Commerce and Civilization: The Idea of Political Economy
Honors 470h, Fall 2009, Professor Leonard
Murphey 115, Tuesday, Thursday 3:30 p.m.- 4:45 p.m.
Overview:
This course is an undergraduate research seminar on the history and philosophy of political economy. Our aim in this course is to review and assess the variety of ways in which the relationship of politics and economics has been conceptualized and practiced in the pursuit of human flourishing.
Requirements:
Students are expected to complete all readings and assignments, attend all meetings of the course, and participate in class discussions.
Information on assignments and discussion themes are posted on the course Blackboard site. You are responsible for all information on the Blackboard site, all information announced in class, and all information sent to you by email. .
Late work is not accepted. Each unexcused absence reduces your participation grade by .15 GPA points. All requests for dispensation from course requirements must be made in advance. In fairness to students who are diligent in the completion of their course responsibilities, I do not make exceptions to these policies.
Course grades will be calculated according to the following formula: Class participation 50%; Analytical essays 35% (three 1000 word essays or their equivalent; high grade counts for 20%, next highest counts for 10%, low grade counts for 5%); final examination 15%. You may also propose alternative writing plans, including replacing the final examination. Alternatives will need to be approved in advance, they will need to involve regularly scheduled submission of work (this can be very flexible), the minimum total of all writing must be at least 4000 words (about 16 doublespaced pages), and for alternative arrangements there is no weighted grading. I am very flexible about these matters, and encourage you to be creative and innovative in the fulfillment of your writing requirements.
Course texts and materials (listed in order of primary use)
The Passions and the Interests (PI), Albert Hirschman
The Great Transformation (GT), Karl Polanyi
The Worldly Philosophers (WP), Robert Heilbroner
The Overspent American (OA), Juliet Schor
Miscellaneous online materials (WWW),especially:
An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Adam Ferguson (text) (alternative source: click here)
The Ascent of Money (video site)
The Commanding Heights (interactive website)
(The passwords for materials on my server space are: username “Leonard”, password “student”. These are case sensitive)
Topics and readings schedule
1. Tuesday, August 25. Introduction to course.
(PI), Introduction
(WP), Introduction
PARTI. Foundations: The Promise of a Commercial Politics
2. Thursday, August 27. The Problem of Barbarism (27 pages)
(WWW), Adam Ferguson, History of Civil Society, Part First, section IV (War and Dissension);
Part Second, Sections II (Rude Nations before Property) and III (Rude Nations under Property)
3. Tuesday, September 1. Counteracting the Passions, part one: The Political Problematic(37 pages)
PI, Part One pp. 9-31
(WWW), Adam Ferguson, History of Civil Society, Part First, sections IX (National Felicity) and X (Same Subject Continued)
4.Thursday, September 3. Counteracting the Passions, part two: The Ascendancy of "Interests" (22 pages)
PI, Part One pp. 31-48
(WWW), Adam Ferguson, History of Civil Society, Part First, section II (Principles of Self Preservation)
5.Tuesday, September 8. The Reduction of Interests to Gain (21 pages)
PI, Part One pp. 48-66
(WWW), Adam Ferguson, History of Civil Society, Part First, section III (Principles of Union)
(WWW) Ascent of Money, Episode One
6. Thursday, September 10.Reconsidering: The Variety of Economic Systems (21 pages)
WP, Chapter II, pp. 18-26
GT, Chapter 4
7. Tuesday, September 15. Economics Tames Politics(64 pages)
PI, Part Two, pp. 69-93
(WWW) Pieter de la Court, Political Maxims of the Republic of Holland
WP, Chapter II, pp. 26-41
8. Thursday, September 17.The (Social) Principles of Market Relations (29 pages)
GT, Chapters 3, 5 and 6
(WWW) Constant, The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns.
