PO 352 - Theory and Practice: Problems of Economy

This course aims to unite the study of political theory and contemporary politics by analyzing the problem of political economy as it currently exists in the United States in light of the understandings of this problem proposed by various political theorists. The course is a combination of lecture and discussion, involving the analysis of empirical literature on the problem of political economy, faction, and the extent of government power in America today as well as the careful reading of primary texts in political theory. Thinkers to be read include Aristotle, Locke, Smith, and others, and, from an American perspective, Madison, Hamilton, Herbert Croly, Friedrich Hayek, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Tocqueville.

Four credits.