Unit information: Political Economy 2: State, Economy and Society in 2012/13

Unit name	Political Economy 2: State, Economy and Society
Unit code	GEOG20110
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Fairbrother
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	All units in Single Honours Geography Year 1
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will introduce students to the geographical study of political economy - that is, to geographically sensitive research on the politics of economics and the economics of politics. The unit will be global in scale, will rely heavily on comparative (cross-national) research, and will focus on three main substantive topics: political democracy, economic development, and social (in)equality. Students will learn about the definitions, dimensions, causes, and to some extent consequences of these spatial and historical variables, as well as some of the relationships among them. The major assignment will be a paper analysing the current circumstances of a single developing country of each student's choice. The unit will give students overviews of the benefits of and rationales for geographic and comparative approaches to political economy; of the historical origins of contemporary spatial variations in political, economic, and social conditions; and of some current policy debates in these areas.

Aims:

• To introduce students to geographic and cross-national comparative research in political economy, including the benefits of and rationales for such research.

• To impress upon students the cross-national variation in levels of democracy, development, and equality.

• To give students an opportunity and incentive to learn about the political, economic, and social conditions of a country very different from their own.

• To familiarise students with what the social sciences currently believe to be the causes of development (versus underdevelopment), democracy (versus authoritarianism), and equality (versus inequality).

• To make students appreciate the complexity of the issues of development, democracy, and equality, including the difficulties of defining, measuring, and assessing them.

• To make students aware of the differential political economic trajectories of the “First”, “Second”, and “Third Worlds” through the twentieth century.

• To expose students to contemporary social science work on key political economic trends and challenges of recent decades—particularly neoliberalism, globalisation, formal political democratisation, the rise of several large Asian nations, post-socialist transitions, and the problems of sub-Saharan Africa.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this Unit students should be able to:

• Discuss major causes of spatial (particularly cross-national) variation in political democracy, economic development, and social (in)equality.

• Understand some of the challenges in defining, measuring, assessing, and fostering democracy, development, and social equality.

• Locate and make use of documentary resources on the political, economic, and social conditions of remote countries.

The following transferable skills are developed in this Unit:

• Written communication

• Problem solving

• Lateral, strategic, analytical, and critical thinking

• Planning and implementing research project

Teaching Information

Teaching will consist of two one-hour lectures per week. In some weeks, a few minutes of film will be shown—an element which has proven to be effective at making the material more appealing to the students. In one week there will be some small group discussion.

Assessment Information

One take-home mid-term writing assignment (600-800 words) 10% One 3,250-word research paper 40% One 90-minute final exam 50% Total 100%

Reading and References

1. Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2006. “Paths of Economic and Political Development.” Pp. 673-692 in Barry R. Weingast and Donald A. Wittman (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2. Birdsall, Nancy, Dani Rodrik, and Arvind Subramanian. 2005. “How to Help Poor Countries.” Foreign Affairs 84[4]: 136-152. 3. Gilbert, Alan. 2007. “Inequality and Why It Matters.” Geography Compass 1[3]: 422-447. 4. Diamond, Jared. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: Norton. 5. Frieden, Jeffry A. 2006. Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. New York: Norton. 6. Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.