Minor in Political Economy

This course introduces microeconomic concepts such as supply and demand analysis, theories of the firm and individual behavior, competition and monopoly, welfare analysis, and labor market. Students will also be introduced to the use of microeconomic applications to address problems such as the role of government, environmental policies, insurance markets, and income distribution.

This course introduces macroeconomic concepts and analysis of unemployment and inflation within the context of the business cycle, the determinants of economic growth, the role of interest rates in savings and investment, the interaction of money and the banking system, and corrective monetary and fiscal policies. Students gain an international perspective by assessing the role of international trade and exchange rates in the modern global economy.
Prerequisite: Take EC-202

This course investigates the foundations of market capitalism and the state's role in organizing economic life. Students will analyze the tension between market forces and democratic values, exploring how political institutions enable and constrain capitalist systems.

An interdisciplinary course that lies at the crossroads of economics and politics. Explores the dynamic interplay between politics and economics in shaping developments in the global economy. Specific topics to be covered include the politics of international trade and finance, economic development, regional integration, and the role of financial institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

This course examines basic theories of international trade, modern trade policies, and international finance. It overviews the changing global business patterns, with a special focus on new economic and regulatory policy challenges in the aftermath of the first global recession of the 21st century. Students who master the course material will gain knowledge and skills for succeeding both in the public sector institutions and in international business organizations.
Prerequisite: Take EC-203;

This course examines the history of American capitalism, with a focus on the affects and effects of capitalist growth. Topics covered include American labor, finance, and the accompanying social and political forces that helped to shape American capitalism from its inception to present.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115

Topics include the philosophical foundations of Marx's critical project, analysis of key concepts like alienation and exploitation, his critique of liberal political thought, and his materialist view of history. The course may also consider how later thinkers have adapted, challenged, and applied Marx's insights.
Prerequisite: Take a 3 credit Philosophy 100-level course

Conservatism will study conservative political thinking as a general philosophical approach to politics and social issues, present in all times and places, and as an evolving body of thought and movement in the United States.
Prerequisite: 100-level philosophy course

Progressivism will study progressive political thinking as a general philosophical approach to politics and social issues, present in all times and places, and as an evolving movement and body of thought in the United States.
Prerequisite: 100-level philosophy course

This course studies progressive political thinking as a general philosophic approach and as an evolving movement and body of thought in the United States. We will focus on America's founding documents and follow progressivism from the late nineteenth century to the issues and events of the present day.

What conservatives have in common is an unwavering reverence for history and tradition. Consequently, what it means to be a conservative is determined by time and place. This course examines many variants of conservatism, including eighteenth-century Europe and the contemporary United States.

Topics include the philosophical foundations of Marx's critical project, analysis of key concepts like alienation and exploitation, his critique of liberal political thought, and his materialist view of history. The course may also consider how later thinkers have adapted, challenged, and applied Marx's insights to contemporary capitalist societies.

An interdisciplinary course that lies at the crossroads of economics and politics. Explores the dynamic interplay between politics and economics in shaping developments in the global economy. Specific topics to be covered include the politics of international trade and finance, economic development, regional integration, and the role of financial institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

The aim of this course is for students to develop an understanding of the nature, causes, and consequences of poverty and socioeconomic inequality in contemporary United States. These problems are examined from theoretical, descriptive, historical, and comparative perspectives. The intersection of the problems of poverty and inequality with gender, race, ethnicity, and political power are also examined. Students will have an opportunity to examine critically current public policies designed to deal with the problems of poverty and inequality in American society.

Centered on Putnam's influential Bowling Alone (2001), this course examines the concept of social capital and the role of social capital in the building and maintenance of community life and civil society.

Major socioeconomic developments in twenty-first-century capitalism (e.g., consumer culture, global labor market, media empires) are studied. The persistence of inequality and poverty, fragmentation of family and community, unhealthy constructions of self image, and other social problems are explained in terms of these developments.

This course 1.) examines how human activities contribute to environmental problems such as climate change, pollution, disappearance of natural habitat, decreasing biodiversity, diminishing natural resources, deforestation, erosion, and desertification; 2.) analyzes the impact of environmental degradation on human populations and human societies; and 3.) identifies those steps taken and yet to be taken to end degradation and restore environmental health. A project in which students take action in some group organization or community to make its impacts on the environment more positive is required.

Examines the history and formulation of social welfare policy in the United States, with a focus on structural and politicized inequities in cultural and institutional elements of society. This course is a prerequisite to SW 266 and a corequisite to SW 275 and SW 276.
Prerequisite: Take SW-101