Program in Political Economy
Political Economy is a cross-disciplinary field for students who wish to further their understandings of social phenomena and individual behavior by combining and comparing the perspectives of its two constituent disciplines.
Politics students who wish to participate in the program must indicate their intention to the Undergraduate Program Administrator. The Political Economy Adviser will supervise the student's course of study while in this program.
The Program is based on three premises:
- that rational choice models can be applied to both economic and political phenomena,
- that any economy functions within a political framework and therefore the collective decision-making models of political science are useful for economic analysis, and
- that public policy issues involve both efficiency and distributive considerations.
Normally economists have concentrated on efficiency and political scientists on distribution, but political economy students will generally consider both.
Prerequisites
To participate in this Program, students must complete two Politics courses and Economics 100 and 101, and Math 103 (or a higher level course that subsumes it, such as Math 104, Math 200, or Math 215) before the end of their sophomore year. All five of these courses should be taken on a graded basis (e.g., not p/d/f).
Program Design
It is important for each student to select a combination of Economics and Politics courses that form a coherent and meaningful program. Before signing up for the first semester of the junior year, the student should work out a tentative course outline for the two years; this outline must be approved and signed by the Political Economy Adviser.
Course Requirements
A student in the Political Economy Program is required to complete at least seven upper-level courses in the Politics Department, at least five of which must be numbered 300 and above, and two upper-level courses in the Economics Department plus one course in quantitative
methods in either Economics or Politics. These courses will be counted as departmentals. This ten course combination fulfills the requirements both for the Political Economy Program and for the major and is used in calculating department honors.
All students must pass intermediate macro economics (Economics 301 or 311) and micro (Economics 300 or 310), Mathematical Models in the Study of Politics (Politics 347), and either Political Economy (Politics 349) or Comparative Political Economy (Politics 352).
All students must pass at least one course in quantitative methods: either Politics 345 or 346 or Economics 202, 302, or 312. Cognates in non-economic fields are approved only in addition to the ten courses prescribed above. Students in the Political Economy Program must also fulfill the distribution requirement of the Department, however, the quantitative methods course will satisfy the Politics Department's analytical requirement, while Politics 347 can serve as a course in a third field.
Junior and Senior Independent Work
Students in the Program must write the senior thesis in Political Economy.
Students who successfully complete the Program's requirements will receive a Departmental certificate.
The Political Economy Adviser is John Londregan, who can answer any questions regarding the Program.