PS 495/595. UNITED STATES POLITICAL ECONOMY

The American Corporate Order: Origins, Development, and Alternatives

Gerry Berk

Office Hours: Monday 1-4 in PLC 924

346-4887

What is the relationship between democracy and capitalism? Are markets compatible with democracy? Is corporate capitalism compatible with democracy? Is globalization compatible with democracy? Are there different ways to organize a prosperous capitalist economy – some more compatible with democracy than others? This course addresses these questions by looking at the history of business, government and labor in the United States from the 1880s to the present. We will look at the rise of the corporate economy; economic alternatives to corporate organization; the stabilization of the corporate economy after the great depression; the crisis of the American economy in the 1970s; the nature of the new economy; and the current relationship between capitalism and democracy.

course requirements

reading: this is a small class, in which learning will occur mostly through discussion. so, students are expected to complete all the required readings prior to class.

undergraduate students

1) weekly questions on the readings, printed and due at beginning of class. You must complete seven out of nine week’s questions. 5% each for 35% of your grade. No extensions.

2) take-home midterm essay. 30% of your grade.

assignment handed out on april 30, due in class on may 7

3) take-home final exam 35% of your grade

handed out on june 4, due on june 11

or

10-15 page research paper. 35% of your grade

should you choose this option you should talk to me by the third week of class and hand in a one-page proposal with an initial bibliography by the fifth week

graduate students

1) readings. Graduate students are expected to complete all required undergraduate and graduate readings

2) presentations 30% of your grade

graduate students will choose a grad reading 2 times during the quarter and make a presentation on it to the rest of class.

3) take-home midterm exam. 35% of your grade

assignment handed out on april 30, due in class on may 7

4) take-home final exam. 35% of your grade

handed out on june 4, due on june 11

or

15-20 page research paper. 35% of your grade

Should you choose this option you should talk to me by the second and then hand in a one-page proposal with an initial bibliography by the fourth week of class

required readings

all required undergraduate readings are available on the blackboard site for the class, or in the books listed below, which are available in the university bookstore. the additional graduate readings are available from the instructor.

C. Perrow, Organizing America

N. Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
R. Reich, Supercapitalism

1. markets, democracy and governance (april 9)

required:

· C. Lindblom, “The Market as Prison,” in T. Ferguson and J. Rogers, The Political Economy, 3-11.

· R. Dahl, “On Removing Certain Impediments to Democracy in the United States,” in Robert H. Horwitz, ed, The Moral Foundations of the American Republic, 230-251

· James Ceaser, “In Defense of Republican Constitutionalism: A Reply to Dahl,” in Horwitz, Moral Foundations, 262-269 only.

· Neil Fligstein, “Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural Approach to Market Institutions,” American Sociological Review 61 (August 1996): 656-673.

· J.R. Hollingsworth, P. Schmitter, W. Streeck, “Capitalism, Sectors, Institutions, and Performance,” in Hollingsworth, Schmitter, Streeck, eds, Governing Capitalist Economies, 3-11 only.

for grads:

· M. Granovetter, “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness,” American Journal of Sociology 91 (November 1985): 481-510.

further reading:

· F. Block, “The Ruling Class Does not Rule,” in Ferguson and Rogers, The Political Economy, 32-46.

· J. Cohen and J. Rogers, “Structure,” chap. 3 of On Democracy (Penguin, 1984), 47-87

· W. Streeck and P. Schmitter, “Community, Market, State--and Associations? in Streeck and Schmitter, eds., Private Interest Government: Beyond Market and State

· P. Hall and D. Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism, chapter 1

2. industrialization along the narrow track (april 16)

required:

· Piore and Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide, chapters 2 & 3

· Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 51-89.

for grads:

· O. E. Williamson, “The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes,” Journal of Economic Literature, 19 December 1981, pp. 1537-68.

further reading:

· Coase, R. H. "The Nature of the Firm," “Influence,” “Meaning,” “Origin,” (1937). The Nature of the Firm, ed. O. E. Williamson and S. G. Winter. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991),18-74.

· Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., “The Emergence of Managerial Capitalism," The Sociology of Economic Life, ed. M. Granovetter and R. Swedberg, 131-158.

3. the corporation and its alternatives (april 23)

required:

· Charles Perrow, Organizing America, entire book

for grads:

· G. Berk and M. Schneiberg, “Varieties in Capitalism, Varieties of Association: Collaborative Learning in American Industry, 1900-1929,” Politics and Society, Winter 2005

midterm essay assignment distributed

required:

· V. Hattam, “Economic Visions and Political Strategies: American Labor and the State, 1865-1896,” Studies in American Political Development 4 (1990): 82-129.

