Political Economy of Non-Democracies

ECON 2418 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Non-democratic regimes have been the oldest and most common form of political governance. This course studies the forces of stability and forces of change in non-democratic regimes. Concerning the forces of stability, we will cover topics such as repression, hatred, state coercion, information control, corruption, co-optation, and political trust and norms. Concerning the forces of change, we will cover topics such as democratization, collective actions, conflict, nation building, reform and privatization, state capacity, bureaucracy, and the role of institutions on economic development and innovation. We will explore these topics both theoretically and empirically. Students will be exposed to various workhorse models in political economy, as well as recent advances in empirical methods such as natural experiments, field experiments, lab experiments, lab-in-the-field experiments, and text analyses.