Professor David Robertson  *  Office: 347A SSB  *  Ph 314-516-5836 *  daverobertson@umsl.edu * twitter: daverobertsonMO
Office Hours: 12-1  Tuesday; 9-12 Wednesday; 9-12 Thursday

For the course schedule, see the end of this syllabus; for the readings, see "Files" (to the left)

1. Course Description. When the word "politics" meets the word “economics,” together they reveal the deep political currents of the most basic issues in societies: freedom, security, order, justice, and democracy. In Political Economy & Public Policy, we will examine how the struggles for power and for wealth affect one another and the development of politics.  We will compare and contrast evolving ideas about the way political and market solutions address our common problems.  We will explore the way economic disasters, ideas about prosperity, and the institutions we create shape the big struggles for power and wealth and the less obvious struggles to craft a national budget. We will emphasize that these struggles play out in different ways in different nations across time, while focusing on the United States as our chief case. This is a course aims to be of great value to students of American Politics, Public Policy, Comparative Politics, and International Relations.

2. Books. The following books are required for the course:

• James P. Caporaso and David P. Levine, Theories of Political Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992)  ISBN 0521425786
• Marc Allen Eisner, The American Political Economy: Institutional Evolution of Market and State (New York: Routledge, 2014) ISBN: 9780415708210
• Peter A. Gourevich, Politics in Hard Times (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988) ISBN: 0801494362
• Douglass North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990) ISBN: 0521397340
• Monica Prasad, The Land Of Too Much: American Abundance and the Paradox of Poverty (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2012) ISBN-9780674066526

3. Grades will be allocated in the following way:
      Participation                                      20%    
      2 Short Papers                                  10% each  
      Seminar paper or Research Design    40% 
      Final Exam                                        20%

Grading Scale:  The grade value for each letter grade is as follows:
A  = 4.0     A- = 3.7     B+ = 3.3     B = 3.0     B- = 2.7     C+ = 2.3   C = 2. 0     C- = 1.7
D+ = 1.3   D = 1.0      D- = 0.7      F = 0        EX = Excused    DL = Delayed   FN = Failure/Non Participation

4. Participation. You are expected to attend all seminar sessions, to have the readings and the discussion questions for each session prepared, and to contribute thoughtful and informed questions comments to the discussion. If you do so you will receive an "A" for this part of the grade. Remember, this seminar will succeed only to the extent that you participate. Its success depends on you. Everyone is especially expected to participate actively in the budget exercise on April 23.

You will be responsible for preparing to lead the discussion for about two or three predetermined questions for each seminar.  To prepare for leading the class discussion, be ready to talk about why the question is important, two alternative answers to the question, and the reason that you think one answer is better than others. You do not have to hand in a written answer to the question.  The discussion questions will be available at the preceding class and placed on course Canvas site. 

5. Short Book Review Papers. There will be two short (6-10 page, typed) papers for the course. These papers are due  February 26 and April 16  The first is a book review. There are lots of books to choose from (see the The Political Economy Bibliography (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.). You should choose books that you are eager to read, and/or are critically important for your research paper, and that you have not read and are not reading for another course. For the second paper, you can do one of two things: (1) a book review of a second book or (2) an analysis of some issue that is relevant to your larger research project.  You should get the book approved no later than 2 weeks before the papers are due. The book or books can be part of the literature you review for the final seminar paper.  They should not be books you’ve read already or are required for another class.

To write the book review:

- No more than half the paper should summarize the argument; the rest should critique the book by assessing its strengths and weaknesses, and drawing appropriate connection to other scholarship.
- Summarize the book’s content (no more than half the paper) by answering the following questions: (a) What is the topic? (b) How would you summarize the key arguments and the evidence for them? (c) What does the author conclude? (d) how does this book relate to other scholarly works or literatures? 
- Analyze the book by answering the following questions: (a) Does the author make a persuasive case for her central point? (b) Is the evidence adequate? (c) does the author use evidence and treat other authors in a fair way? (d) What parts of the argument are most effective? Which are least effective? (e) What are the implications of this argument for understanding politics?

6. Seminar paper or research design. You have 2 options

You have two options. In both options, by February 12, turn in a paragraph in which you (1) specify the research question, and (2) discuss your plan for finding an answer, including evidence and logic. A bibliography and an outline are due on March 19.

Option 1 is a conventional research paper (17-20 pages) on a topic of interest to you and related to politics and the economy in the broadest sense. The paper is due on May 7 at end of day. If you turn in a draft at least 10 days or more before this date, I will give you comments to help you improve it.

Option 2 is a research design. See Files.

 

7. Style Guide for Citations and References: Use the APSA guide (in files), or the style appropriate for your discipline.

 8.Exam. There will be a take home final exam. The test consists of two essay questions that require a 6-10 page answer each. You will have the questions in advance, and you will have at least a week to compose your answers. It is due Friday, May 11, at end of day.

