ECON 288 - Foundations of Political Economy

In this course, we study how and why capitalist economies fail to deliver sustainably prosperous, equitable, democratic and meaningful lives for many of the world’s people and we consider how economies might be redesigned to provide a brighter future. We begin by discussing the relationship of Radical Political Economy (RPE) to Marxism, socialism, and mainstream economics. Next, we survey RPE views of class, gender, and racial/ethnic inequalities as fundamental to modern capitalism. The third part of the course introduces central tools of Marxian economic analysis. We end by discussing alternative visions for economies of the future (cooperative enterprises, solidarity economies, democratic socialism, and beyond).

Prerequisites
ECON 101 or ECON 102 or ECON 103 or Permission of Instructor

Credits 4

Compass Attributes
Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars