July 8
Political Economy vs. Mainstream Economics
Models, Real World
Reading:
1) “What is Political Economy?”
(from Frank Stilwell. 2011. Political Economy: The Contest of Economic Ideas, New York: Oxford University Press -Third Edition)
2) Why should you study political economy? (3.5 min video by Sam Bowles)
Supplementary material:
3) E. A. Tonak and S. Savran. 1987. Interview with Paul Sweezy. Monthly Review. April.
Slides:
Slides #1
July 15
Understanding and Evaluating Economic System
Efficiency, Productivity, Equality, Participation
Reading:
1) "Economic Systems" (from Frank Stilwell).
Supplementary material:
2) Anwar Shaikh and E. Ahmet Tonak. 1994. Measuring the Wealth of Nations: The Political Economy of National Accounts. New York: Cambridge University of Press.
Read only Introduction; if you have time also Chapter 1 and possibly Chapter 2)
3) Michael Löwy, Bengi Akbulut, Sabrina Fernandes and Giorgos Kallis. 2022. For an Ecosocialist Degrowth. Monthly Review. April.
Slides:
Slides #2
July 22
Historical Materialism, Class Struggle, Modes of Production
Productive Forces, Relations of Production, Social Revolution
1) "The Mode of Production" (from Frank Stilwell).
2) Marx, K. 1859. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, “Preface.”
Slides:
Slides #3
July 29
The Distinctive Features of Capitalism, Value and, Exploitation
Income and Wealth Inequality, the Capitalist State
"Labour, Value, Exploitation" (from Frank Stilwell).
Supplementary material:
1) Shaikh, A. and Tonak, E. Ahmet. 2002. The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Welfare State. Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism, Ron Baiman, Heather Boushey, and Dawn Saunders, (eds.), M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York.
2) Karabacak, Y. and Tonak, E. Ahmet. 2022. The Net Social Wage in Turkey: 1980-2019. Review of Radical Political Economics.
Slides #4
August 5
Capital Accumulation, Reserve Army of Labor
Unemployment, Inflation, Keynesianism
"Capital Accumulation" (from Frank Stilwell).
The Great Depression and the Keynesian Revolution (watch only 9:33-14:46 min; video)
Slides #5
August 12
Economic Crises: Cycles or Breakdowns
FROP, Reproduction Schemes
"Economic Crises" (from Frank Stilwell)
"The Global Economic Crisis and Its Implications" (a talk on the so-called 2007-8 financial crisis by Anwar Shaikh)
Slides #6
August 19
Imperialism or Globalization
Deglobalization, Reconfiguration of Blocks
"Imperialism" (from Frank Stilwell)
E. Ahmet Tonak. 2020. “Moribund Competitive Capitalism”. The Veins of the South Are Still Open: Debates Around the Imperialism of Our Time. Emiliano López ed. New Delhi: LeftWord Books (also in Spanish)
E. Ahmet Tonak and Vijay Prashad. 2022. "Western-Led Globalization Might End, but the New Globalization Might Have an Eastern Face". Counterpunch. April 21.
Slides #7
August 26
Neoliberalism and Financialization
Privatization, Profit-on-Alienation
"Neoliberalism" (from Jim Stanford. 2015. Economics for Everyone. London: Pluto Books)
"Financialization" (from Jim Stanford. 2015. Economics for Everyone. London: Pluto Books)
September 2
Ecological Crisis: Green New Deal, Degrowth or Eco-socialism
Energy, Mining, Agriculture
Jason Hickel. 2018-2020. A series of blog entries on Degrowth and its Critiques.
Michael Löwy, Bengi Akbulut, Sabrina Fernandes and Giorgos Kallis. 2022. For an Ecosocialst Degrowth. Monthly Review. April.
September 9
Socialism: Experiments, Market Socialism, Planning
Chile, China, Cuba, Kerala.