 9. Additional sources on Political Economy. For a more extensive bibliography with some links to major sources of information, go to The Political Economy Bibliography (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

10. Disability. Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with me during the first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain confidential. Students with disabilities should also contact Disability Access Services in 144 Millennium Student Center.

11. Title IX Policies. Mandatory Reporting:  Under Title IX, all UMSL faculty, staff, and administrators (with limited exception) are obligated to report any incidents of sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual assault, or gender discrimination to the Student Affairs office and/or other University officials. This ensures that all parties are protected from further abuses and that victim(s) are supported by trained counselors and professionals. Note: There are several offices at UMSL whose staff are exempt from Title IX mandated reporting, when the information is learned in the course of a confidential communication (e.g., Counseling Services, Health Services, Community Psychological Service, Center for Trauma Recovery, and Student Social Services).

12. Plagiarism. Plagiarism means taking the written ideas of someone else and presenting them in your writing as if they were your ideas, without giving the author credit.  Plagiarism (a word which comes from the Latin word for kidnapping) is deceitful and dishonest.  Violations that have occurred frequently in the past include not using quotation marks for direct quotes and not giving citations when using someone else's ideas; using long strings of quotations, even when properly attributed, does not constitute a paper of your own. The student conduct code explains: The term plagiarism includes, but is not limited to: (i) use by paraphrase or direct quotation of the published or unpublished work of another person without fully and properly crediting the author with footnotes, citations or bibliographical reference; (ii) unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials; or (iii) unacknowledged use of original work/material that has been produced through collaboration with others without release in writing from collaborators.

  

THE COURSE IN BRIEF:

January 22: Introduction
Read: Caro, The Sad Irons" [in "Files"]

January 29: How and Why the Economy Is Political
Read: "Policy Creates Politics" [in "Files"]
           Caparaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy vii-32
           North, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 3-35
           Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 35-58, 71-80 [in "Files"]

February 5: Foundations of the American Political Economy
- Submission of a book title for the first short paper due
Read: Eisner, The American Political Economy, 3-39 
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 36-69  
           Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 33-54
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, xi-24   

February 12: Systems in Crisis: Industrialization
- Paragraph about the research paper or design is due
Read: Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 55-78
           Gourevich, Politics in Hard Times, 9-123

February 19: Business, Labor, and Progressivism
Read:  Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 79-99
            Yergin, "Our Plan" [in "Files"]
            Robertson, three selections from Federalism and the Making of America, 2 ed. [in "Files"]
            Eisner, The American Political Economy, 41-61 

February 26: Systems in Crisis: Depression and New Deal
- Short Paper 1 Due
Read: Schumpeter,"Creative Destruction" [in "Files"]
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 73-82 
            Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 100-125
            Eisner, The American Political Economy, 62-83
            Gourevich, Politics in Hard Times, 124-180

March 5: Managed Capitalism
Read: Eisner, The American Political Economy, 84-111
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 83-92 
           Hall & Soskice, "Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism" [in "Files"]
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 25-95

March 12: Systems in Crisis: Stagflation and the Economic Approach to Politics
Read: Gourevich, Politics in Hard Times, 181-240
           Eisner, The American Political Economy, 111-122
           Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 126-158

March 19: Neo-Liberalism and the Land of Too Much
- Research Central Question, Bibliography & Outline of Final Paper Due
Read: Ronald Reagan, "First Inaugural Address," 1981 [in "Files"]
           Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 159-196
           Eisner, The American Political Economy, 123-143
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 99-147
           
March 26: Spring Break - class does not meet

April 2: The Welfare State
- Submission of a book title for the second  short paper due
Read:  [briefly review "political efficiency" in North, Institutions... 48-54]           
           Eisner, The American Political Economy, 147-169  
           Castles et al, "Introduction" [in "Files"] 
           Obinger and Wagschal, "Social Expenditures and Revenues" [in "Files"]
           Mettler, "20,000 Leagues Under the State" [in "Files"]
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 148-171 

April 9: Regulation
Read: Yandle, "Baptists and Bootleggers" [in "Files"]
           Robertson, Federalism, Regulation, Environmental & Climate Policy [in "Files"]
           Vogel, The Politics of Precaution, selections [in "Files"]
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much,175-195   
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 92-130 

April 16: Globalization & the Great Recession
- Second short paper due
Read:  Eisner, The American Political Economy, 170-220; 
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 196-245   
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 92-117 

April  23: The Budget and the Deficit
Read: CBPP Introduction to the Federal Budget Process [in "Files"]
           CBO An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027, pages 1-8 [in "Files"]
           CBO Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2017 to 2026 [in "Files"]
           Handout on budget roles [MG]

April 30: Institutions and Democracy
Read: North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance,118-140 
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 249-264
           Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy,197-225 
           Kuttner [in "Files"]

May 7: Paper due

May 10: Exam due

 

Catalogue course description: POL SCI 6448 Political Economy and Public Policy: 3 semester hours.  Prerequisite: Graduate standing. This course examines political economy in such contemporary manifestations as public choice and the study of the ways in which institutional power shapes economic policies and performance. The course explores the origins and major concepts of political economy, the institutions of economic policymaking and economic policies in the U. S. It emphasizes the consequences of budget constraints inflation, unemployment and sectoral decline on the design and administration of public programs at all levels of government.

