PLEASE NOTE this is a 2013 reading list—the precise content may change in future years.
Term 2, Week 1
Introduction: What does it mean to be studying political economy?
Seminar questions:
1) What are the most important points of difference between economics and political economy in
terms of subject matter, underlying epistemology, theories and methods?
2) Is political economy primarily a normative or a positive mode of intellectual enquiry? What are
the costs and benefits of each mode of thought?
3) What are the consequences of thinking through economic questions as political questions?
Core reading (please read at least two of the following texts):
Watson, M. (2005) Foundations of IPE (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) [Introduction and chapter
1]
Tabb, W. (1999) Reconstructing Political Economy (London: Routledge) [chapters 1 and 2]
George T. Crane and Abla Amawi [ed.] (1997) The Theoretical Evolution of International Political
Economy, 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press) [Introduction]
Backhouse, R. (2002) The Penguin History of Economics (London: Penguin) [Prologue]
Ravenhill, J. (2008) Global Political Economy (2nd ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press) [chpts 1 and
2]
Stubbs, R. and Underhill, G. (2006) Political Economy and the Changing Global Order (3rd ed.)
(Oxford: Oxford University Press) [chpt 1]
Supplementary Reading:
Palan, R. [ed.] (2013) Global political economy: Contemporary studies (London: Routledge) [intro]
Shields, S. et al. [eds] (2011) Critical International Political Economy (Basingstoke: Palgrave)
Searle, J.R. (2005) ‘What is an institution?’, Journal of Institutional Economics 1(1) pp1-22
Crauford Goodwin (1988) ‘The heterogeneity of the economists’ discourse: Philosopher, Priest and
hired gun’ in Klamer, McCloskey and Solow [eds] The consequences of economic rhetoric
(Cambridge: CUP)
Becker, G. (1993) ‘Nobel Lecture: The economic way of looking at behaviour’, Journal of Political
Economy 101(3) pp385-402
Eichner, A. [ed.] (1983) Why Economics is not yet a Science (London: Macmillan)
Friedman, M. (1953) The methodology of positive economics. In: Friedman, M. (ed.) Essays in
Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [also available online]
Brown, V. (1994) ‘The economy as text’, in Backhouse, R. (ed.) New Directions in Economic
Methodology (London: Routledge) Gilpin, R. & Gilpin, J. M. 1987. The political economy of
international relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
Hodgson, G. (1994) ‘Some remarks on “economic imperialism and international political economy’,
Review of International Political Economy 1(1) pp21-28
Hutchison, T. (1994) ‘From “Dismal Science” to “Positive Economics”: A Century-and-a-half of
Progress?’ in Hutchison, T. [ed] The Uses and Abuses of Economics: Contentious Essays on History
and Method (London: Routledge)
Maki, U. [ed] (2001) The economic world view: Studies in the ontology of economics (Cambridge:
C.U.P.)
Hausman, D. M. 1992. The inexact and separate science of economics, Cambridge, M.A., Cambridge
University Press.
Jessop, B. & Sum, N. L. 2001. Pre-disciplinary and Post-disciplinary Perspectives. New Political
Economy, 6, 89-102.
Keynes, J. N. 1890[1965]. The scope and method of political economy [4th ed.], New York, Augustus
Kelley.
Murphy, C. N. & Nelson, D. R. 2001. International political economy: a tale of two heterodoxies.
British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 3, 393-412.
Strange, S. 1970. International Economics and International Relations: A Case of Mutual Neglect.
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 46, 304-315.