The course is composed of eight modules that together will introduce students to the influences that shape the world in which we live today and to some of the political economy concepts used to explain them. It will examine the forces that explain the differences between success and failure in economic development and effective government in different countries. It will view how these forces also interact in the global economy.
The course will adopt a ‘critical political economy approach’ in two ways. It will criticize the data that are employed by social scientists to test their hypotheses on questions of governance and economic development. However, it will also raise the prospect that the problems in economic development might lie at a more fundamental, systemic level.