 

Detailed Course Schedule

January 29: How and Why the Economy Is Political
Read: "Policy Creates Politics" [in "Files"]
           Caparaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy vii-32
           North, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 3-35
           Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 35-58, 71-80 [in "Files"]’

This week and each week, you'll sign up for a couple of these discussion questions for the following week.  You have the responsibility to take the lead in answering the question (but this is not a written assignment - you don't have to hand in anything). Your answers should be brief, leaving time so that everyone else can discuss the points you raise.    
 
Please sign up for one question in Part A, and one in Part B; Make sure that at least two students sign up for each question (note: everyone prepares for the first question)

• Everyone: Use the example of the 2017 tax law or the government shutdown to illustrate how we usually think of politics creating policy. Next, explain how policy creates politics, and use the same examples to illustrate this point.   

Institutions – laws are institutions

Part A

• Explain the three conceptions of the political, according to Caporaso and Levine. How are these applied to explaining politics and economic policy? Illustrate with examples from a policy area with which you are familiar, or contemporary economic issues.

• Explain the three conceptions of economics, according to Caporaso and Levine? How are these applied to explaining politics and economic policy? Illustrate with examples from a policy area with which you are familiar, or contemporary economic issues.
  

• Explain these elements of the classical approach to political economy: the separability of the economy and the primacy of the economic sphere. self-regulating market (mention Adam Smith’s passage). How do institutions play a role in this classical approach?  
  
  

Part B

• What is North trying to explain? What is his standpoint – that is, what is most important to him and what complicates achieving it?
• Explain North’s behavioral assumptions. How do they critique the classical tradition in economics. Give real world examples of the problems he identifies on page 24.  Why are transaction costs so important to North?  Illustrate with current examples. 
  
• What is Polanyi trying to explain? What is his standpoint – that is, what is most important to him and what complicates achieving it? 
• Explain what Polanyi is saying in these these two sentences on page 77: “The commodity description of labor, land, and money is entirely fictitious. Nevertheless, it is with the help of this fiction that the actual markets for labor, land, and money are organized.” Why does this matter for understanding the modern American political economy?

February 5: Foundations of the American Political Economy
- Submission of a book title for the first short paper due
Read: Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 33-54
          Eisner, The American Political Economy, 3-39 
          North, Institutions, Institutional Change & Economic Performance, 36-69  
          Prasad, The Land of Too Much, xi-24   

Sign for two questions, one from Part A and one from Part B.  Make sure that at least one person has signed up for each question.

Group A. Caparaso and Levine; Eisner; Prasad 
1) Caparaso and Levine: The Classical Approach: Explain these elements of the classical approach to political economy: the separability of the economy and the self-regulating market (mention Adam Smith’s passage).  What
    is the role of the state in this classical approach?  
2)  Eisner: How does “the state” affect the economy? Do different states affect the economy in different ways? How? 
     What is “the state” anyway, and who cares?.

3)   Eisner: Why are corporations, finance, and organized labor so important for understanding a nation’s political economy, according to Eisner? How would Polanyi fit these institutions into his framework?

4).  Eisner: Carefully explain what “path dependence” is and why it matters. Explain and illustrate how “new regimes are layered upon existing institutions and policies.” How does this discussion relate to Polanyi?

5). Prasad: How did the imaginary American populist farmers view European capitalism in the early 20^th century, according to Prasad?
      

Group B. North

(6). Explain what North’s chapter 6 is about.  Why are two kinds of formal constraints -- property rights and contracts -- so important for North's explanation of economic development? 

 7). Explain this quote by North (page 47): “The extent and political diversity of interests will, given relative bargaining strength, influence the [formal] rules’ structure.”  Illustrate.  Why is this true? How has this principle played out in a hypothetical development of government in early modern Europe (pages 48-51).  Be sure to explain why credible commitment matters.

 8)  What does North mean by political efficiency? How is political efficiency different from economic efficiency.  Who cares?  What are inefficient political markets (pages 51-52). What would Polanyi say about this?

9). Why does North say that the Riker quote (pages 59-60) "go to the heart of the issue of creating effective institutional constraints"?   Note that North restates his central question on page 60 

 10). Explain chapter 8, and explain why North cares so much about transaction costs.   

