Dear PEN-Lers,
Returning to the list after an absence of several years, I'm glad
to be back, to see the familiar mix of debates on a varied menu of
theoretical and practical issues. I am finding the flow of postings
both on the war and on WTO-related issues very helpful.
Could I ask for help from the college lecturers on the list? Next
semester, I am launching a new introductory (second-year BA)
course with the simple title "Political Economy". I should explain
that I now teach in a department of Politics and International
Studies, having escaped from my former position in a dept. of
Economics which ended up as a subordinate part of a Business
School (wasn't I lucky!). This has the distinct advantage that I can
give a course which doesn't have to waste time re-educating
students who have been brainwashed by mainstream economics;
but it has also the disadvantage that most books and articles in
political economy are written, even if 'against' bourgeois
economics, from within its conceptual empire.
So I am looking for ideas for reading materials which do not
assume any knowledge of economics, and indeed might be
acceptable to politics students who often find economics scary
(those equations and graphs!!). The course is planned in two parts.
The first half will provide a historically-grounded review of the
classical, Marxian, neoclassical, institutionalist and Keynesian
schools. The second half will then look at a range of contemporary
issues to see what the different schools have to say, the issues
being: the organization of production and work; the role and
functioning of markets; the capitalist state; and institutional
diversity in national capitalisms (plus, if time, imperialism and
globalization - but I teach that stuff already in a different course). In
case you think that's a pretty heavy load, bear in mind that in our
programme, the students only take 3 courses in a semester.
For the first half, Bill Tabb's text "Reconstructing Political
Economy" looks just right in coverage and approach, though I think
that 2nd-year students may find it a bit daunting - has anyone tried
this as a course text? Otherwise, I imagine that E K Hunt's
"Property and Prophets" is still available. Any other suggestions?
For the second half, I suspect I'll have to put together a motley
collections of readings, but maybe there's some texts out there
that I don't know about.
I look forward to getting your ideas. In the meantime, any old
comrades out there can rest assured that I am still writing away on
what is now called globalization, or as we used to call it, the
internationalization of capital. We're gradually getting organized
here to put papers on our website, so I'll post some directions
before long.
Hugo Radice
Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy,
Institute for Politics and International Studies,
University of Leeds,
Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
tel: 44-113-233-4507
fax: 44-113-233-4400
