POLS 6308 POLITICAL ECONOMY

Fall Semester AY2002-2003
Department of Political Science
University of Houston
Houston, TX, 77204-3011

Classroom: 405 PGH
Time: 5:30PM - 8:30PM Tuesday

Office: 447 Hoffman Hall
E-Mail: kpoole@ucsd.edu
WebSite: Voteview Home Page

The following will be the primary texts for the course:

• Ordeshook, Peter C. (1986). Game Theory and Political Theory, New York: Cambridge University Press.
  
  
• Poole, Keith T. and Howard Rosenthal (1997). Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting., New York: Oxford.
  
  
• Shepsle, Kenneth A. and Mark S. Bonchek (1997). Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions, New York: Norton.
  
  

Requirements

1. Introduction: Economics, Politics, and the Inevitability of Government
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • "The Emerging Discipline of Political Economy" by Peter C. Ordeshook, in Perspectives on Positive Political Economy, edited by James E. Alt and Kenneth A. Shepsle, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
     
     
   • "Macropolitical Economy in the Field of Development" by Robert H. Bates, in Perspectives on Positive Political Economy, edited by James E. Alt and Kenneth A. Shepsle, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
     
   
   
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Persson and Tabellini, pp. 1 - 17.
     
     
2. Preference Aggregation and Rationality
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • "Rational Choice Theory and Mental Models," by Debra Satz and John Ferejohn, working paper, Stanford University, March 2000.
     
     
   • Shepsle and Bonchek, pp. 1 - 81.
     
     
   • Ordeshook, pp. 1 - 96.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Persson and Tabellini, pp. 19 - 45.
     
     
3. Spatial Voting Models and Electoral Systems
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Shepsle and Bonchek, pp. 82 - 194.
     
     
   • Ordeshook, pp. 97 - 202.
     
     
   • Poole and Rosenthal, pp. 3 - 85.
     
     
   • Making Votes Count, by Gary W. Cox, pp. 3 - 68, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Persson and Tabellini, pp. 47 - 95.
     
     
   Midterm
   
   
4. Ideology and Partisanship
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • "Federalist #10," by James Madison.
     
     
   • Poole and Rosenthal, pp. 86 - 114.
     
     
   • Ideology and the Theory of Political Choice, by Melvin J. Hinich and Michael C. Munger, pp. 1 - 21, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
     
     
   • "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics," by Philip E. Converse, in Ideology and Discontent, edited by David E. Apter, New York: Free Press, 1964.
     
     
   • "A New Approach to the Spatial Theory of Electoral Competition," by Melvin J. Hinich and Walker Pollard, American Journal of Political Science, 25:323-341, 1981.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer, New York: HarperPerennial, 1951.
     
     
   • Persson and Tabellini, pp. 97 - 114.
     
     
5. Public Goods and Redistribution
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Shepsle and Bonchek, pp. 197 - 296.
     
     
   • Ordeshook, pp. 203 - 242.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Persson and Tabellini, pp. 117 - 199.
     
     
6. Legislatures, Interest Groups, and Policy-Making
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Poole and Rosenthal, pp. 115 - 232.
     
     
   • Shepsle and Bonchek, pp. 299 - 460.
     
     
   • Ordeshook, pp. 243 - 301.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Persson and Tabellini, pp. 201 - 273.
     
     
7. Capitalism, Science, and Democracy
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, by Joseph A. Schumpeter, pp. 61 - 163, New York: Harper & Row, 1942.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • The Rise of the Western World, by Douglass North and Robert Paul Thomas, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
     
     
   • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 3^rd edition, 1996 (1^st edition, 1962).
     
     
   • From Dawn To Decadence: 1500 to the Present, by Jacques Barzun, New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
     
     

Final

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