· Michael Rogin, “Nonpartisanship and Group Interest,” in Rogin, Ronald Reagan, The Movie, 115-133

for grads:

· G. Herrigel, “Identity and Institutions: The Social Construction of Trade Unions in Nineteenth-Century Germany and the United States,” Studies in American Political Development 7: 2 (Fall, 1993): 371-394

further reading:

· V. Hattam, Labor Visions and State Power: The Origins of Business Unionism in the United States (Princeton University Press, 1994)

· William Forbath, Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement (Harvard 1991)

· Currarino, Rosanne. "The Politics of 'More': The Labor Question and the Idea of Economic Liberty in Industrial America," Journal of American History. 93:1 (June 2006)

5. stabilizing mass production (may 7)

midterm essay due

required:

· Piore and Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide, chaps. 4 (73-104)

· Lichtenstein, State of the Union, chaps 1 & 3 (20-53, 98-140)

· Reich, Supercapitalism, chapter 1 (15-49)

for grads:

· Michael Best, The New Competition: Institutions of Industrial Restructuring (Harvard University Press, 1992), Chapters 2 & 3

further reading:

· K. Stone, “The Postwar Paradigm in American Labor Law,” 90 Yale Law Journal 7, 1981

· Howell Harris, The Right to Manage

· C. Tomlins, The State and the Unions (Cambridge UP, 1985)

· J.K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State (1967)

· Kochan, Thomas A., Harry C. Katz, and Robert B. McKersie. The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 1994, chapter 2

6. the crisis of fordism (may 14)

required:

· Piore and Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide, chaps. 7 & 8 (165-220)

· Lichtenstein, State of the Union, pages 178-238

grads:

· S. Fraser and G. Gerstel, eds., The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, Part II

the new economy

7. the post chandlerian firm (may 21)

required:

· Walter Powell, “The Capitalist Firm in the Twenty-First Century: Emerging Patterns,” in Paul DiMaggio, ed., The Twenty-First Century Firm (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).

· Emilio Castilla, et al, “Social Networks in Silicon Valley,” in C. Lee, et al, eds, The Silicon Valley Edge (Stanford, 2000), 218-247

· Reich, Supercapitalism, chap. 2

grads:

· Gary Herrigel and Volker Wittke, “Varieties of Vertical Disintegration: The Global Trend Toward Heterogeneous Supply Relations and the Reproduction of Difference in US and German Manufacturing,” in Glenn Morgan, Richard Whitley, and Eli Moen, eds., Changing Capitalisms? Internationalization, Institutional Change, and Systems of Economic Organization, Oxford University Press, 2005.

further reading:

· Josh Whitford and Jonathan Zeitlin, “Governing Decentralized Production: Institutions, Public Policy and the Prospects for Inter-Firm Collaboration in US Manufacturing,” Industry and Innovation, vol. 11, Numbers 1/2, 11-44, March/June 2004

· Josh Whitford, The New Old Economy

· Susan Helper, John Paul MacDuffie, and Charles Sabel, “Pragmatic Collaborations: Advancing Knowledge While Controlling Opportunism,” Industrial and Corporate Change, 9 (3), 2000, 443-488.

8. work, governance and unions in the new economy (may 28)

required:

· Michael J. Piore, “The Neoliberal Ideal and the Reality of Workplace Practice: Shifting Axes of Political Mobilization and New Regimes of Workplace Governance in the US,” paper prepared for the conference “Worlds of Capitalism: Globalization, Governance and Democracy,” Hamburg, Germany, May 29-31, 2003.

· Harley Shaiken , Steven Lopez, “Two routes to team production: Saturn and Chrysler Compared,” Industrial Relations 36, 1 (January 1997): 17-45.

· Paul Weiler, “Governing the Workplace: Employee Representation in the Eyes of the Law,” in B.E. Kaufman and M. Kleiner, eds, Employee Representation, 81-104.

· Lichtenstein, State of the Union, 238-245

grads:

· Charles Hecksher, “From Workplace Participation to Co-Management: The Expanding Arena of Labor-Management Partnerships” (with Saul Rubinstein). Negotiations and Change: From the Workplace to Society (Thomas Kochan and David Lipsky, eds), Cornell University Press, January 2003.

further reading:

· C. Heckscher and Paul Adler, eds, The Firm as a Collaborative Community

· Thomas Kochan, Russell Lansbury, John Paul MacDuffie, After Lean Production: Evolving Practices in the World Auto Industry

9. democracy and capitalism in the 21^st century (june 4)

take home final exam distributed

required:

· Reich, Supercapitalism, chapters 3-6 (88-225)

· Lichtenstein, State of the Union, chap. 7