PART II: Transformations: Making Politics Safe for Commerce
9. Tuesday, September 22.The Disruptions of Market Society (33 pages)
GT, Chapters 7, 8, 9
10. Thursday, September 24. Economics Displaces Politics (43 pages)
PI, Part Two, pp. 93-113
WP, Chapter III (Smith)
11. Tuesday, September 29. Political Economy Arrives (47 pages)
GT, Chapter 10
WP, Chapter IV (Ricardo and Malthus)
12. Thursday, October 1.Class and the Liberal Creed (32 pages; video 60 minutes)
GT, Chapters 11, 12, 13
(WWW) Ascent of Money, Episode Two
13. Tuesday, October 6. Labor and the Utopian Socialist Vision (31 pages)
GT, Chapter 14
WP, Chapter V (Utopian Socialists)
14. Thursday, October 8. The Marxian Interlude (33 pages)
WP, Chapter VI (Marx)
15. Tuesday, October 13. The (Not Quite Inexorable) Laws of Commerce (38 pages)
GT, Chapters 1, 15 and 16
PART III: Recapitulations and Reconsiderations: the Ongoing Crises of Commerce
16. Thursday, October 15. Barbarism Redux? (40 pages)
GT, Chapters 17 and 18
WP, Chapter VII pages 190-end (Hobson/Victorians)
17. Tuesday, October 20. Interests Reconsidered (39 pages)
WP, Chapter VIII pages 226- end (Veblen)
(WWW), Adam Ferguson, History of Civil Society, Part Fourth, sections III (Manners of Commercial Nations) and IV (Same Subject Continued)
18 . Tuesday October 27.The Coming Conflagration (36 pages; videos 6 minutes)
GT, Chapters 2, 19 and 20
(WWW) Commanding Heights videos, Episode One, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4
NOTE: begin reviewing the Commanding Heights Key Events Timeline and other website materials related to the periods and themes we are studying.
19. Thursday, October 29. Depression and War (38 pages; videos 19 minutes)
WP, Chapter IX (Keynes)
(WWW) CommandingHeights videos, Episode One, chapters 5, 6, 7.
20. Tuesday, November 3. The Market Economy Resurgent (22 pages; videos 65 minutes)
WP, Chapter X (Schumpeter)
(WWW) CommandingHeights videos, Episode One, chapters 8 - 19
21. Thursday, November 5.The Challenges of Competitive Commerce, part one (videos 93 minutes)
(WWW) CommandingHeights videos, Episode Two, chapters 1-7
(WWW) Ascent of Money, Episode Three
22. Tuesday, November 10. The Challenges of Competitive Commerce, part two (videos 77 minutes)
(WWW) CommandingHeights videos, Episode Two, chapters 8-21
23. Thursday, November 12. Commercial Society Today: Communicating with Commodities (42 pages)
OA, Chapters 1 and 2
24. Tuesday, November 17. Conspicuous Consumption and Invidious Distinction (67 pages)
OA, Chapters 3 and 4
PART IV: Redeeming the Promise of Political Economy?
25. Thursday, November 19.The Challenge of Globalization: Competition and consumption (videos 104 minutes)
(WWW) CommandingHeights videos, Episode Three, chapters 1-9
(WWW) Ascent of Money, Episode Four
26. Tuesday, November 24. The Challenge of Globalization: Inequality and Crisis (18 pages; videos 71 minutes)
(WWW) CommandingHeights videos, Episode Three, chapters 10-23
PI, Part Three
27. Tuesday, December 1. The Conditions of a Humane Commerce? Downshifting (64 pages)
OA, Chapters 5, 6, Epilogue
28. Thursday, December 3.The Conditions of a Humane Commerce? Reflections on the Current Crisis
Readings to be determined
29. Tuesday, December 8. The Conditions of a Humane Commerce? Reflections on the Current Crisis
Readings to be determined
Final examination, Saturday, December 12, 4-7 p.m.______
Potentially useful additional resources:
Many of the original texts mentioned in the secondary works we are reading can be accessed online at the Archive for the History of Economic Thought, and the Online Library of Liberty
Useful analyses and overviews of current economic issues can be found on the following websites:
Economics Radio
The Baseline Scenario
RGE Monitor
Planet Money
Marketplace
These are my regular "go to" sites, but there are many others as well. If you have a favorite, be sure you share it with the class -- you can post links on the course Wiki (which is in its own folder on the course Blackboard site)
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Commerce and Civilization: The Idea of Political Economy
Study Guide
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE SEMESTER:
For every meeting of the course I expect you to come prepared to discuss:
1. The central themes of the readings
2. The potential relevance or importance those themes for the development of commercial society and the discourse of political economy
3. How these matters might bear on issues related to political economy today
4. How specific examples of current conditions, events, and developments might illuminate some of the insights we glean from our course materials and discussions.
