Course Outline and Reading List for Globalization and Neoliberalism

(Big Problems 243 – University of Chicago)

Spring 2004

 

M-W 4:30-5:50., Cobb 101

  

Instructors:                                                                  

Teaching Assistant:

Mel Rothenberg

mel@math.uchicago.edu

Ron Baiman

rbaiman@uic.edu

 

 

 

The first half of the course will focus on background material and will consist mostly of lectures from the instructors interspersed with some discussion.  As we move, in the second half of the course, to the confrontation of contemporary issues, the classes will involve more discussion and less lecturing.

 

Course Requirements: The basic requirement is reading the material covered and participating in class discussion. We expect the reading to be done prior to or concurrent with the lectures and class discussion. On Wednesday of each week (except for 10th week)  the class will be given an assignment to write a short (less then two page) essay on some question associated with the reading of that week. This will be due the following Monday. The grade in the course will be based on class discussion plus the collection of these nine short essays that each student will have composed throughout the quarter. 

 

 

The following three books are required texts. You can buy these three books at the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore:

1.   Polanyi, The Great Transformation, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957).

2.   Streeton, Economics: A New Introduction, (Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2000)

3.   Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents, (New York, W.W.Norton , 2002)

 

            You should begin reading Polanyi's book immediately

 

The first part of the course will examine the rise of industrial capitalism and the development of Imperialism mainly through the classical critiques of Marx, Lenin and Polanyi. From there we will move to a discussion and critique of the classical and neo-classical theory of international trade, which underly the scientific claims of neo-liberalism. In the second half of the course we will deepen the theoretical critiques and examine a number of alternatives to neo-liberalism for confronting globalization put forward by the by various Marxist and neo-Marxist, Post Keynsian, and Radical economists. A more detailed description will be given when we have some knowledge of the participants, and how much outside reading they are prepared to do. 

 

 

            The following is our agenda for each of the ten weeks of the course. We will certainly modify it as circumstances suggest. The readings listed below the will either  be from required texts or handouts in class . You will be expected to read all the handouts and all the material listed from the required texts. This material is listed as basic readings. The other material, the supplementary readings, is for reference. No one is expected to read it all, but you will get a lot more from the course if you dip into some of it, as your time constraints allow.

 

WEEK 1: Introduction, definition of Neo-Liberalism, colonialism and the rise of capitalism

Basic Reading:  Polanyi,  Chaps 1-10

Supplementary readings:

                                    G. Arrighi,  pp  27-74

                                    Susan George,   [handout in class]

                        Tim Allen and Alan Thomas (eds.), Chaps 8 and 9

 

 

WEEK 2: The Industrial Revolution and the dominance of English Free Trade Imperialism - Polanyi's critique

            Basic Reading:  Polanyi, Chaps 11-21

Supplementary reading:

                        Hobsbawm,  (1)  Chaps 1 – 3

                                    Hobsbawn (2),  Chaps 1 – 3, 12, 13

 

 

WEEK 3: Introduction to Political Economy

Basic Reading: Colander 2nd Ed., Chap. 9 [handout in class].

                         Roemer, Intro. and Chap. 1-3, 5. [handout in class]

Supplementary reading:

                         Stretton, Chap. 9, 11

 Bowles and Edwards, Chap. 1-3.

           

WEEK 4: The first half of theTwentieth Century, the Marxist analysis of Imperialism

            Basic Reading: Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe (eds),  Chaps. 1 - 2 

            Supplementary Reading:

                                    Hobsbawm (3) (read Epilogue)

                        Mandel, Chap 10

 

WEEKS 5: Classical and Keynesian Theories of International Trade

Basic Reading: Stretton, Chap. 49

                         Baiman Ricardo paper [handout in class]

 Godley Paper [handout in class]

Supplementary Reading:

 Stretton, Chap. 50-51

 

WEEK 6: Neoclassical and Neo-Marxist Theories of International Trade

            Basic Reading: Colander 2nd Ed., Chap. 17 [handout in class]

 Baiman Meade paper [handout in class]

                                     Baiman Unequal Exchange paper [handout in class].

Supplementary Reading:

                         Stretton, Chap. 54-60

                         Blecker, Chap. 2

 

   Week 7: The Golden Age of Capitalism and its collapse

Basic Reading: Marglin and Shor eds: Chaps 1-2

            Supplementary Reading:

 Brenner (2)

 

 

Week 8-10 Contemporary Critique of Neoliberalism.

 

            Basic Reading: Stiglitz, passim.

Pieper and Taylor's essay The Imf, the World Bank, and Neoliberalism,

    which is Chapter 1 of Baker, Epstein, and Pollin.

            Supplementary Reading:

                        Ranney, Chap. 3, 7-9.

                        Baiman et. al., Chap. 25, 27.

