A blank slate on political economy

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A question: what would you put in a hypothetical brand new public policy/political economy course for undergraduates (mainly studying economics, mainly with a good maths A level)? What are the essential readings? Are there any examples of existing courses you would recommend?

My first thoughts – and this is very much off the top of my head – are: a bit of James Scott’s [amazon_link id=”0300078153″ target=”_blank” ]Seeing Like A State[/amazon_link]; [amazon_link id=”0141047976″ target=”_blank” ]23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism[/amazon_link], Ha-Joon Chang and/or Joe Studwell’s [amazon_link id=”1846682428″ target=”_blank” ]How Asia Works[/amazon_link] (reviewed here); definitely some Hume, always wise about the messiness of the world – maybe ‘Of A Particular Providence and A Future State’ from [amazon_link id=”002353110X” target=”_blank” ]An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding[/amazon_link]; Hirschman on possibilism (from [amazon_link id=”0691159904″ target=”_blank” ]The Essential Hirschman[/amazon_link] which I reviewed here yesterday);

[amazon_image id=”0300078153″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale Agrarian Studies)[/amazon_image]

[amazon_image id=”1846682428″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World’s Most Dynamic Region[/amazon_image]

Case studies, from competition, immigration, education, energy policy, areas where economics and politics so often appear to conflict – it’s papers rather than books that come to mind, such as the excellent paper by Rufus Pollock on the liberalisation of directory enquiries. But also Daniel Bell in [amazon_link id=”0465097138″ target=”_blank” ]The Coming of Post Industrial Society[/amazon_link] on the conflict between technocratic decisions in a complex society and popular/populist democracy.

But there are many possibilities. Other suggestions?

17 thoughts on “A blank slate on political economy”

  1. Well, for starters I’d add Alice Amsden’s The Rise of the Rest: Challenges to the West from Late Industrializing Economies.

  3. The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development by Matt Andrews – for its emphasis on ‘best fit’ over ‘best practice’ (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Limits-Institutional-Reform-Development-ebook/dp/B00ADP786Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382276815&sr=8-1&keywords=limits+of+institutional+reform+in+development).

    And Public Policy in An Uncertain World by Charles Manski – excellent exposition of the tradeoff between the strength of assumptions and predictive credibility in policy analysis. The demand for certainty (and ‘point predictions’) greatly diminishes the public discourse – Manski shows how we should start to think when we’re ready to have a grown up conversation about making policies.

  5. With your mention of HOW ASIA WORKS, I would recommend Paul Krugman’s seminal paper in FOREIGN AFFAIRS from November 1994, THE MYTH OF ASIA’S MIRACLE which would predict the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98.

  7. Check the public economics course at lse. ec325. I did it 2 yrs ago and i loved it.

  10. Have a look at Contemporary Global Issues MN5001 at Uni of St. Andrews – I’ll email the module guide with long list of readings – my favourites Galbraith ‘The Great Crash 1929’, Tawney ‘Religion & Rise of Capitalism’ and ‘How China became Capitalist’ by Coase & Wang

  11. Have a look at Contemporary Global Issues MN5001 at Uni of St. Andrews – I’ll email the module guide with long list of readings – my favourites Galbraith ‘The Great Crash 1929’, Tawney ‘Religion & Rise of Capitalism’ and ‘How China became Capitalist’ by Coase & Wang

  13. Hi Diane, how about:

    David Moss ‘When All Else Fails’

    Adair Turner’s Project Syndicate article ‘The Uses and Abuses of Economic Ideology’

    A short article by James Buchanan, ‘Politics Without Romance’, published in Policy magazine.

    Maybe some of the Ostrom’s work, but its hard to choose just one.

    Thanks, very enjoyable as always

  14. Some background reading in economic and social history would be good (economics students with A-level maths may know little history). When assessing policies it is helpful to have some perspective from how things were in past centuries, as well as comparing an imperfect present with some abstract ideal. Rondo Cameron’s ‘A Concise Economic History of the World’ (1989) is a good, wide-ranging, readable survey with no obvious bias, though perhaps now a little dated.

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