February 12: Systems in Crisis: Industrialization

Read:  Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 55-78; 
           Gourevich, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, 9-123

 
Sign for three questions, one from Part A, one from Part B, and one from Part C.  Make sure that  at least one person has signed up for each question.

Questions left over from last time! We will cover these briefly

9). Why does North say that the Riker quote (pages 59-60) "go to the heart of the issue of creating effective institutional constraints"?   Note that North restates his central question on page 60  

10). Explain chapter 8, and explain why North cares so much about transaction costs.   

Part A

1). What made Marxism so attractive to people interested in analyzing the nineteenth and twentieth century political economy?  Be sure to draw any appropriate connections to Polanyi. Does it have relevance for the post-industrial economy, or is its usefulness confined to industrializing nations? 

 2). Why did Gourevich write his book, and what are his goals (pages 9-10)? Explain these concepts and why they are important (pages 17-21): “Policy requires politics”; Power; the “historic compromise”; “comparison is particularly useful”    

 Part B: Gourevich Chapter 2  

3). Describe and give an example of the production profile explanation. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? How would this apply today?  

4). Describe and give an example of the intermediary explanation. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? How would this apply today? 

 5). Describe and give an example of the state structure explanation. What does he mean by “Rules shape the process of aggregation” (61). What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? How would this apply today? 

 6). What is the economic ideology explanation and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? Give examples from the US.  How would this apply today? 

 7). What is the international system explanation and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? Give examples from the US.  How would this apply today? 

  Part C: Gourevich Chapter 3

8). Everyone: Sign up for one of these countries; describe and explain its reaction to the economic crisis of the late 19^th century and compare it to the United States. Explain the difference.
France__ __________________________________________________
Sweden__ _____________________________________________ 
England__ _________________________________________ 
Germany____________________________________________

February 19: Business, Labor, and Progressivism

Read:              Yergin, "Our Plan" [in "Files"]
                        Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 79-99
                        Robertson, three selections from Federalism and the Making of America, 2 ed. [in "Files"]
                        Eisner, The American Political Economy, 41-61

 Sign for three questions, one from Part A & one from Part B.  Make sure that  at least one person has signed up for each question.

Part A: Yergin / Caparaso  & Levine

1. What is the problem to which Standard Oil was the solution? How did Standard Oil help solve the problem? Do the methods and the successes of Standard Oil allow us to draw any generalizations about the role of business in the political economy of industrialized nations (not just the U.S.? Is private business really a friend of free markets? Give both sides.
   
   
2. Explain how neo-classical economics is different from classical economics (see the chapter introduction and also the first full paragraph on page 97). What does “Pareto optimality” mean and why does it matter? Why does this idea of political economy “synonymous with market failure”? Why are externalities and monopolies important for public policy?
   

3. What is a public good? How do you know a public good when you see it? Is neo-classical economics still the dominant perspective of political liberals in the U.S. today? 

Part B: Eisner / Robertson

4. What economic and political problems were created by the transformation of the economy from the Civil War to the 1920s? Are these problems that concerned the neo-classical economists? Have we been in a comparable economic and political transformation? Give the reasons for and against this last hypothesis.
   
   
5. What is the Progressive “regulatory state”, according to Eisner? What are the problems that the ICC, ITC, and the Federal Reserve addressed? Is Progressive regulation “politically efficient,” to use North’s phrase?  Were Progressive reforms a radical departure in American economic policy?
   
   
6. How did the framers of the Constitution design federalism? Who cares today – are there examples of the way federalism matters for economic policy?
   
   
7. Counterfactual: Could the United States have pursued a different strategy toward corporations, and if so, under what circumstances? Be sure to discuss the differences of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. How would the political history of the U.S. be different if the national government had not enacted anti-trust laws?
   
   

 8. How did federalism affect the development of business and labor in the United States? How did federalism affect the standpoints of business and labor? How did federalism affect the design of economic policies? Does it matter today, and if so, how?
    

February 26: Systems in Crisis: Depression and New Deal
- Short Paper 1 Due
Read: Schumpeter, "Creative Destruction" [in "Files"]
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change & Economic Performance, 73-82 
            Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 100-125
            Eisner, The American Political Economy, 62-83
            Gourevich, Politics in Hard Times, 124-180

Leftovers from February 19

7. Counterfactual: Could the United States have pursued a different strategy toward corporations, and if so, under what circumstances? Be sure to discuss the differences of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. How would the political history of the U.S. be different if the national government had not enacted anti-trust laws? 

8. How did federalism affect the development of business and labor in the United States? How did federalism affect the standpoints of business and labor? How did federalism affect the design of economic policies? Does it matter today, and if so, how? 

 Sign for two questions, one from Part A and one from Part B.  All of you are responsible for Part C (question 6) Make sure that  at least two people has signed up for each question / country.

Part A

1) What is the problem Schumpeter is trying to explain? What would Polanyi say about Schumpeter? What would Schumpeter saying that is relevant to us, today? What are the policy implications that are relevant to us, today?

