Brad DeLong

Berkeley Political Economy Major Overview Document DRAFT

Political Economy Major Rationale:

The phrase "political economy" has at least four meanings:

• the heir of Enlightenment moral philosophy, in the same sense that today's proper sciences are the heirs of Enlightenment natural philosophy.
• the rubble left of the Marxist, Marxisant, and Marxizoid project of social analysis and utopian transformation after history bombed it until the rubble bounced throughout the twentieth century.
• public choice--the largely right-wing application of the assumptions of methodological individualism and anomic psychological self-interest to the social sciences.
• things that have too much politics to be economics, too much history to be politics, too much sociology to be history, and too much economics to be sociology.

Political economy here at Berkeley as an undergraduate major is a group of four interlinked intellectual bets:

• that for undergraduates at least the separation a century ago of the social sciences into walled, warring camps was not a clear win.
• that there is, nevertheless, great value in the individual social sciences' analytical modes and tools.
• that there is even greater value in the classical social theory tradition as grappling for the first time how a modern human society--one not composed overwhelmingly of malnourished peasants living and dying early in the small villages in which they were born and one not dominated by louse-riddem thugs with spears and perfumed thugs with styluses--actually worked.
• that the nineteenth and early twentieth-century social, political, and economic history of the North Atlantic provides an essential set of benchmarks, yardsticks, and comparisons.

To that end we make them take world history (IAS 45); a historical context course on the development of industrial soceties (like Hist. 160); political science (PS 2); economics (Econ 1, IAS 106, IAS 107); statistics (Stat 2); classical social theory (PEIS 100); modern political economy (PEIS 101); two years of foreign language; and five additonal courses--four of which must be related as a "concentration" to help them become semi-experts in some particular topic or issue area.

It is, as such programs often are, massively underfunded. It also, as such programs often do, works very well indeed.

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Political Economy Major Requirements:

Admission:

Before admission, students must:

• attend a Major Declaration Workshop
• complete IAS 45 with a grade of C+ or better
• complete Econ 1 or 2 or C3 with a grade of C+ or better
• have a major and cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher
• not be in their final semester of undergraduate work.

Lower Division Requirements:

• Economics 1 or 2 or C3 (prerequisite to declare; C+ or better)
• IAS 45 (prerequisite to declare; C+ or better)
• Political Science 2
• Statistics 2, 20 or 21

Foreign Language Requirement:

Proficiency equivalent to four college-level semesters in any single modern language other than English, achieved through coursework (C- grade or higher), AP credit, examination, and/or study abroad. Check with the major for eligible languages.

Upper Division Conceptual Tools Requirement:

• Microeconomics: IAS 106, Economics 100A, Economics 101A, or UGBA 101A
• Macroeconomics: IAS 107, Economics 100B, Economics 101b 101B, or UGBA 101B
• PEIS 100, Classical Theories of Political Economy (must be taken before PEIS 101)
• PEIS 101, Contemporary Theories of Political Economy

Upper Division Historical Context Requirement:

• One of PEIS 160, CRP 112, Econ 113, Econ 115, Hist 124a, Hist 124b, Hist 125b, Hist 131b, Hist 158c, Hist 159a, Hist 160, Hist 161, Political Science 122a, UGBA C172,

Upper Division Concentration Requirement:

The Political Economy major’s concentration requirement is an attempt to turn each student’s program into a major rather than a sprawling set of disconnected social science and history courses. The other major requirements ask students to learn a great deal of history and a great deal about the approved models, theories, and intellectual approaches of the different social sciences. The concentration requirement asks students to apply that theoretical and historical knowledge to an issue area in political economy.

The possibilities are wide open.

However, students’ concentrations tend to cluster into three groups: the political economy of "post-industrial" societies, "late industrialization and development," and "globalization" Students may--and are in fact encouraged to--simply pick courses from the recommended course list for one of these three groups in order to assemble their concentrations. Students are also strongly encouraged to take a particular flavor of the PEIS 101 course that is focused on the concentration group they have chosen.

• Post-Industrial: Anthro 139, CRP 110, 112, 113a, Econ 105, 115, 121, 136, 151, 175, EEP/IAS 175, ERG 100/PP 184, Geog 110, 159a, Hist 118, 158C/159B, Legal 140, 145, 182, PP 101, 103, Poli Sci 122a, 138e, 138g, 144b, Soc 119, 122.

