Global Political Economy I: Theory and Approaches (YorkU, AS/POLS 3270 3.0, Undergraduate)

What is ‘capitalism’ and how is it different from other social orders? How did capitalism develop? How does it function at different levels? What theories are used to explain capitalism, and how is it justified and critiqued by different ideologies? What are the roles of power, cooperation and incessant change in capital-ism? This course examines such questions from the viewpoint of political economy. It begins by critically analyzing the basic concepts of surplus and class, supply and demand, prices and profit, investment and capital accumulation. Using these basic concepts, the course proceeds to explore issues such as the nature of the corporation and business organization, the process of capitalist production, the role of inequality, the macro analysis of aggregate processes, government policies and the various ‘anomalies’ of political economy, like stagflation and accumulation-through-crisis.