Intro%20to%20the%20Study%20of%20Political%20Economy%20(continued)

1
Intro to the Study of Political
Economy(continued)

• September 24

2
Announcement

• The York Centre for International and Security
  Studies
• Afternoon Seminar Series
• Canada on the World Stage
• Force for Good or Bad Actor?
• Yves Engler
• Author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign
  Policy
• Friday 25th September  2009
• 1200-130pm
• Room 305 York Lanes

3
Overview of Lecture

• Documentary
• Whos Counting Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and
  the Global Economy.
• Economic History
• The Politics of Economics

4
Whos Counting Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and
the Global Economy.

• Marilyn Waring is a feminist political economist
  from New Zealand.
• In 1975, at the age of 22 she was elected to the
  New Zealand parliament as a member of the
  National Party. She served until 1984.
• The documentary focuses on her critique of
  standard measures of economic growth.
• This documentary was produced in 1995 and is
  available from Scott library.

5
Leading Military Exporters

• United States
• Russia
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• China
• Canada
• See http//www.cbc.ca/news/background/arming-the
  -world/index.html

6
Canadas Place in the World

• 2nd in geographical size or area
• 39th in population
• 14th in GDP
• 22nd in GDP per capita
• 8th in life expectancy
• Source CIA World Fact Book
• https//www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/inde
  x.html
• For the CIA profile of Canada, see
• https//www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world
  -factbook/geos/ca.html

7
The G8 countries

• United States
• Japan
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• France
• Italy
• Canada
• Russia

8
Economic History

• The Transition to Capitalism
• Capitalism is not the norm of human history.
• The transition to capitalism required a massive
  social transformation but it also required a
  massive transformation in consciousness.

9
The Politics of Economics

• Mercantilists
• Physiocrats
• Classical Economics (Political Economists)
• Marxism
• Neoclassical Economics
• Keynesianism
• Neoliberalism

10
Adam Smith

• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
  Wealth of Nations, 1776
• Each individual pursuing their own self-interest
  is led by an invisible hand to promote an end
  which was no part of his intention free market
  economics.

11
Adam Smith

• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher,
  the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our
  dinner, but from their regard to their own
  interest. We address ourselves, not to their
  humanity but to their self-love, and never talk
  to them of our necessities, but of their
  advantages.

12
Adam Smith

• No society can surely be flourishing and happy,
  of which by far the greater part of the numbers
  are poor and miserable.
• He warned of the numbing effects of mass
  production upon the workers in the factories.
• He supported a public education system.

13
Adam Smith

• Smith could be quite critical of capitalists,
  referring to the mean rapacity, the monopolizing
  spirit of the merchants and manufacturers he
  argued they neither are, nor ought to be, the
  rulers of mankind they generally have an
  interest to deceive and even to oppress the
  public.
• People of the same trade seldom meet
  togetherbut the conversation ends in a
  conspiracy against the public, or in some
  diversion to raise prices.