• Late Development: Anthro 139, CRP 110, 112, 113a, 115, Econ 105, 115, 121, 151, 161, 162, 171, 173, 175, EEP 151, 152, 154, 175/IAS 175, ESPM 165, Geog 110, 112/DS 100, 123, 130, 159a, Hist 171c, IAS 115, Legal 140, 145, 161, PACS 135, PP 101,Poli Sci 128, 138e, 139b, 141c, 143a, 143b, 144b, 148a, 149e, Soc 172, 183, 187.

• Globalization: Anthro 139, Chicano 159, Econ 105, 115, 121, 151, 181, 182, EEP 152, 154, ESPM 165, 169, Ethnic 135ac 136, Geog 123, 159a, GWS 141, 143, IAS 115, Legal 140. 145, 154, 179, PACS 135, PP 101, Poli Sci 124a, 138e, 138g, Soc 119, 146, 172, UGBA 118, 178.

Students who wish have the freedom to choose and develop their own concentrations: write a convincing two-paragraph explanation of how taking these courses will turn the student into an expert in some question or problem area in political economy--like "dilemmas of medical care cost control and resource allocation around the globe"; "religion and the state in early modern Europe and the contemporary Middle East"; or "the interaction between economic history and the history of economic thought since 1776."

Additional Course:

• One additional course in the social sciences, ideally PEIS 194: "Capstone" Senior Seminar: Interdisciplinary research seminar in political economy for seniors. Intensive writing on interesting research questions in social science and public policy best approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. To provide seniors not writing honors theses with a "capstone" experience here at Berkeley...

Honors:

• Students with minimum GPAs of 3.5 cumulative and 3.6 in the major are eligible to join the honors program. Honors students write a prospectus in the fall IAS H102 honors methodology class, and then a thesis in the spring PEIS H195 seminar.

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Recommendations:

We also draw your attention to:

• History 7b: History of the United States since 1865
• IAS 102/C118: Scope and Methods of Research in International and Area Studies
• IAS 120: Contemporary Mexico
• IAS C175: The Economics of Climate Change
• PEIS 150: Topics in Political Economy
• PEIS 155: Developments in Approaches to Modern Political Economy
• PEIS 192: Senior (Non-Honors) Thesis

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Minor: European Studies Political Economy

• PEIS 100, Classical Theories of Political Economy (must be taken before PEIS 101)
• PEIS 101, Contemporary Theories of Political Economy
• A concentration in the political economy of Europe approved by the advising staff. For approval, submit a convincing two-paragraph explanation of how taking these courses will turn the student into an expert in some question or problem area in the political economy of Europe--like "dilemmas of medical care cost control and resource allocation in western Europe since WWII"; "religion and the state in early modern Europe and the contemporary Middle East"; or "why did the western European economic growth miracle end in 1973?".

Why don't we have other regional studies political economy minors? As I understand it, purely for historical reasons.

Berkeley Political Economy 101: Reference Document DRAFT

Title:

Modern Theories of Political Economy

Prerequisites:

Completion of PE 100 and IAS 45 are required before students can register for the course.

Sequence:

Students intending to become Political Economy majors are expected to complete PE 101 by the end of their sophomore year.

Objectives:

PE 101 is examines modern approaches of the interaction between economics and politics--what in an earlier age would have been called "moral philosophy." Building on the knowledge of world history covered in IAS 45, it focuses on the usefulness of alternative theories of political economy, both the classical theories covered in PE 100 and the modern theories of the 20th and 21st centuries in the their historical context. The course is explicitly interdisciplinary: theories of political economy cannot do their job if they are constrained by discipinary boundaries. It is a thoeretical course: empirical and historical facts are used as aids to theoretical comprehension and yardsticks to assess the usefulness of alternative theoretical perspectives.

The first two-thirds or so of the course will introduce students to general theoretical works and current intellectual debates in political economy. The last third or so of the course will specialize. Political Economy majors here at Berkeley tend to concentrate in one of five areas:

• the political economy of post-industrial societies,
• economic develpment and political democratization,
• international relations and globalization,
• comparative political and economic systems,
• modern China.

