Credit placeholder for study abroad courses in Political Economy. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer Credit. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Semester Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the field of positive political economy. Positive political economy seeks to understand and predict policy outcomes and political behavior. The course will take an interdisciplinary approach that uses tools and concepts from economics to study politics and political behavior. The course will presume that political actors are rational and goal oriented. Using this approach, the course will examine how institutional constraints in the political environment affect the choices of these actors and the resulting political outcomes.

This course introduces students to the question of how different modern Western societies and thinkers have defined the relationships between political and economic activities. Beginning with the experience of Europe in the 15th century, it examines what the unprecedented wealth of modern Western societies has meant for the understanding and practice of politics. It also explains what caused the economic abundance of Western nations to come into being in the first place, and how that abundance has been sustained over time.

This course presents an integrated study of the main alternatives in political ideology (liberalism, socialism, fascism, Marxism) advocated in the modern world and the exemplifications of these ideologies in practice in the modern world (post-war West Germany, 20th-century Britain, Mussolini's Italy, the former Soviet Union).

Virtually all contemporary economies are characterized by extensive relations between the economic and political systems. Furthermore, these relations seem to involve often complex relations between the global, national, and sub-national political economies. This fact is currently referred to as globalization. However, it is clear that globalization, whatever it is, has different effect on national (and sub-national) political economies. In this course, we will: 1) attempt to develop an understanding of globalization; 2) develop a comparative analysis of the links between globalization and national outcomes; and 3) examine the international institutions that attempt to manage globalization. Because time is finite, and there are other courses, we will focus primarily on advanced democracies.

Transfer Coursework in Political Economy

This course discusses the historical development of constitutionalism, with a view to understanding what is common to the various forms of constitutional government which have appeared in different societies from classical Athens to modern America.

This course discusses freedom of expression in the context of advanced capitalist democracies such as the U.S. Topics include justifications for free speech, its proper scope, tensions between democratic self-government and capitalist mass media, and Supreme Court decisions relating to freedom of expression.

This course provides an overview of research in “behavioral economics” which integrates insights from psychology into economic models of behavior. We’ll survey a range of topics which comprise the standard behavioral economic canon — focusing on ways in which individuals may systematically depart from assumptions such as perfect rationality, self interest, and time consistency of decisions. It will examine models of non-standard preferences and decision rules, and discuss empirical strategies for distinguishing between such behavioral decision-making and the predictions of the standard model. Behavioral economics incorporates insights from social psychology, experimental economics, and sociology. Important areas of emphasis will be behavior towards risky outcomes, financial decision making, and applications to social institutions such as taxation and public finance, An important emphasis will be on how insights into behavioral economics can and should influence the design of public policy programs.

This course is designed to introduce students to the law and economics of the regulatory state and the challenges to governance posed by the regulatory state. Students will be expected to develop an understanding of key legal principles as well as to apply economic analysis to legal rules. For each of the topics, a discussion of legal principles will be paired with the relevant economic analysis. The first part of the course treats classic topics of law and economics. The aim here is to provide the key foundational material in contracts, torts, property, and administrative procedures. The questions to be addressed are the specifics of the legal rules and their impact on economic efficiency and welfare, broadly defined. These tools are necessary in order to understand why there may need to be further government regulation. The second part focuses on administrative law and the regulatory state. It will focus on why laws are written so as to permit action for regulatory agencies; the procedures that agencies and courts follow for regulations; and the limits of regulatory authority. There will be a careful look at case studies illustrating these principles.

An experiential learning process coupled with pertinent academic course work. Open only to juniors and seniors in good standing. Only one internship may be completed per semester. Certain internships may satisfy the public service graduation requirement with prior approval of the department and the Center for Public Service. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

An experiential learning process coupled with pertinent academic course work. Open only to juniors and seniors in good standing. Only one internship may be completed per semester. Certain internships may satisfy the public service graduation requirement with prior approval of the department and the Center for Public Service. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Independent study in Political Economy. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Independent study in Political Economy. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Special topics in Political Economy. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Special topics in Political Economy. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Special topics in Political Economy.

Honors thesis in Political Economy.

For especially qualified seniors with approval of the faculty director and the Office of Academic Enrichment. Students must have a minimum of a 3.400 overall grade-point average and a 3.500 grade-point average in the major.

Semester Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Junior Year Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Junior Year Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

The political economy majors' seminar focuses on a large theme or question that no single discipline in the program uniquely claims for its own and no one approach exhausts. Example of such issues: the rise of the nation state, capitalism and democracy, the foundations of economic behavior, the organization and meaning of work, and industrialization, economic growth, and social change. In designing a majors seminar, faculty define the issues that most engage them as teachers and scholars and that sustain a coherent cross-disciplinary course offering.

An introduction to empirical approaches of Political Economy.

An application of empirical approaches of Political Economy.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.