Undergraduate Course: Politics of Crisis and Austerity (PLIT10199)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Why do economic crises continue to provoke austerity policies? This course encourages students to develop sophisticated understandings of the nature and trajectory of 'crises', the rationale for and critiques of 'austerity' as a policy choice, and - crucially - the ways in which 'crisis' and 'austerity' are related historically and conceptually. |
| Course description |
This course considers the relationship between economic crises and the cluster of policy solutions known as 'austerity'. These are issues of great contemporary relevance and urgency, but the course also situates them within a broader historical and theoretical discussion. It asks why austerity is often seen as the most efficacious solution to economic downturn, and considers whether the resort to austerity is justified in a technical sense or is rather always an ideological choice. The course considers whether, in the pursuit of austerity solutions, policy-makers draw lessons from (and in doing so perhaps repeat errors from) the past in light of the history of crises of capitalism. Indeed we will ask whether 'crises' are phenomena that follow familiar or cyclical patterns, both in terms of their causes and in the ways in which 'crisis politics' plays out. The course seeks to understand the intellectual roots of 'austerity' (or 'expansionary fiscal contraction') and examines the institutional and ideational factors that explain its widespread use by policy-makers in recent decades. The course considers whether austerity as a policy package is either compatible with or sustainable under democratic politics. The course examines the social impact of austerity budgeting in areas such as public health and gender and discusses the emergent populist politics of anti-austerity on both sides of the political spectrum. We ask important questions about the political authority of economic knowledge and how and why austerity is presented as a set of 'economic' solutions to 'economic' problems. The course draws mostly on literature from the political science subfields of comparative and international political economy, but does so in a spirit of openness and multi-disciplinarity. As such students will also be asked to read some texts from fields such as macroeconomics, economic history, sociology, cultural studies and public health. Note that one of the thematic threads running though the course is the different types of stories told about crises and austerity by different disciplines or fields of study. The course largely focuses on these dynamics as they play out within capitalist democracies.
The course will be taught in a weekly two-hour block, which will feature a mixture of mini-lectures, small group exercises and plenary discussions. Up to two sessions in mid-semester will be devoted to group presentations. All teaching sessions will be interactive and driven by an ethos of active learning. Discussion will be driven by weekly assigned readings and students will be encouraged, including as part of their assessment, to actively reflect on their learning.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 4 Politics/International Relations courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate familiarity and engagement with the main academic and policy debates about economic crises, austerity as a policy choice and the relationship between crises and austerity
- Think analytically and critically about the significance of how knowledge about economic crises and austerity is generated and operationalised politically
- Effectively communicate and synthesise knowledge around the themes of crisis and austerity
- Reflect on their how learning in the context of the study of crisis and austerity carries wider relevance for their broader programme of study
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Reading List
Blyth. M (2013) Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Oxford University Press
Hozic, A. and True, J. (eds) (2016) Scandalous Economics: Gender and the Politics of Financial Crisis, Oxford University Press.
Kindleberger, C.P. and Aliber, R.Z. (2015) Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, 7th ed., Palgrave Macmillan.
Mattei, C.E. (2022) The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism, University of Chicago Press.
Tooze, A. (2018) Crashed. How a Decade of Financial Crisis Changed the World, Allen Lane. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Critical thinking
Collaboration
Reflective learning
Curiosity
Research skills |
| Keywords | crisis,austerity,economic ideas,democracy,capitalism |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Ben Rosamond
Tel:
Email: Ben.Rosamond@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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