2). What was the problem Keynesianism was trying to solve? Why was Keynesianism so attractive to policy-makers in the Depression era? Have events confirmed or disproved the value of Keynesianism? Is it irrelevant in 2018? Give both sides.

3). Explain the New Deal strategy for managing the economic crisis of the 1930s, using Eisner and Gourevich’s section on the U.S. (along with other information you might have). Did the New Deal "save capitalism from itself"?  Was it “politically efficient” ? Be sure to give good reasons for both sides.  

4). Assess this quote by John Maynard Keynes: “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.”  Give reasons that it remains right, and give reasons that it is mistaken.  Do ideas really matter in political economy in the U.S. today? How muchdo they matter?

Part B   SIGNUP for one of these countries:

4). Everyone should pick one of these nations to examine more closely and answer this question:

Choose one of the countries (France, Sweden, England, Germany) and explain what happened and why.  To what degree did the institutions and policies of the late 19^th century determine the national policies of the 1930s (pay particular attention to institutions).  How does your country’s experience compare to the U.S.?

• Britain: 
• France: 
• Sweden: 
• Germany: 

5). Using the country you discussed above, give reasons that the U.S. is or is not on a very similar path in 2018 Everyone

6). To what extent is any government capable of responding effectively to an economic crisis like the Great Depression?  What are the institutional prerequisites of effective performance?  Justify your answer. Everyone

  

March 5: Managed Capitalism
Read: Eisner, The American Political Economy, 84-111
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change & Economic Performance, 83-92 
           Hall & Soskice, "Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism" [in "Files"]
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 25-95

Sign for two questions, one from Part A and one from Part B.  Make sure that  at least one person has signed up for each question.

Part A

1. Describe the Employment Act of 1946. What was its goal? What were its limitations? To what extent were these limitations caused by the U.S. national policy process (notably Congress), and how were they caused by that process. Does the case of the employment act tell us that the U.S. government is incapable of governing the economy today? Give both sides. Brad, Mirzet, Travis, Jaime
2. Why did the United States champion international economic policies after World War II? Is free trade still an appropriate policy for the U.S. to support – or is it a tragic example of path dependence? 
   
   

     Let’s talk about trade and trade wars for this question. Read this David Nicklaus piece in the Post-Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/from-beer-cans-to-cars-americans-will-feel-the-cost/article_27d0ae08-88e0-55ec-84f2-1ae0fe9b69f6.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.  

 

Part B

4. Explain why the coordination of firms is so important, and the difference between the coordination of firms in CMEs and LMEs, according to Hall and Soskice. Explain this passage (page 49): “In general, liberal market economies should find it more feasible to implement market-incentive policies that do not put extensive demands on firms to form relational contracts with others but rely on markets to coordinate their activities.” Is this a problem? What are the implications for American economic policy today? 
   
   
5. Using Hall and Soskice as well as Prasad (chapter 2), explain how the varieties of capitalism contributes to our explanations of the American political economy. Be sure to pay attention to economic regulation. 
   
   
6. Using Prasad chapter 3, explain how did the American role as a “settler” country that was largely agrarian affect the development of political demands in the United States? How can increased productivity lead to economic decline (page 66)? Given the problems that farmers faced, why did they stay on the land (page 68-69)? 
   
   
7. Is Prasad arguing that the European nations pursued less “progressive” (or perhaps leftist) solutions to their problems of their political economy than the U.S.? What are the implications for American economic policy today? 
   

March 12: Systems in Crisis: Stagflation and the Economic Approach to Politics
Read: Gourevich, Politics in Hard Times, 181-240
           Eisner, The American Political Economy, 111-122
           Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 126-158

Sign up for one of the countries in question 1, one question in group A, and one question in Group B

1) Everyone should pick one of these nations to examine more closely. Explain the steps each nation took during the economic crisis of the 1970s, and explain why. Evaluate the nation’s behavior in terms of the Gourevich’s five explanations for economic policy. Specifically, how would you grade the way it coped with economic stagnation?

• Britain 
• France 
• Sweden    
• Germany 

Group A: Sign up for one of these:

2). Why was stagflation a problem for macroeconomic theory, according to Eisner?  Be sure to explain the Phillips curve.  How did the mismatch between conventional economic theory and the actual performance of the economy in the 1970s affect economic ideas?  Did the ideas of conservative political economy shape politics, or did political calculation shape the political use of these ideas?  Give both sides.

3). Based on your reading of 5 different nations responding to three different economic crises, which of these five explanations for economic policy -- production profile, intermediate institutions, state structure, economic ideology, or the international system -- explain more of the variance in economic policy among developed nations than the others?  Do different explanations work better for different countries? At different times?  Explain.

4) Did stagflation destroy the ideas of the New Deal? Did it destroy the politics of the new Deal? If so, how?  
    

Group B: Sign up for one of these:

5) Explain how rationality and efficiency figure into the economic approach to politics.  What is good about this approach? How is it limited for explaining political economy?  Why did it become popular among academics in the late 1970s and 1980s?

5) Explain the public choice approach to economics, using Caporaso and Levine. What is good about this approach? How is it limited for explaining political economy?  Why did it become popular among academics in the late 1970s and 1980s?

6) Has the financial crisis of 2008 and the issue of inequality fatally damaged these economic approaches to politics? Give both sides.

 

March 19: Neo-Liberalism and the Land of Too Much
- Research Central Question, Bibliography & Outline of Final Paper Due
Read: Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy, 159-196
          Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 99-147
          Eisner, The American Political Economy, 123-143
          Ronald Reagan, "First Inaugural Address," 1981 [in "Files"]

 Sign up for one question from section A, One from section B, and one from section C

 Section A: Power and the Political Economy

1) How do you know power when you see it? What are “conditioned power” and “false needs”?  Give examples from the St. Louis region and the United States. Why are they important? How would you go about studying them?

2) Have the emergence of multinational corporations and global markets fundamentally changed the play of power in the American political economy?  Define “fundamentally.”  Under what conditions can American companies be expected to serve American interests? 

3) Are campaign contributions the central problem of American politics today? Do campaign contributions distort politics, and if so, how? Give both sides.  What if anything can be done about it?

Section B: Prasad

 4) What lessons can you learn about doing research from Prasad’s chapters? How do the pages on “Why No National Sales Tax” (100-103) show the importance of carefully framing research questions and determining “what more do we need to know”? How does she go about gathering evidence to answer the questions in these chapters? What tools would you need to apply her techniques to a question of interest to you?

5) Why did the US fail to enact a national sales tax but enact a progressive income tax? Was this a mistake? Define “mistake”.

6) How did the size of the United States affect support for centralized taxation (see Prasad, pages 127-128)?  Given this factor and institutional developments in the U.S., was the national progressive income tax inevitable? How necessary was Huey Long for the developments that followed? Explain your reasoning.

Section C: Eisner and Reaganomics

8) Describe Reaganomics (using Eisner and any other sources appropriate).  Thoroughly describe how existing institutions and policies set limits on the Reagan-Bush strategies. You should consider taxes, fiscal policy, monetary policy, regulation and welfare.  How did the policies and institutions of the Reagan-Bush administration set limits on the policies of the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations?

 9) Explain the tax cuts of the George W. Bush administration. Were these cuts politically efficient for the U.S.? Were regressive tax cuts and a growing? Is the tax bill enacted by Congress in 2017 just another version of the 2001 tax cuts?  

April 2: The Welfare State
- Submission of a book title for the second  short paper due
Read:  [briefly review "political efficiency" in North, Institutions... 48-54]           
                      Castles et al, "Introduction" [in "Files"] 
                      Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 148-171
                      Obinger and Wagschal, "Social Expenditures and Revenues" [in "Files"]
                      Eisner, The American Political Economy, 147-169  
                      Mettler, "20,000 Leagues Under the State" [in "Files"] also, see optional Mettler reading [in “Files’]

Sign up for one question in Part A and one in Part C. In Part B, prepare an answer to Question 1 based on “your” country from Gourevich.

 Part A: Sign up for one of these questions:

 1. What is the welfare state – what is included in the concept? How did welfare states develop? What are the challenges mentioned by Castles et al in their "Introduction," and are these challenges evident in the US?

2. Does the widespread adoption of the welfare state prove that it is indispensable for political efficiency? What kind of welfare state is necessary?

Part B: Everyone answers this question:

 What are the families of welfare states, according to Obinger and Wagschal? How do these nations compare to other families and each other? How do these nations compare to the Varieties of Capitalism approach? Use Examples from the list of countries below.

3. • Britain 
   • France 
   • Sweden 
   • Germany 

Have welfare state expenditures declined since 1980, and why?

 
Part C: Sign up for one of these questions: 

4. Describe and explain the differences between the “two welfare states,” according to Eisner. Is the existence of two welfare states a problem that needs to be fixed? Why and how? You should address the issue of inequality in your answer.

5. Does the United States have a more limited social welfare state because of progressive taxation, as Prasad suggests? Explain her argument, and give both sides.

6. Explain this passage in Prasad (170): “the combination of progressive taxation and a fragmented policymaking structure was particularly consequential [for tax preference policy], because it made broad cuts in rates difficult and led, therefore, to a search for other ways to reduce taxes.” This passage suggests that political institutions determine the political strategy of elected officials and interests. Can you identify other examples in which political institutions indirectly shape policy outcomes by influencing the strategy of policy advocates? Give examples.

