ECON 358: World Economic History
(tentative)
INSTRUCTOR: Fikret Adaman
OFFICE: Natuk Birkan Building, 209a
EMAIL: adaman@boun.edu.tr
PREREQUISITES: EC 101 AND EC 102
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course aims at evaluating and comparing the structure and performance
of alternative economic systems (such as the early capitalism, the 19th century capitalism, Russian and
Chinese experiments, the welfare regimes, the Neoliberal era). In doing so, attention will be given to
both theoretical writings as well as discussions pertaining to what happened/happens in the reality. We
will consider a set of dimensions, such as economic growth, income and wealth distribution, poverty,
justice, environmental impacts, in evaluating the performance of countries/eras/systems. The market
versus the planning will be at the core of our discussions. In our voyage we will heavily rely on the
politics of economic relations (production, consumption, extraction, distribution, and trading),
scrutinizing the losers as well as the winners. We will also shed light on the tension between
humankind’s economic activities and ecology, and deal with the gender issue. Finally, we will evaluate
some of the alternative structures to Neoliberalism.
COURSE OUTLINE AND READINGS (All will be made available electronically):
1) An Overview: What Happened in Economy, Where, When, and How. A Basic
Theoretical Framework in Comparing Different Economic Systems. How
Performance of Different Systems will be Measured?
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Devine, P. (2006) “Karl Polanyi”, Renewal, 14(4).
Bowles, S. Edwards, R., Roosevelt, F., and Larudee, M. (2017) Understanding Capitalism,
4th edition, New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter “Capitalism Shakes the Word”.
2) The Early Utopia—Harmony of Entrepreneurs: Adam Smith’s Initiation
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Michael Perelman, M. (2000) The Invention of Capitalism: Classical Political Economy and
the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Chapter
“The Revisionist History of Professor Adam Smith”.
3) Revolt to the Utopia: The 19th Century Capitalism thru the Eyes of Marx and Engels
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Marx, K. and Engels, F. (2014/1848) Communist Manifesto. New York: International
Publishers. Excerpts.
Engels, F. (1975/1845) Condition of the Working Class in England, New York:
International Publishers, Chapter “The Great Towns”.
4) Utopia Restated, with Newton on the Board: The Rigour in Walras and Jevons.
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Jevons, S.W. (1871) The Theory of Political Economy, Macmillan, Excerpts.
5) An Early Critique to Utilitarianism: “Conspicuous Consumption” by Veblen
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Veblen, T. (2005-1899) Conspicuous Consumption, London: Penguin books, Chapter “The
Leisure Class”.
6) A Revisionist Turn—A Reaction against Laissez-Faire: Keynes and Pigou
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Keynes, J.M. (1937) “The General Theory of Employment”, Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 51.
Cassedy, J. (2009) “Arthur Cecil Pigou, Overlooked for Decades, Provides a Guide to the
Financial Crisis”, Wall Street Journal.
7) Debates on Markets versus Planning
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Kornai, J. (1986) “The Soft Budget Constraint”, Kyklos, 39.
Devine, P. (2010) Democracy and Economic Planning, 2nd edition, Polity Press, Chapter
“Central Planning”.
Yaghmainan, B. (2012) The Accidental Capitalism: A People’s Story of the New China,
Pluto Press, Chapter “The Accidental Capitalist”
8) Neoliberalism: Factual Information
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Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, Chapter “The Neoliberal State”.
9) Developed vs Underdeveloped vs Developing—Some Concepts and Indices. How
to Make Comparisons?
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10)
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Human Development Report
UN-SDSN
Ecological Footprint
Happiness Index
Jevons Paradox
Definitions of income (e.g. per capita income vs equivalized income; subsistence income)
Various inequality metrics (e.g. gini; hoover; theil; ratios)
Alternatives—Food for Thought
J.K. Gibson-Graham (2006) A Postcapitalist Politics. Minneapolis and London: University of
Minnesota Press, Chapter “Surplus Possibilities: The Intentional Economy of Mondragon”.
Akbulut, B. (2017) “Commons”, in Spash, C. ed. Routledge Handbook of Ecological Economics:
Nature and Society.
Adaman, F. and Devine, P. (2017) “Democracy, Participation and Social Planning”, in Spash, C.
ed. Routledge Handbook of Ecological Economics: Nature and Society.
Kallis, G. et al. (2018) “Research on Degrowth”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43.
Adaman, F. (2017) “Scaling in Polanyi—Reconsidering the local in the age of neoliberalism”,
PArtecipazione e COnflitto; The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies.
Ann Mari, M. (2002) “The Feminist Challenge to Economics”, Challenge, 45(6).
REQUIREMENTS: TBA
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ACADEMIC HONESTY:
Needless to say, honesty and trust are crucial to all of us.
Cheating, plagiarism and collusion are serious offences and they will result in an overall F grade.
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION
Requests for disability accommodation will be made in time to the Disability Services (GETEM).
I wish you all a very successful term.
FA
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