The last third of each course should focus on those aspects of political economy theory that will be most useful to students concentrating in one (or at a pinch two) of these area.

Instructors are not expected to cover all of the topics or assign all the authors listed below, but they should discuss enough topics and assign enough authors to span the space of political economy.

Topics:

Political economy and war, market and non-market systems, distributive justice, libertarianism and communitarianism, liberal democracy and regulated capitalism, social democracy and mixed economy, international economic orders and American hegemony, globalization, public choice, late development successes, late development failures, worlds of welfare capitalism, neoliberalism and its discontents, market reforms in post-industrial economies, transitions from communism, political economy and the digital age.

Authors:

George Akerlof, Benedict Anderson, Norman Angell, Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Barber, Robert Bates, Simone de Beauvoir, Isaiah Berlin, James Buchanan, Nancy Chodorow, Ronald Coase, Milovan Djilas, Anthony Downs, Barry Eichengreen, James Fallows, James Ferguson, Betty Friedan, Michel Foucault, Robert Frank, Milton Friedman, Francis Fukuyama, Alexander Gerschenkron, Friedrich Hayek, Peter Hall, Robert Heilbroner, Albert Hirschman, John Hobson, Stephen Holmes, Tony Judt, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Kindleberger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Janos Kornai, Paul Krugman, Timur Kuran, Vladimir Lenin, Arthur Lewis, Charles Lindblom, Charles Maier, Hyman Minsky, Mancur Olsen, George Orwell, William Pfaff, Karl Polanyi, John Rawls, Robert Reich, Dani Rodrik, Elaine Scarry, Joseph Schumpeter, James Scott, Amartya Sen, Robert Shiller, Judith Shklar, Jessica Stern, Joseph Stiglitz, Gordon Tullock, Michael Walzer, Eugen Weber, Fareed Zakaria.

Course Boundaries vis-a-vis PE 100:

This course covers the twentieth century world since the Great Depression, which is where PE 100 ends. At most a week should be spent on pre-Depression theorists and events in this course, allowing students to see the ways in which the project of classical political economy set the stage for new kinds of theory to be discussed in PEIS 101.

Assessments and Assignments:

The material lends itself to in-class exams, take-home exams, and research papers. Each instructor cam generate those kind of assignments that work best with that instructor’s teaching. At least three written assignments/exams should be required over the course of the semester, in order to observe student improvement. Provide studente with as many opportunities as possible to reflect upon tbe course content: it will be new and strange to many

Course Instructional Support:

Since the last budget crisis this course is without GSI support. The hope is that capping PE 101 sections at 50 will allow for meaningful interaction to take place in the lecture itself.

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Appendix: Bev Crawford's Outline:

1. Theoretical Perspectives on Political Economy (4 weeks)
   • The Political Economy of Freedom (Liberalism)
   • The Political Economy of Equality (Distributive Justice, Socialism, Social Democracy)
   • The Political Economy of Community (Communitarianism and Nationalism)
2. 20th Century Theory and 20th Century History * Liberal, Really-Existing Socialist, Nationalist, and Social Democratic Systems * How they worked and didn't work
   • Political Governance of the International Economy
     • How it worked and didn't work
   • Three Crises
     • The Great Depression
     • The Asian Financial Crisis
     • The Current Financial Crisis
3. Political Economy Theory and Economic Development
4. Political Economy Theory and 21st Century Globalization
5. Political Economy Theory and 21st Century Post-Industrial Societies

Berkeley Political Economy 100: Reference Document DRAFT

Title:

Classical Theories of Political Economy

Prerequisites:

NONE

Sequence:

Ideally students intending to major in Political Economy should complete PE 100 by the middle of their sophomore year.

Objectives:

Students must apply critical thinking skills to engage classical theories of political economy as they were originally written in primary sources. These primary sources may be bolstered, should the instructor choose, with some additional reading material explicating salient points of each text. The course should generally be chronological. Students should engage the writers and their ideas, and confront the ideas of one theorist with those of another, so that they can see hoq ideas grow out of other ideas in their particular historical contexts.

