Contemporary debates in political economy

This course will examine the relation between politics and the economy, a relation that can run both ways: politics forming the economy and the economy shaping politics. The main academic field the course draws on is comparative political economy (CPE). While traditionally many political economists and mainstream economists conceptualized one ideal-typical form of capitalism, CPE scholars emphasize that capitalism can take distinct forms due to different economic policies and institutions as well as the political forces that shaped them. Yet, the course will not be confined to CPE in a narrow sense. Other perspectives we may draw on are critical political economy, international political economy, economic sociology, and, simply, political science research examining economic factors.

The focus of the course will be, as stated in the course title, on recent debates in political economy. These can regard

• new theoretical approaches, such as the so-called Growth Models Approach;
• enduring topics, such as conceptualizing and estimating the power of business;
• or topical issues, such as right-wing populism, the climate crisis, or the platform economy.

The objective of the course is thus two-fold: first, to provide students with sound knowledge of contemporary comparative research in political economy; second, to highlight how a political economy perspective can contribute to our understanding of some of the major challenges advanced capitalist democracies are facing today.

A student who has successfully completed the course should be able to:

Knowledge

• give a proficient overview of theoretical approaches in comparative political economy (CPE)
• elaborate on recent theoretical developments in CPE
• analyse selected current challenges in advanced capitalist democracies from a political economy perspective

Skills

• summarize state-of-the-art research publications in comparative political economy and assess their theoretical arguments as well as their empirical evidence
• critically discuss how different economic interests matter in recent political debates in advanced capitalist democracies

General competence

• constructively engage in group discussions on political economy topics
• understand advanced social science articles
• question received wisdoms and express their views in a differentiated way
• clearly and systematically articulate their thoughts both orally and in writing