In addition, I expect you to be continuously working to build a conceptual and analytical framework through which you can compare the ideals of political economy in theory and the realities of political economy in practice. Being aware of how those ideals developed, how they change over time, how those changes alter our expectations, and how experiences alter our ideals, is absolutely fundamental to success in this course.
STUDY GUIDES FOR INDIVIDUAL CLASS MEETINGS:
1. Tuesday, August 25. Introduction to course.I will review the course logistics and course themes. If you have an opportunity before the class meets, read the introductions to the Hirschman and Heilbroner books. Hirschman says that political economy can't explain how economics and politics fit together, and why economic growth creates "frequently calamitous political correlates". Heilbroner thinks it is important to recognize that there were no economists before the modern period. Both are noting that the idea of political economy is relatively recent, and that it has not quite lived up to the promises of its founders. That is what this course is most fundamentally about.
PARTI. Foundations: The Promise of a Commercial Politics
2. Thursday, August 27. The Problem of Barbarism Most partisans of modern commercial society assumed that violence and disorder were the characteristics of "uncivilized" communities that had not yet learned the value of commerce. Ferguson’s account of the causes of "war and dissension" recognizes that certain kinds of problematic values may be responsible for the disruption of relations between communities and individuals, and his interpretation of the "rude nations" acknowledges that our ancestors certainly had different manners than we do, but he also offers an implicit criticism of the distinction between civilized and uncivilized societies.
What are the values and manners we might find problematic (or "barbaric") in premodern societies? How might these be interpreted in a more positive way? What relevance do these interpretive differences have for our self understandings today?
What we want to try to do today is to begin sketching out some of the conceptual presuppositions of the "common view" that informs the discourse of political economy, as well as some conceptual constructs of perspectives critical of the received view.
3. Tuesday, September 1. Counteracting the Passions, part one: The Political Problematic. The discourse of political economy begins as the search for an effective way of controlling destructive behavior. This is the source of that remarkable transformation in the estimation of commercial activity that Hirschman notes in his opening paragraph. Throughout most of the Western tradition it was political forms that were thought to be determining in these matters, but it appears that many of our predecessors thought that politics made bad behavior common, and that a new foundation for social interaction had to be considered. Ferguson's discussion brings these two perspectives together, though not always in ways his contemporaries found complementary to the emerging discourse of political economy.
Today we will talk about how our early modern predecessors thought that the sources of destructive behavior made the classical appeal to regime forms problematic, and how this began to alter the way we think about politics.
4.Thursday, September 3. Counteracting the Passions, part two: The Ascendancy of "Interests" The key theoretical problem for the emerging discourse of political economy was to identify good passions that could neutralize bad passions. This is the origin of the concept of "interest", which has today acquired something of a scientific pedigree -- a conceptual transformation Adam Ferguson questioned well before critics of contemporary economics and rational choice theory registered their complaints.
Our discussion will focus on the development of the concept of interest, its theoretical (or explanatory) usefulness, and its limitations.
5.Tuesday, September 8. The Reduction of Interests to Gain. A politics of interest also had specific social and political advantages, and the reduction of interest to material gain was even more advantageous. Moreover, as Professor Niall Ferguson suggests in the first episode of the Ascent of Money, a whole range of institutional arrangements were required to make this conceptual and practical transformation work. Adam Ferguson of course had a very different view of the ideal conditions of human community, and his view here gives us a bit more of alternative conceptions about human flourishing.
What are the supposed advantages of chasing (as Niall Ferguson puts it) "bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, readies, the wherewithal”? What are the particular contexts in which these advantages might be critical? How might we think of the bases of social organization on grounds other than those of interest? These are just a few of the questions we might consider today.
6. Thursday, September 10.Reconsidering: The Variety of Economic Systems. The supposed advantage of an interest based system of exchange is that it is "self regulating." This is an essential conceptual presupposition of so-called "free market" arguments, which as we will later see do not always fit together with claims about self regulating systems. But at this point it may be worth recalling that economic systems might have a variety of functions and forms. What is distinctive and unique about interest based systems, and how they differ from other systems, will be the focus of our discussion today.
7. Tuesday, September 15. Economics Tames Politics . Reciprocity, redistribution or householding principles may well have made use of patterns of symmetry, centricity, and autarchy, but our predecessors did not believe they could produce the same political effects as interest based forms of economic organization. And the paradigm case of such a system is a market. Hirschman gives us the conceptual history here, Polanyi recounts the practical logic involved, Heilbroner offers another contemporary overview, and -- most interestingly –Pieter de la Court gives us a interesting example of the kinds of arguments that brought about the changes the others recount.
