Michael Piore, a labor economist, and Suzanne Berger, a political scientist (European and global political economy), team-taught the following graduate course in political economy at M.I.T. during the second term of 1976-77, its first-run. The course requirement was a short-fuse take-home examination. It was a fun reading list for a third-year graduate student of economics. It also just so happens that I have taught about a quarter of these readings in my undergraduate team-taught course on origins of political economy at Bard College Berlin this semester!
One salient memory from the course was Berger’s enthusiasm for the work of the (then) young scholar Roberto Unger. Another was the look on Piore’s face when he realized that in his haste he had labeled his upward sloping line in p-q space a “demand curve”. Quelle horreur!
One can find the Spring 2016 version of the course at the MIT Open Courseware site, along with archived versions for 2002, 2005, and 2010). Here that 2016 reading list. This is a course that is apparently still running, which is over a decade longer than Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera (thus far, that show is still running too).
_________________
Economics 14.781J, Michael Piore
Political Science 17.945J, Suzanne Berger
POLITICAL ECONOMY I: THEORIES OF THE STATE AND THE ECONOMY
[1976]
February 8: Introduction
February 15: Neo-classical theories of the economy
Readings:
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
Robert Solow, “The New Industrial State, or Son of Affluence”, and Galbraith reply, in The Public Interest, no. 9, fall 1967.
Robin Marris “Galbraith, Solow and the Truth about Corporations” in The Public Interest, no. 11 spring 1968, pp. 37-46
Robert Solow “The Truth Further Redefined: A Comment on Marris” in Ibid. pp. 47-52.
Robert Solow “Blood and Thunder” in Yale Law Review, pp. 1696-1711.
[K.J. Arrow “Gifts and Exchanges”, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Summer 1972 No. 4]
February 22: Theories of the liberal state:
Readings:
Roberto Unger, Knowledge and Politics, chapters 1-3.
March 1: Theories of the liberal state:
Readings:
John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, chapters 1-5, 7-9.
Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, chapters 1,2,3,4.
March 8: Marxist theories of the economy
Readings:
Marx, “The Communist Manifesto” in Tucker, ed. Marx-Engels Reader, Part II.
March 15: Neo-marxist theories of the economy
Reading:
G.C. Harcourt, “Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital,” The Journal of Economic Literature, vol. VII, 1969, pp. 369-405.
March 22: Marxist theories of the state:
Readings:
Marx, “Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” in Tucker, ed. Marx-Engels Reader
Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” in Tucker ed.
March 29: Vacation
April 5: Neo-marxist theories of the state:
Readings:
L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” in Lenin and Philosophy
Thompson, Whigs and Hunters, “Introduction” (pp. 21-24) and “Consequences and Conclusions (219-269)
April 12: Neo-marxist theories of the state:
Readings:
Antonio Gramsci, “The Modern Prince”
Reading list for cases to be discussed April 19-May 10 will be distributed later.
Reading List
Part II
April 19: [Patriots Day – No Class] Crises and Growth:
Reading:
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part II
W. W. Rostow, The Stage of Economic Growth, Chapters 1-5, 10
April 26: Crises and Growth:
Reading:
Paul Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Part III
Recommended: Jurgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis
May 3: Ethnicity and Regionalism:
Readings.
Michael Hechter, Internal Colonialism, Chapters 1, 2, 9, 10.
D. Moynihan and N. Glazer, Beyond the Melting Pot, [pp. 1-23, 292-310, and any two interior chapters.)
May 10: Welfare
Readings:
E. Ginzberg and R. Solow The Great Society, Introduction, Chapter 3, Conclusion (Chapter 11).
F. Piven and R. Cloward, Regulating the Poor
May 17: Exam due
Source: Irwin Collier, personal copy from course.
Image Sources: Suzanne Berger in MIT News, Feb. 8, 2006. Michael Piore from screen capture of his webpage at M.I.T. (Mar 13, 2012 Wayback Machine)