Summer 2025
The University of Washington
POLS 270: Introduction to Political Economy
Full Term, Online
5 Credits
Instructor: Dr. Travis Nelson
Office hrs: Online
travisn@uw.edu
This course is designed to introduce students to the basics of Political Economy. The course will be broken into two components. The first component of the class focuses on some of the early thinkers in Political Economy, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. The second component of the course will be focused on topics in Political Economy, including Rational Choice Theory, Game Theory, Trade, and Development.
There is one book assigned for the class, The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner. The rest of the readings will be provided as PDFs. The course grade will largely be based on two exams, online discussion boards, and a research paper.
Please see full syllabus for details.
Week 1: Foundations of Political Economy
- Readings/Lecture:
- Heilbroner Chapters 1 & 2 "Introduction" & "The Economic Revolution"
- Recommended: Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson Preface & Chapter 1 "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty"
Week 2: The Classics
- Readings/Lecture:
- Heilbroner Chapters 3 & 4 "The Wonderful World of Adam Smith" & "The Gloomy Presentiments of Parson Malthus and David Ricardo"
- Adam Smith Excerpts from "The Wealth of Nations"
Week 3: Marxism
- Readings/Lecture:
- Heilbroner Chapters 5 & 6, "The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists" & "The Inexorable System of Karl Marx"
- Peter Singer Chapters 5 & 6 from "Marx: A Very Short Introduction"
Week 4: Keynesian and Friedman
- Readings/Lecture:
- Heilbroner Chapter 9 "The Heresies of John Maynard Keynes"
- Paul Krugman. "Who Was Milton Friedman?" New York Review of Books, pages 1-13, February 2007
Week 5: Behavior versus Rational Approaches
- Readings/Lecture:
- David Austen-Smith Chapter 50 "The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy"
- Richard Thaler Nobel Prize Lecture "Integrating Economics with Psychology"
Week 6: Political Economy of Trade
- Readings/Lecture:
- Mansfield, Edward D., and Diana C. Mutz. "Support for free trade: Self-interest, sociotropic politics, and out-group anxiety." International Organization 63.03 (2009): 425-457.
- Rho, Sungmin, and Michael Tomz. "Why Don't Trade Preferences Reflect Economic SelfInterest?." International Organization 71.S1 (2017): S85-S108.
Week 7: Globalization and Development
- Readings/Lecture:
- Findley, Michael G., et al. "Who controls foreign aid? Elite versus public perceptions of donor influence in aid-dependent Uganda." International Organization 71.4 (2017): 633-663.
- Milner, Helen V., and Dustin Tingley. "The choice for multilateralism: Foreign aid and American foreign policy." The Review of International Organizations 8.3 (2013): 313-341.
Week 8: Political Economy of Tariffs
- Readings/Lecture:
- Kim SE, Margalit Y. "Tariffs As Electoral Weapons: The Political Geography of the US-China Trade War." International Organization. 2021;75(1):1-38. doi:10.1017/S0020818320000612
- JARES JA, MALHOTRA N. "Policy Impact and Voter Mobilization: Evidence from Farmers' Trade War Experiences." American Political Science Review. 2025:119(2):847-869. doi:10.1017/S0003055424000571
Week 9: Cleavages and Populism
- Readings/Lecture:
- Hall and Gidron, 2017. "The politics of social status: economic and cultural roots of the populist right." The British Journal of Sociology (68).
- Torben Iversen and David Soskice, Democracy and Prosperity: Reinventing Capitalism through a Turbulent Century. Princeton University Press (2019), Ch 5 (read only pp. 216-35).