Students should learn the basic historical thinking skills, among them analysis; argumentation; chronological reasoning; interpretation; contextualization; comparison; and synthesis. Students should also be given practice at other critical thinking skills, such as Inquiry, as the instructor sees fit.

Topics:

The principal aim of the course is to engage the students with the central question of political economy: the evolving relationship between the state and the economy as analyzed in the “classical” texts which discuss (1) connections between people and their rulers; (2) the nature and purpose of the state; and (3) linkages between states and their economies. The inevitable focus of the course is the rise of liberalism and the various responses to it

Subjects that ought to be covered in each iteration of PE 100 include but are not limited to: mercantilism, capitalism, industrialization, liberalism, Marxism, socialism, imperialism, nationalism, and internationalization. Students should be constantly considering the applicability of the "classical" theories to the present day. Instructors follow their own judgment in assigning relative weight to these subjects and the degree of engagement of the course with current headlines.

Authors:

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan; John Locke, Two Treatises on Government; Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality and/or On Social Contract; Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women; Thomas Malthus, Essay on Population; David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy; Friedrich List, National System of Political Economy; Karl Marx, Das Kapital; Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation; Max Weber, “On Bureaucracy” and/or The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; V.I. Lenin, “Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism”; Joseph Schumpeter, Imperialism. In addition, students should be familiar with the work of J.M. Keynes

Course Boundaries vis-a-vis PE 101:

This course covers the early modern world (but may go back to antiquity or the middle ages) and the modern world ending with the Great Depression, which is where PE 101 will begin. At most a week should be spent on Keynesian political economy in this course, allowing students to see the ways in which he synthesized the classical theorists and set the stage for new kinds of theory to be discussed in PEIS 101.

Assessments and Assignments:

The material lends itself to in-class exams, take-home exams, and research papers. Each instructor cam generate those kind of assignments that work best with that instructor’s teaching. At least three written assignments/exams should be required over the course of the semester, in order to observe student improvement. Provide studente with as many opportunities as possible to reflect upon tbe course content: it will be new and strange to many

Course Instructional Support

This course has--until the next budget crisis--weekly GSI-led sections. Students find the material difficult, and having a regular weekly discussion section is usually the best way for them both to practice their critical thinking skills and internalize content.

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Appendix: The Larger Barrington Moore Problematic:

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Letter on Toleration

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, The Social Contract

David Hume, Of Commerce, Of the Balance of Trade, Of the Original Contract, Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth

Bernard de Mandeville, Fable of the Bees

Albert Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests

Adam Smith, Theory of the Moral Sentiments, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, The Federalist

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

William Godwin, An Enquiry Considering Political Justice

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revoution in France, Letters on a Regicide Peace

Joseph de Maistre, Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions

Thomas Malthus, Essay on Population

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy

Friedrich List, The National System of Political Economy

Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, Democracy in America, Recollections

Karl Marx, Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Justice, Communist Manifesto, Wage Labor and Capital, Class Struggles in France, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Capital, Critique of the Gotha Program

Thomas Carlyle, Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question

John Stuart Mill, Essay on Bentham, Essay on Coleridge, On Liberty, The Subjection of Women, Principles of Political Economy

Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, Science as a Vocation, The Chinese Literati, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, The City, Class, Status, Party, Bureaucracy

Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class

Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism

Joseph Schumpeter, Imperialism

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Civilization and Its Discontents

John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Essays in Persuasion

Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation

Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Berkeley International Studies 45: Reference Document DRAFT

Title:

World History

Prerequisites:

NONE

Sequence:

Ideally students intending to major in Political Economy should complete IAS 45 by the middle of their sophomore year.

Objectives:

Instructors must use a hybrid chronological-thematic organization. Within this model with, however, a great deal of leeway--there are many cases that can be used to illustrate colonization, of which only a very few can be taught colonization. Concepts are more important than the details; details are useful only as illustrations of larger processes. Thus world or global history differs from a series of regional histories in which students face a different country each week. The course should take a global rather than a civilizational approach.

Without reliable and detailed information about the past historical thinking is not possible. Yet historical analysis involves much more than the compilation and memorization of data. It requires the cultivation of seven distinct albeit interrelated and overlapping intellectual skills: analysis; argumentation; chronological reasoning; interpretation; contextualization; comparison; and synthesis. Students must learn these modes of historical thinking.

