PS 201A – Fall 2011 Time: Thursday 10-12 AM
Professor: John Zysman Place: 706 Barrows
Office: 2234 Piedmont Avenue MC 2322 CC#: 72187
Phone: (510) 642-0474
Email: zysman@berkeley.edu
This course develops the fundamentals of comparative political economy and considers the character of basic debates in the field. As such it explores the interplay of governments, politics, and markets. How does politics shape economic trajectories; how do market developments shape politics? We are interested in how countries vary in their response to economic challenges and the politics of their choices.
The course has three objectives.
o One objective is to consider the several frameworks and analytic tools that underpin comparative political economy. These several analytic paradigms highlight, and obscure, different issues. The question is not how to choose among these lines of analysis, but how to use them properly.
o The second objective is to consider how to apply these tools to contemporary issues from inequality and labor markets through finance and national growth strategies. The several frameworks suggest different lines of argument and different types of evidence.
o The third objective is to understand how to translate the broad debates and the analysis of particular contemporary issues into researchable problems with testable propositions.