This course demonstrates to students how contemporary discussions about economic and social policy are influenced and framed by the ideas and concerns of classical political economy and early twentieth-century economic thought. The course will survey the diverse traditions in economics. In this course, students will study several intellectual traditions, including Classical Political Economy, Marxian, Neoclassical, Old American Institutionalist, Post Keynesian, Modern Monetary Theory, Black Political Economy, Radical Political Economy, Feminist, and Ecological and Green economics, to name a few.
The aim of this course is for students to gain a broad appreciation and understanding of the methods and specific problems that these traditions emphasize and the contributions to theory and policy that they have made. Thus, we will examine not only the evolution of these ideas and theories but also their practical application today. Some of the specific issues that we will cover include economic stability, the causes and cures for unemployment, the interactions between markets and government policy, the nexus between ethics and markets, and the evolution and interaction of culture, technology, and money in shaping the modern world. The “great conversation” of economic ideas through the ages is not only the key to a better understanding of present debates by seeing them from a wider perspective but also a well of ideas from which to directly draw inspiration for today’s policies.
This course is not offered every semester. If your campus is offering the course, visit your institutions' course registration site to enroll.
Bard College
Universidad de los Andes
University of the Witwatersrand
BRAC University