                                   


References and Bibliography

 

Allen, Tim and Alan Thomas (eds.), Poverty and Development in the 1990's ,

            Oxford University Press, 1999

Archer, Robin, Economic Democracy, Oxford,  Clarendon Press Paperbacks, 1998

Arrighi, Giovanni, The Long Twentieth Century, Verso, 1994

Baiman, Boushey, Saunders, Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism,

            Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000.

Baiman, Ron, “The Infeasibility of Free Trade in Classical Theory: Ricardo’s

Competitive Advantage Parable Generally has no Solution,” unpublished paper,

2004a.

Baiman, Ron, “The Limits of Free Trade in Neoclassical Theory: Meade’s Geometric

Demonstration is not Applicable to Countries with Highly Unequal Production Factor Costs,” unpublished paper, 2004b.

Baiman, Ron, “Unequal Exchange without the Labor Theory of Value: On the Limits of

Comparative Advantage and the Need for Managed Developmental Trade,” unpublished paper, 2004c.

Baker, Epstein, and Pollin, Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy,

            Cambridge Univ. Press., 1998

Bellow, Walden, Dark Victory, Pluto  Press 1994

Blecker, Taming Global Capital, Washington D.C.: Economic Policy Institute, 1999

Bowles, Samuel and R Edwards, Understanding Capitalism, Harper Collins, 1993.

Bowles, Samuel and H. Gintis, Democracy and Capitalism

Boyer, Robert and Daniel Drache (ed), States against Markets, Routledge, 1996

Brenner, Robert, (1) The Economics of Global Turbulence,  New Left Review 229,

            May/June 1998

   (2)  The Boom and the Bubble, London, Verso, 2002

Cavanagh, John and Jerry Mander, Co-chairs, Report Drafting Committee, International

            Forum on Globalization, Alternatives to Economic Globalization, San Francisco,

            Berret-Koehler Publishers, 2002

Cohen, Paul, and Blecker, Fundamentals of U. S. Foreign Trade Policy,  Boulder, CO: 

            Westview Press, 1996,

Colander, David, Economics, 2nd Ed. 1995.

Colander, David, Economics, 2nd Ed., Chicago: Irwin, 1995.

Daley, Herman E., Beyond Growth, Beacon Press, 1996.

Ehrenreich, Barbara and Arlie Hochschild, Global Women: Nannies, Maids, and Sex

                   Workers in the New Economy, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2003

George, Susan, A Short History of Neo-Liberalism  [handout in class]

Godley, Wynne, “The U.S. Economy: A Changing Strategic Predicament,” Levy Institute,

2003.

Hahnel, Robin, Panic Rules, Cambridge, MA: South End, 1999

Held, David et al , Global Transformations, Stanford University Press, 1999

Held, David and Anthony McGrew, Globalization / Anti-Globalization, Malden:

            Blackwell, 2002

Hobsbawm, E. J.   The Age of Revolution 1789-1848 (1)

                             The Age of Capital 1848-1875 (2)

     The Age of Empire 1875-1914 (3), New York, Mentor Books

MacEwan, Arthur, Neo-Liberalism or Democracy, Pluto Press 1999

Mandel, Ernest, Late Capitalism, London, Verso, 1978

Marglin, Stephen A. Growth Distribution and Profits, Harvard Univ. Press, 1984

Marglin and Schor eds, The Golden Age of Capitalism, Oxford,

            Clarendon Paperbacks,1990

Munck, Ronaldo, Globalization and Labor,. London and New York, Zed Books, 2002

Nell, Edward J., Growth Profits and Property, Cambridge Univ. Press., 1980 

Offner, Amy et. al., real world Globalization, 2004, Eighth Edition. Cambridge, MA:

Dollars & Sense.

Owen, Roger and Bob Sutcliffe (eds), Studies in the Theory of Imperialism,

            Longman, 1972

Palley, Thomas I., Plenty of Nothing, Princeton Univ. Press, 1998

Ranney, David, Global Decisions, Local Collisions, Temple University Press, 2003

Rius, Marx for Beginners, NY: Pantheon, 1976.

Rodrik, Dani, Has Globalization Gone Too Far, Washington DC,

            Institute for International Economics, 1997

Roemer, John E.,  Free to Lose, Harvard Univ. Press., 1988.

Schweickart, David, After Capitalism, NY: Roman and Littlefield, 2003

Shutt, Harry, The Trouble with Capitalism, Zed Books 1998

Stilgitz, Joseph E., Globalization and its Discontents , New York, W.W.Norton , 2002

Sweezy, Paul M., The Theory of Capitalist Development,

            New York: Monthly Review, 1942

Tabb, William K., Reconstructing Political Economy,

             London and New York, Routledge,1999

Taylor, Lance, and John Eatwell, Global Finance at Risk, NY: New Press, 2001

Taylor, Lance, Reconstructing Macroeconomics, Harvard, 2004.

Williams, Eric, Capitalism and Slavery, University of North Carolina Press, 1944

Williamson, John, The Open Economy and the World Economy,

            New York: Basic Books, 1983