https://sites.duke.edu/intrope/

COURSE OVERVIEW:
Introduction to Political Economy is a selfcontained and nontechnical overview of the intellectual history of political economy, the logic of microeconomics, and the definitions used in macroeconomics. It introduces the notion of a political economy, emphasizing the moral and ethical problems that markets solve, and fail to solve.

LECTURE OVERVIEW:
1. Is economics a science?
2. Do institutions evolve (coyotes), or emerge from conscious choice (chihuahuas)? Another example is also given, comparing Jewish dietary and food preparation rules with "modern" food handling rules based on a theory of germ pathology. They are surprisingly similar, showing that there are at least two paths to development of rules.
3. The briefest statement of the best argument for capitalism is NOT greed, it's not selfinterest
It's the relation between property, voluntary exchange, and price. These have a connected set of consequentialist and natural rights implications. No way to evaluate them separately, because they can't really be disconnected.
4. The political theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau are discussed, and the implications for the morality and importance of property described.
5. Does your dog own your house?
6. Two court cases are discussed: (a) Hinman v. Pacific Air (1936) and (b) Jacques v. Steenberg Homes (1997). The implications for our understanding, and the social status, of property, is discussed.

READINGS:
Locke, John. Second Treatise on Government, Chapter 5, “On Property,” (http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtr0... ) (OPTIONAL: Background on Locke, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/loc... )
Rousseau, JeanJacques. “Discourse on Inequality,” Part II. (http://www.constitution.org/jjr/ineq_... ) (OPTIONAL: Background on Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rou...)
Schmidtz, David. 1994. “The Institution of Property.” Social Philosophy and Policy. 11:4262. (http://davidschmidtz.com/sites/defaul... paper/3/InstitutionProperty2012.pdf)
Hinman v. Pacific Air Transport, 1936, 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. (http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?... 19501985)
Jacques v. Steenberg Homes, Inc., 1997, Wisconsin. (http://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/Di... )
Hardin, Garrett. 1969. “Tragedy of the Commons.” Science. (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/162... )

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Produced by Shaun King, Duke University Department of Political Science Multimedia Specialist