Here is a slightly revised version of the outline. Since we will be
working on his collectively, it might be good if several people chose
several subsections to get started. Perhaps it would be best to begin
within outline of the subsection in question so that the drafter might
get some feedback before committing to a specific approach, which might
not be suitable.
I. Foundations
A. The History of the Idea of an Economy.
1. Discuss Polanyi's idea of how pre market economies functioned.
Show that markets are not a "natural" phenomenon.
B. How Economists Think They Think (methodology)
1. How economists see themselves as value-free social scientists.
2. The market as freedom vs. the market as class domination
C. Things that we do not allow within markets
1. Limits on drugs, child pornography, prostitution => to show that
most people believe in limits on markets
II. Markets
A. Views of the State vs. the Market
1. Capital denounces the state yet depends on the state for favoratism
a. Corporate Welfare
B. The Market Ideal
1. Discuss the difference between markets as an embodiment of freedom
versus the role of power within markets.
C. The Labor Market as a Market
D. How Markets Fail
E. Unions as a Corrective
F. Non-Competitive Markets (monopoly/oligopoly)
G. Sustainable economics (The environment)
H. Internet economics
III. Organizational
A. Households
1. Notice how the concept of households as an agent of production and
as an agent of consumption obscures the role of class.
B. Private corporations
C. Publicly traded corporations
D. Government owned companies.
E. Non-profits/coops/labor-managed firms
F. The Public Sector
G. How Economies Are 'Mixed'
H. New Socialist Models
I. Institional Organization
IV. Macro
A. Defining Economic Progress (GDP accounting, utility/social welfare
functions, attributes of development)
B. Aggregate Employment: Alternative Models
C. The Evolution of Fiscal Policy
D. Cracked Mirror: Financial Markets & the Real Economy
E. Famous Failures of Mainstream Economics
V. Equality
A. Debating Equality
B. Overview of Inequality (data on class/gender/region/etc.)
C. Class
D. Race
E. Gender
F. Reducing Inequality (policies; systems)
G. The Roots of Underdevelopment
VI. How Things Fall Apart
A. A History of Economic Convulsion
B. Business Cycles and their Consequences
C. Financial Crises, Domestic and International
D. The Falling Rate of Profit and What Capital Does to Compensate for
It.
E. The scramble for foreign markets, cheap raw materials and
imperialism in general.
F. The Prospect of Ecological Catastrophe
VII. Socialism: A Quick Tour
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
