LEC 1: What is Political Economy
What is an economy?: work & production consumption distribution finance
What is economies?: discipline that studies how economy works
What is economic?: alternative use/allocation of scarce resources
What is a commodity?: goods sold on market
How PE differs?: multi-disciplinary approach. Rejection of artificial separation
What does PE address?:
● issues of vital importance for individuals/collectives
● economies and economic aspects of social life
● social relations within which they occur
● power/politics, culture, historical moments, places
Neoclassical economics: prevailing perspective enormously influential
,LEC 2: What is capitalism?
What appears in economy?: production distribution exchange consumption work
Economies are configurations of:
Actors production accumulation of value
institutions allocation, distribution of value
Organisational techniques welfare, inequality outcomes
Technologies implications for environment
Interests relations to politics
Forms of economy:
● hunter/gatherer → communal → slaveholder → feudal → market/capitalist →
socialist
Dimensions of variation
● divisions of labour
● property rights
● cooperation, competition
● power relations
● ultimate aims
● mechanisms of economic coordination
Economies are social/dynamic
● founded on social activity, including politics. Not understood independently of social
context
● Subject to continuity, instability and change. eg Rapid growth / recession / creative
destruction
● Shaped by relations among competing interests. eg feudalism / primitive
accumulation
Berstein’s 4 questions
● Who owns what?: property rights / origin / attributes
● Who does what?: division of labour
● Who gets what?: income/rent profits/loss
● What do they do with it?: consumption / oppotten
Market v. Capitalism.
● Market =
○ anywhere supply/demand meet
○ founded on voluntary exchange
○ amenity embedded in particular setting
● Capitalism =
○ natural form of economy
○ elite-driven project
○ efficiency only has meaning in regard to something
Defining Capitalism
● form of economy
● employers using privately owned capital goods
● hire wage labour to produce commodities
● purpose is profit
● role of state, ideology and tendency toward expansion
, Key features of capitalism
● central social relation is capital/labour that is asymmetric
○ those with tools and those without
● Decentralised mechanism of economic coordination (invisible hand)
● Markets for labour / capital / land / goods & services
● Competitive drive for profits & innovation → capital accumulation
Variable properties of capitalist economies
● qualities of supporting institutions
● presence/absence of ‘voice’ voluntary association rights
○ voting rights / labour or employers communities
● Universal dependence on unpaid labour
Capitalism refers to particular kind of society
● complex and dynamic networks of social relations
○ economic relations/systems
○ political relations/systems
○ cultural systems/production
Evaluating an economy’s performance
efficiency equity
profitability sustainability
freedom social goals
Proponents of capitalism:
● income & wealth generation
● dynamism
● massive expansion in economic output
● reduction in poverty
Criticism:
- promotes consumerism - limits freedom/autonomy
- blocks human flourishing - fuels militarism (resource availability)
- violates egalitarian principles - limits democracy (constant competition)
- key respects inefficient - erodes community
- perpetuates elimanable suffer - environmentally destructive
- commodification threatens human values
Capitalism & environment
● growth addicted: endless accumulation / pursuit of profit
● absent mechanism for self-regulation
● tends towards over-consumption
LEC 3: Theoretical traditions in PE
Theoretical traditions → key explanatory approaches
3 lines of questioning PE
● What do we observe?: observed patterns across time/place
What is an economy?: work & production consumption distribution finance
What is economies?: discipline that studies how economy works
What is economic?: alternative use/allocation of scarce resources
What is a commodity?: goods sold on market
How PE differs?: multi-disciplinary approach. Rejection of artificial separation
What does PE address?:
● issues of vital importance for individuals/collectives
● economies and economic aspects of social life
● social relations within which they occur
● power/politics, culture, historical moments, places
Neoclassical economics: prevailing perspective enormously influential
,LEC 2: What is capitalism?
What appears in economy?: production distribution exchange consumption work
Economies are configurations of:
Actors production accumulation of value
institutions allocation, distribution of value
Organisational techniques welfare, inequality outcomes
Technologies implications for environment
Interests relations to politics
Forms of economy:
● hunter/gatherer → communal → slaveholder → feudal → market/capitalist →
socialist
Dimensions of variation
● divisions of labour
● property rights
● cooperation, competition
● power relations
● ultimate aims
● mechanisms of economic coordination
Economies are social/dynamic
● founded on social activity, including politics. Not understood independently of social
context
● Subject to continuity, instability and change. eg Rapid growth / recession / creative
destruction
● Shaped by relations among competing interests. eg feudalism / primitive
accumulation
Berstein’s 4 questions
● Who owns what?: property rights / origin / attributes
● Who does what?: division of labour
● Who gets what?: income/rent profits/loss
● What do they do with it?: consumption / oppotten
Market v. Capitalism.
● Market =
○ anywhere supply/demand meet
○ founded on voluntary exchange
○ amenity embedded in particular setting
● Capitalism =
○ natural form of economy
○ elite-driven project
○ efficiency only has meaning in regard to something
Defining Capitalism
● form of economy
● employers using privately owned capital goods
● hire wage labour to produce commodities
● purpose is profit
● role of state, ideology and tendency toward expansion
, Key features of capitalism
● central social relation is capital/labour that is asymmetric
○ those with tools and those without
● Decentralised mechanism of economic coordination (invisible hand)
● Markets for labour / capital / land / goods & services
● Competitive drive for profits & innovation → capital accumulation
Variable properties of capitalist economies
● qualities of supporting institutions
● presence/absence of ‘voice’ voluntary association rights
○ voting rights / labour or employers communities
● Universal dependence on unpaid labour
Capitalism refers to particular kind of society
● complex and dynamic networks of social relations
○ economic relations/systems
○ political relations/systems
○ cultural systems/production
Evaluating an economy’s performance
efficiency equity
profitability sustainability
freedom social goals
Proponents of capitalism:
● income & wealth generation
● dynamism
● massive expansion in economic output
● reduction in poverty
Criticism:
- promotes consumerism - limits freedom/autonomy
- blocks human flourishing - fuels militarism (resource availability)
- violates egalitarian principles - limits democracy (constant competition)
- key respects inefficient - erodes community
- perpetuates elimanable suffer - environmentally destructive
- commodification threatens human values
Capitalism & environment
● growth addicted: endless accumulation / pursuit of profit
● absent mechanism for self-regulation
● tends towards over-consumption
LEC 3: Theoretical traditions in PE
Theoretical traditions → key explanatory approaches
3 lines of questioning PE
● What do we observe?: observed patterns across time/place