What are these political effects? How are they wrought? What is the logic of their operation? What is the particular historical or sociological context in which these considerations might be relevant? These are just a few of the questions we may talk about.
8. Thursday, September 17.The (Social) Principles of Market Relations. Because we are so thoroughly socialized into commercial culture, it may be difficult for us to grasp the idea that market relations have to be learned or imposed (which raises interesting questions about their supposed "naturalness"), and those imperatives can be quite complicated and difficult. In these chapters, Polanyi analyzes these imperatives and tries to unpack their logic. Benjamin Constant offers up an early 19th-century view of the potential these changes were supposed to bring about. These accounts will be the basis of our discussion today.
PART II: Transformations: Making Politics Safe for Commerce
9. Tuesday, September 22.The Disruptions of Market Society. The ideology of the self regulating market ran headlong into a number of effects and consequences that were not anticipated by its adherents and partisans. The various practical responses to these unintended and unanticipated effects in turn generated new concepts, new theories, and new ideals. These are the focus of Polanyi’s discussions in these three chapters, and their resolution-- at least in theory -- was key to the triumph of political economy as we know it today.
Come prepared to discuss Polanyi’s rich and controversial account of these matters.
10. Thursday, September 24. Economics Displaces Politics . This is the crucial moment of transformation in the discourse of political economy from an emphasis on the political advantages of economic activity, to the economic advantages of self interest. With this, politics is transformed from the collective pursuit of the good life, to the regulation of individual pursuit of material gain. And Adam Smith is, quite rightfully, often identified as the founding father of this ideal.
Hirschman traces out the logic of this thesis in Smith's work while noting that he was to some extent still embedded in a peculiarly premodern form of discourse. Heilbroner also helps us understand this unique and influential perspective.
How politics was turned into the promotion of economic growth, and how Adam Smith established this ideal, will likely shape much of our conversation today.
11. Tuesday, September 29. Political Economy Arrives. It is striking that both Heilbroner and Polanyi opened their chapters for this meeting’s readings by noting that "poverty" became the great bugaboo for 19th century thinkers. And from poverty came a whole host of theoretical developments that established how "Economic society had emerged as distinct from the political state" (as Polanyi put it). Political economy, it seems, had finally arrived.
So now we have "society" and economics as something distinct from "government” and politics. What this meant -- for our predecessors and for us -- will be the topic of our conversation today.
12. Thursday, October 1.Class and the Liberal Creed. The principles of laissez-faire (free labor, monetary stability, and international free trade), Polanyi argues, required decidedly interventionist policies to be established, and created conditions that required additional interventions to uphold the class interests of its proponents against the ideals of the ‘self-regulating market.’ And as Niall Ferguson shows, Polanyi’s claim that class played a critical role in how many of the struggles within and between nations were (no pun intended) cashed out, but it hardly explains the complexity of how the tension between free trade and market forces worked in practice. The result was – well, the result is what you should come to class ready to discuss!
13. Tuesday, October 6. Labor and the Utopian Socialist Vision. The commodification of labor was a critical innovation for the success of market societies, but it wasn’t opposition to the use of labor for the creation of wealth that informed the Utopian Socialist vision – it was opposition to the narrowness and one-sided character of labor in a market system.
What were the primary concerns of this vision? How did the Utopian Socialists propose to resolve them? What might this teach us about the meaning of labor? These and other questions will be on our agenda for discussion today.
14. Thursday, October 8.The Marxian Interlude Capitalism created its own gravediggers, and by its inexorable logic guaranteed those gravediggers would do the appointed deed -- or so Marx argued. Certainly capitalism had conjured up the working classes (remember our discussion back on October 1?), but why did Marx believe the proletariat would finish the job that capitalism had started, namely, bringing about a society of universal abundance? And to what extent does this make Marx and Marxism part and parcel of the discourse of political economy and commercial society? That is what we will talk about today.
15. Tuesday, October 13. The (Not Quite Inexorable) Laws of Commerce
Apparently the system didn't quite work like its proponents and its (anticapitalist) critics believed. Not only was the density of labor a problem, but the complexity of land and the mysteries of money further befuddled the logic of the self-regulating market. By the beginning of the 20th century, things began to unravel in unprecedented ways. Why? That is what we will talk about today.