College aantekeningen (Lectures) Foundations Of Political Economy (5181V8FP) Comparative Political Economy, ISBN: 9781352011265

Foundations of Political Economy
Compilation Document
Contents
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 1 5-2....................................................................................2
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 2 12-2..................................................................................7
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 3 19-2................................................................................13
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 4 26-2................................................................................19
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 5 4-3..................................................................................25
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 6 11-3................................................................................31
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 7 25-3................................................................................38
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 8 1-4..................................................................................46
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 9 8-4..................................................................................51
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 10 15-4..............................................................................55
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 11 22-4..............................................................................61
Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 12 29-4..............................................................................67




1

,Foundations of Political Economy Lecture 1 5-2
Book: welfare and inequality in marketing East Asia – Jonathan D London

Linking economy to other aspects of life

Weeks:

1. Foundations of political economy
2. What is capitalism, how is it performing
a. Economic growth
b. Wellbeing
c. Welfare
d. Environment (failure of the economic model)
3. Theorizing political economy
4. Actors, institutions, and organizations
5. Ideas, interests, and the state
6. Growth and productivity, welfare and precarity
7. Social inequality, work, and class
8. Opportunities and outcomes in the socially embedded economy
9. Production and social reproduction in capitalism
10. Abnalyzing varieties of capitalism
11. Exploring the political economy of development
12. Globalizing foundations of political economy

What is political economy?
what is an economy?
What is economic?
what is economics?
is all human behaviour economic?
how are economies cultural?
what is a commodity?

Power  power relations

How are economies social?

 Economics is not just a discipline but a part of social relations

Political economy vs the disciplines

- Once there was philosophy
- And then classical political economy
- And then the disciplines
- A perspective vs a plurality of perspectives
 Interdependency/wholistic view

What does political economy address

- Issues of vital importance for individuals and collectives
- Economies and economic aspects of social life
- Social relations within which they occur
- Power/politics, culture, historical movements, places

2

,Neoclassical economics

- The prevailing perspective
- Enormously influential
- Useful insights
o For example: people respond to incentives
- Flaws and limitations: how bad are they?

How political economy differs

- Rejection of artificial separation
o Social
o Political
o Culture
o Historical diversity
 Rejection of economic dualism/artificial separation of economics and politics
- Embrace of multi-disciplinary, post-disciplinary approaches
o Economics
o Sociology
o Politics
o Anthropology
o Geography
- Attention to social foundations of economies
o Politics
o Markets
o Class
o Gender
o Ethnicity
o Race

A plurality of perspectives

- Economics  neoclassical/heterodox variants
o Keynesianism
o New institutional economics
- Theories of the state
o Weberian/neo-weberian
 For example: effective states
- Critical political economy  draws on critique of prevailing ideas
o Marx
o Gramsci
o Schumpeter
o Polanyi
- Gendered/feminist perspectives, intersectionality
o Diversity here, too, and intersectionality can be pursued within above three

Distinctive elements of political economy

- Direct engagement with contemporary issues of vital importance
o Problem based approach to economy
o Society

3

, o Power relations
- Diverse schools, living traditions of thought
o A way vs a variety of ways of understanding
- Interrogating of perceptions of how things work
o For example: your perceptions, ideas, competing explanations
- Normative and prescriptive aspects
o Our understandings of the social world shape politics

Political economy is personal

- Variable conditions and circumstances
- Determinations of opportunities of life chances
- Understanding, explaining lives and times
- Assists understandings of our own circumstances

Why this course?

 Economics in Sem 1
 Relation between economy and politics studied
 Goal: understand the contemporary world and get a more sociological perspective on
economics
 Explanatory approaches in political economy (PE) for new insights into many fields of
interest
 Later: GPE and Area Economy
 Rather critical and richer approach to economics
 Lecturer: research focus on east Asia

FPE?

 FPE grasps relevant issues of economic policies, as economics alone is not enough
 12 lectures, 6 tutorials
 5 reader responses and 1 research project

topics

 1 FPE
 2 capitalism and its performance
o Economic growth
o Welfare
o Environment
 3 theoretical approaches
 4 concepts
o Actors, institutions, organisations and their meaning and role
 5 the state
o And its relationship with the economy
 6 growth and productivity as well as welfare and precarity
o Much economic insecurity around the world
 7 social inequality, work and class
 8 opportunities and outcome in the socially embedded economy
 9 social production and reproduction
 10 varieties of capitalism
o Focus on OECD

4