Winter term 2007
Political Science
AS POLS 4905 3.0 Political Economy and Political Power Capstone
Course Instructor:
Professor: Sabah Alnasseri
Office Location/Hours:
Ross S634
Fridays: 12.30-14.00
E-mail:
alnaseri@yorku.ca
Telephone:
22552
Time and Location
Vari Hall 3005
Fridays: 14.30-17.30
Prerequisite / Co-requisite:
AS/POLS 2900 6.00; AS/POLS 2910 6.00; AS/POLS 2920 6.00. Course credit exclusions: AS/POLS 4900 3.00, section E (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007). NCR Note: No credit will be retained for this course for students who have successfully completed or who are currently enrolled in any other political science capstone course chosen from AS/POLS 4900 3.00 to AS/POLS 4910 3.00.
Course Description
We often take power's meaning for granted. Where does it come from? How does economic power influence political power? In this course students consider how production, wealth, and accumulation affect the framing and resolution of political questions.
Readings:
- Karl Marx: Later political writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996, Paperback, ISBN 0521367395.
- Antonio Gramsci: Selections from the prison notebooks, ed. by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, New York: International Publishers 1971, Paperback, ISBN: 071780397X.
- Nicos Poulantzas: State, power, socialism. London: Verso 2001 (new edition), Paperback, ISBN 1859842747.
- Ralph Miliband: The state in capitalist society. London 1973, Publisher: Quartet Books, ISBN-10: 0704310287.
- Max Weber: Economy and Society. An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, ISBN-10: 0520035003; ISBN-13: 978-0520035003, Publisher: University of California Press
- Robert Michels: Political parties. A sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies of modern democracy. Free Press, New York 1962
- Catharine Mackinnon: Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-674-89646
- Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine. The rise of disaster capitalism, Knopf Canada, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-676-97800-1