): 1329-1364.
Download
7.2 The Rise of the Keynesian Welfare State in the US
(10/30, 11/4)
Theda Skocpol, “A Society without a 'State'? Political Organization, Social
Conflict, and Welfare Provision in the United States.”
Journal of Public Policy,
7, 4 (1987): 349-371.
Download
Alan Sweezy, “The Keynesians and Government Policy,
1933-1939.” The American
Economic Review, 62, 1/2 (1972):
116-124. Download
John W. Jeffries, “The ‘New’ New Deal: FDR and American
Liberalism, 1937-1945.”
Political Science Quarterly, 105,
3 (1990): 397-418.
Download
Robert Higgs, “From Central Planning to the Market: The
American Transition, 1945-1947.” The
Journal of Economic History, 59, 3
(1999): 600-623.
Download
J. Bradford De Long, “Keynesianism, Pennsylvania Avenue
Style: Some Economic Consequences of the Employment Act of 1946.” The
Journal of Economic Perspectives,
10, 3. (1996): 41-53.
Download
Margaret Weir, “Innovation and Boundaries in American
Employment Policy.”
Political Science Quarterly, 107,
2 (1992): 249-269.
Download
Carl M. Brauer, “Kennedy, Johnson, and the War on Poverty.”
The Journal of American
History, 69, 1 (1982): 98-119.
Download
8. Neoliberalism and the Market
8.1 Stagflation, Neo-Liberalism, and the End of the Keynesian
Consensus (11/6)
Stephanie Lee Mudge, “What is
Neo-Liberalism?”
Socio-Economic Review, 6, 4
(2008): 703-731.
Download
Mancur Olson, “Stagflation and the Political Economy of the
Decline in Productivity.”
The American Economic Review, 72,
2 (May, 1982): 143-148.
Download
Kenneth R. Hoover, “The Rise of Conservative Capitalism:
Ideological Tensions within the Reagan and Thatcher Governments.”
Comparative Studies in Society and
History, 29, 2 (1987): 245-268.
Download
James Tobin, “The Conservative Counter-Revolution in
Economic Policy.” The
Journal of Economic Education, 14,
1. (1983):30-39.
Download
William A. Niskanen, “Reaganomics.”
The Concise Encyclopedia of
Economics.
Download
Arthur B. Laffer, “The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and
Future.” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #1765 (2004).
Download
8.2 Welfare Reform (11/11)
Jacob S. Hacker, “Privatizing
Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State: The Hidden Politics of Social
Policy Retrenchment in the United States.”
The American Political Science
Review, 98, 2 (2004): 243-260.
Download
Margaret R. Somers and Fred Block, “From Poverty to
Perversity: Ideas, Markets, and Institutions over 200 Years of Welfare
Debate.” American
Sociological Review, 70, 2 (2005):
260-287. Download
Jill S. Quadagno and Debra Street, “Ideology and Public
Policy: Antistatism in American Welfare State Transformation.”
The Journal of Policy History,
17, 1 (2005): 52-71.
Download
9. Globalization
9.1 Thinking About Globalization (11/13)
Theodore J. Lowi,
“Our Millennium: Political Science Confronts the Global Corporate Economy.”
International Political
Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique,
22, 2 (2001): 131-150.
Download
Dani Rodrik, “Sense and Nonsense in the Globalization
Debate.” Foreign Policy,
107 (1997): 19-37.
Download
Martin Wolf, “Will the Nation-State Survive Globalization?”
Foreign Affairs,
80, 1 (2001): 178-190.
Download
Douglas Kellner, “Theorizing Globalization.”
Sociological Theory,
20, 3 (2002): 285-305.
Download
9.2 Globalization of Finance and Regulation (11/18)
Finance
Aseem Prakash,
“The East Asian Crisis and the Globalization Discourse.”
Review of International
Political Economy, 8, 1 (2001):
119-146. Download
Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Capital Market Liberalization and
Exchange Rate Regimes: Risk without Reward.”
Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 579,
(2002): 219-248.
Download
Labor
George Ross, “Labor versus Globalization.”
Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 570
(2000): 78-91.
Download
Tim Bartley, “Institutional Emergence in an Era of
Globalization: The Rise of Transnational Private Regulation of Labor and
Environmental Conditions.”
The American Journal of Sociology,
113, 2 (Sep., 2007), pp. 297-351.
Download
Environment
Daniel W. Drezner, “Globalization and Policy Convergence .”
International Studies Review, 3, 1
(2001): 53-78.
Download
Matthew Potoski and Aseem Prakash, “Regulatory Convergence
in Nongovernmental Regimes? Cross-National Adoption of ISO 14001
Certifications.” The Journal
of Politics, 66, 3 (2004):
885-905. Download
10. The Political Dynamics of the Aging Welfare State
10.1 The Mature Welfare State (11/20)
Paul Pierson,
“Coping with Permanent Austerity: Welfare State Restructuring in Affluent
Democracies.” Revue
française de sociologie, 43, 2
(2002): 369-406.
Download
Christopher Howard, “The Hidden Side of the American Welfare
State.” Political Science
Quarterly, 108, 3 (Autumn, 1993):
403-436. Download
Christopher Howard, “Is the American Welfare State Unusually
Small?” PS: Political
Science and Politics, 36, 3
(2003): 411-416.
Download
10.2 Demographics As Destiny? (12/2)
Alasdair Roberts, “In the Eye of the Storm? Societal Aging
and the Future of Public-Service Reform.”
Public Administration Review,
63, 6 (2003): 720-733.
Download
Douglas W. Elmendorf and Louise M. Sheiner, “Should America
Save for Its Old Age? Fiscal Policy, Population Aging, and National Saving.”
The Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 14, 3 (Summer,
2000): 57-74. Download
John F. Cogan and Olivia S. Mitchell, “Perspectives from the
President's Commission on Social Security Reform.”
The Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 17, 2 (2003):
149-172. Download
David M. Walker, “Long-Term Budget Outlook: Saving Our
Future Requires Tough Choices Today.” Testimony before the Committee on the
Budget, U.S. Senate (January 11, 2007).
Download
11. Financial Collapse and the “Great Recession” (12/4, 12/9)
Barry Eichengreen, “Anatomy of a Financial Crisis.”
September 18, 2008.
Download
Additional Readings TBA
12. Conclusion (12/11)
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