7. Explain Mettler’s analysis of the submerged welfare state, and does Metter’s analysis of the submerged welfare state explain the hostility to social welfare programs such as the Affordable Care Act? Give both sides. [NOTE: there is an optional reading by Mettler in the “Files” folder]

8. What is the entitlement crisis, according to Eisner, and how can/should it be fixed?

 

April 9: Regulation
Read: Yandle, "Baptists and Bootleggers" [in "Files"]
           Robertson, Federalism, Regulation, Environmental & Climate Policy [in "Files"]
           Vogel, The Politics of Precaution, selections [in "Files"]
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much,175-195   
           North, Institutions, Institutional Change & conomic Performance, Chapters 11 & 12

Sign up for TWO of the following. Be sure that someone signs up for  every question  

1)  How does regulation of the economy illustrate the Polanyi’s “double movement”? Be specific, using examples from the readings in the course from the Progressive Era and the New Deal and the 1960s. What are the strengths and weaknesses of regulation for mitigating the problems of capitalist growth?  

2) What are the politics of regulation, as suggested by “Bootleggers and Baptists”? What are the political benefits and shortcomings of passing a regulatory law, and delegating enforcement to the states? What are the lessons of these two readings for investigating politics generally?

3) How: Using the “varieties of capitalism” material along with Prasad and Vogel, clearly describe the key ways in which the United States differ from other nations in terms of regulation. Who cares – that is, how do these distinctions make a difference for citizens? 

4) Why does the United States generally differ from other nations in terms of regulation?  Be sure to integrate the work of Gourevich (54-67), Vogel (chapter 2), Robertson and Prasad in your answer (minimize the use of Vogel’s chapter 4, which is in the next question).

5). Are American governing institutions capable of effectively addressing the problem of global warming, and if so, under what conditions? Give all sides. Why is this issue so polarizing in the US today?

6) In his final chapter Vogel concludes that regulations and perceptions of risk are historically contingent.  Given what you have read about institutions in North (chapter 11) and in Prasad, evaluate this claim: “institutions are indirect causes of the difference between the US and other nations because they shape historical contingency.”  How would this apply to the policy area in your paper assignment? 

 7). Does North’s argument in chapter 12 amount to blaming the victim -- that is, blaming poor countries that are actually poor because rich countries enriched themselves at poor countries’ expense?

April 16: Globalization & the Great Recession
- Second short paper due
Read:  Eisner, The American Political Economy, 170-220; 
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 196-245              

Sign up for one question in group A and one in group B:

 

Group A: Sign up for one

 

1. Why? Using Eisner’s 9^th chapter, discuss the claim that globalization has made the nation-state significantly less able to respond effectively to financial crises like 2008 than it was in the three earlier economic crises that Gourevich analyzes.

2. Why? Using Eisner, discuss how and how much did deregulation contribute to the US financial crisis of 2008?

3. Why? What is the “democratization of credit” (Prasad) and how did it contribute to the US financial crisis of 2008? How and how much did moral hazard contribute to the US financial crisis of 2008? The New York Times describes moral hazard as “in economic terms it refers to the undue risks that people are apt to take if they don’t have to bear the consequences” (“Moral Hazard: A Tempest-Tossed Idea” 2/25/12; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/business/moral-hazard-as-the-flip-side-of-self-reliance.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. ).  This article gives this example: “If you know that you’ll be bailed out, why not roll the dice on some tricky mortgage investments — or splurge on a home that you can’t really afford?”  

 

Group B: Sign up for one

4. Why? How and how much did the layering of institutions (Eisner) and path dependence (from earlier in the course) contribute to the financial crisis. (treat these two concepts as a single one for our purposes).

5. Why? How and how much did ideas contribute to the economic crisis?

6. Give a grade to the federal government’s handling of the financial crisis, taking explicit account of political and obstacles the government confronted. Now justify your grade.

7. What is the credit/welfare state trade off, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this concept for explaining American public policy?

 

April 23: Budget Exercise

MEMORANDUM

 
April 6, 2018

TO:                         Select Senate Budget Deficit Committee, 115^th Congress

FROM:                  Dave Robertson

RE:                         Senate Budget Committee Markup Session, Monday April 23, 2015

 

The budget deficit is a critically important issue in the 115^th Congress.  The Congressional Budget Office in 2017 projected a federal budget deficit of $689 billion in fiscal year 2019, and $775 billion the following year.  The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders have instructed you that the Senate must report a budget plan that cuts an additional 400 billion from the deficit by the end of fiscal year 2018.  (Fiscal Year 2018 starts October 1, 2018, and ends September 30, 2019).  Your committee must agree to $400 billion in cuts by 9:20 pm Monday, April 23.  Class attendance is required to make this work.

