POL300H1S L5101

Topics in Comparative Politics

Introduction to Political Economy

Themes

The course utilizes political economy as a tool for understanding and evaluating the political world. It combines theory, methods, and insights derived from economics and political science and applies them to a range of substantive issues. This course has two sets of objectives. First, it introduces students to the use of microeconomic reasoning to understand political phenomena. Political economists see political behavior as responding to incentive-based calculations (choice and scarcity). Students will explore how the assumptions and tools of economic theory have been applied to the study of politics. Second, the course will explore how the theoretical tools discussed in the first part of the class can be applied to explaining political phenomena in comparative politics, such as economic development. The goal is to juxtapose the importance of economic theory for the study of politics with the importance of politics in the study of economics.

Prerequisites

1.0 POL credit