UG.BA.POLEC - Political Economy, BA

This program explores the complex interrelation between politics and government, on one hand, and economic life, on the other. These two spheres of human life profoundly influence one another in many ways, but with the specialization that characterizes the modern university, they tend to be studied in isolation of one another. This program is an effort to consider them together. It will examine both how or even whether different forms of government (democracy, Feudalism, oligarchy, communism, liberal democracy, caliphate, etc.) shape or correspond to different forms of economic life and conversely how different forms of economic life might influence what forms of government are possible or necessary. In looking at these relations, the goal is for students to understand the fundamental alternative ways of thinking about the relation between government and economic life throughout history, but also to pay special attention to the requirements of a free society. In addition, the program will consider the relations between the economic and political implications of specific policies. For example, the program would give students the ability to reflect seriously on what political needs or goals produced the Affordable Care Act and, in turn, what the political and economic consequences of that legislation are (how it might change the tax structure or what sorts of medical services are available, how it might change the relation between citizens and government or the relations between younger and older citizens, etc.). In pursuing these aims, the program attempts to balance broad theoretical concepts and concerns with some of the concepts and tools of modern economic analysis as well as giving attention to issues that are important to contemporary students, such as an understanding of the American economy and of globalization. The goal is not to produce professional economists (for that AU offers various degrees in Economics, Finance, etc., which might make a good double major with Political Economy), but to give students the concepts and background necessary for thinking about how government and the economy are interrelated. Put another way, the program will help students think about how their concerns for justice, freedom, power, and wealth are interrelated.

Undergraduate

UG.BA.POLEC

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