 Use the CBO documents for a list of the most politically viable alternatives for cutting the deficit.  You may go beyond the CBO only if you provide equally specific details of the cuts or re venue increases you propose. Supplementals for the wars cannot be touched.  Remember that you can bully your way through to a one-vote majority, but your plan must have a reasonable chance to win approval from the filibuster-prone Senate (60 votes required) and the House of Representatives. President Trump may veto the plan if Congress passes it.

 

Remember too, the Senate has a Republican majority, 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats (including 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats; Vice-President Pence casts the tie-breaking vote if needed).  You must read about your Senator and her or his state to accurately represent the Senator’s standpoint.  Assume that you must balance the interests of (1) your constituents in your state, (2) your electoral base (including campaign contributors - think Gourevitch, etc.), (3) your ideology (conservative, liberal, moderate, (4) your political party, and (5) the positions that will help or hurt your party 2018 elections (which will determine whether or not your party has a majority, and whether your party has a majority or a minority in the Senate).

 

BY APRIL 22, PLEASE SEND EVERYONE IN CLASS A DESCRIPTION OF YOUR STANDPOINT IN THIS EXERCISE.  SPECIFY YOUR PARTY, IDEOLOGY (CONSERVATIVE, LIBERAL, MODERATE), HOW SAFE YOUR SEAT IS, BASED ON GIVEN YOUR PAST SUCCESS, AND THE KEY INTERESTS THAT YOUR STATE EXPECTS YOU TO REPRESENT.

 

You and your fellow party members can caucus as among yourselves.  You may ask me about specific interests or whatever.  You are allowed to begin the session as early as you like on Monday the 23^rd, but we have to be done at 9:20.

 

Republicans                                                                                                                       .

    Chair:   Bob Corker (Tennessee)                               

    Jodi Ernst (Iowa)                                                                   

    John Kennedy (Louisiana)                                                    

    Susan Collins (Maine)            

    John Cornyn                            

    Tim Scott (South Carolina)             

                               

Democrats                                                                                                                          .

     Ron Wyden (Oregon)                          

    Kamela Harris (California)                

     Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota)     
                               
    Bob Casey, Jr. (Pennsylvania)         

     Tammy Duckworth (Illinois)                                     

 I hope you will find this exercise enjoyable.  I know I will.

 

April 30: Capitalism & Democracy
Read:  North, Institutions, Institutional Change & Economic Performance,118-140 
           Prasad, The Land of Too Much, 249-264
           Caporaso & Levine, Theories of Political Economy,197-225
           Kuttner, Preface, “Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism?” [File]

PLEASE BRING  A CELLPHONE, PAD, OR LAPTOP FOR THE COURSE EVALUATION

Sign up for two: 

1. No matter whether you think it is currently a problem, how much income and wealth inequality is a problem and why? If you think inequality is a public problem, what are the causes that American government and American institutions cannot deal with? What are the causes American government candeal with?

2. Explain the different justice-centered theories of ways that Nozick, Rawls and Dworkin. How would each view a minimum wage today? Which of these theories in general offers the best approach to the problem of inequality, and why?

3. Explain Kuttner’s argument about capitalism and democracy. Is Kuttner right to be concerned about that relationship? Why? Give the arguments for and against his concern. What should be done about it?

4. Restate and summarize in your own words North’s analysis of American economic history (pp. 136-137), incorporating main themes from Polanyi, Prasad, and any other one author that merits mention. What are the most important puzzles of the American political economy that remain insufficiently explained? Try to be specific.

 5. Summarize, and critique Prasad’s five suggested reforms on pages 258-263. Can these reforms be politically feasible in the US, given US political institutions? Be specific. Can states experiment with them?

 

May 11: Final Exam: 

MEMORANDUM

 April 23, 2018

 
TO:                  PS 6448 Students

FROM:           Dave Robertson

RE:                 Final Exam

 

Due end of day, May 11, by email/

 

For the final exam, you will write an essay in response to each of the following two questions. Your responses are due by the end of the day May 11. Each essay should be 5-8 pages. The exam counts as 20% of your final grade. Show how much you specifically have absorbed from our authors and class discussions.

1. One theme of the course has been locating and explaining the balance between democracy and economic development. Explain the why economic growth through market expansion has been such a powerful political priority in these nations. Then explain the “double movement,” and illustrate its political consequences in the United States, using Eisner, Gourevich, Prasad, and other relevant authors.

2. Assess the way four of the different schools of political economy (as distinguished by Caporaso and Levine) would analyze the financial crisis of 2008 and the “great recession” that followed. Drawing on the Caporaso and Levine book (and any other relevant sources), take four of the schools of thought in their book (as covered in individual chapters) and discuss how each school would (1) explain the cause and effect relationships in the crisis in different ways; (2) explain what kind of fundamental problems they would identify in this crisis (remember a problem is a situation that we can and should try to fix); (3) based on their diagnosis, what remedies would they propose and why. Which of these four schools do you find the most relevant and most persuasive.