Topics: Periods and Themes:

No more than 20% (3 weeks) of the course should be spent before 1450. The focus of the course not be on the twentieth century. Otherwise, istructors are free to weight each period as they choose.

Periods:

• Period 1: pre-1450: (1) The peopling of the earth and the Neolithic Revolution; (2) state development and interaction; (3) the development and expansion of networks of communication and exchange; (4) the rise of cultural systems including religion.
• Period 2: c. 1450-c. 1750: (1) Globalizing networks of communication and exchange; (2) new forms of social organization and modes of production; (3) types and varieties of colonialism and empires.

• Period 3: c. 1750-c.1900: (1) imperialism and territorial expansion; (2) ideologies, revolutions and reforms; (3) industrialization and global capitalism; (4) global migration.

• Period 4: c.1900-present: (1) dissolution of global empires and the rise of nationalism; (2) global war and conflict; (3) new global institutions.

Themes:

• Theme 1: humans and their environment: during prehistory as hunters, fishers, and foragers whose migrations led to the peopling of the earth; since the agricultural revolution as farmers or pastoralists constrained by environmental factors such as rainfall patterns, climate, and available flora and fauna; intensified exploitation of nature as populations grew, migrated, and increased exponentially during the industrial revolution; the balance of sophisticated technology and limited natural resources; cities, trade networks, and diseases; the rise of global environmentalism.

• Theme 2: cultural evelopment and interaction: the origins, uses, dissemination, and syncretic adaptations of ideas, beliefs, and knowledge within particular societies and in circulation across societies; study of belief system(s) or religions, philosophical interests, and technical and artistic approaches as a key to understanding how the society views itself and others and how it responds to challenge; transmission and adaptation of culturel components at boundaries; the uniqueness and commonalities of human expressions and abilities; cultural trends and trace their influence across human societies.

• Theme 3: state building, expansion, and conflict: hierarchical modes of domination and their conflicts; state forms (e.g. kingdoms, empires, nation-states) across time and space; organizational and cultural foundations of long-term stability; internal and external causes of conflict on the other; contextualizing state development and expansion in relation to different modes of production (e.g. agrarian, pastoral, mercantile), cultural and ideological foundations (e.g. religions, philosophies, ideas of nationalism), and social and gender structures; interstate relations--war, diplomacy, and international organizations.

• Theme 4: creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems: patterns and systems to produce, distribute, and consume desired goods and services across time and space; major transitions between modes of production; labor systems; ideologies, values, and institutions (such as capitalism and socialism) that support and sustain modes of production and forms of labor organization; trade and commerce; regional and global networks of communication and exchange and their relation to economic growth; cultural and technological diffusion, migration, state formation, social classes, and human interaction with the environment.

• Theme 5: the development and transformation of social structures: human societies group their members and pattern interaction across social groups; stratification based on gender roles, kinship systems, racial and ethnic associations, and hierarchies of wealth and class; processes through which such categories and practices were created, maintained, and transformed; connections between changes in social structures and other historical shifts, especially trends in political economy, cultural expression, and human ecology.

Assessments and Assignments:

Instructors must assign students a research paper that requires them to use primary source documents of some kind (either the student’s or the instructor’s choice). The paper must be submitted in stagesto give students a chance to master historical thinking skills and obtain feedback from the instructor and/or GSI. The paper should be no more than a dozen pages. Instructors must provide a final eam. All exams including midterms (if any) should require students to demonstrate critical and historical thinking skills--not simply the regurgitation of factual content.

Two Weeks of Lectures: Audio Podcasts

August 26-September 9, 2007:

September 8: Marx, Rostow, Kuznets, Gerschenkron: Economic History Association Plenary Session

September 5: Northern Agriculture Lecture: American Economic History

September 4: Slow Spread of Industrialization Lecture: Political Economy 101

August 30: MISSING

August 29: Colonization Lecture: American Economic History

August 28: Opening Lecture: Political Economy 101

August 27: Opening Lecture: American Economic History

Dariush Zahedi and Omid Memarian on Ahmadinejad's View of the World

Dariush Zahedi and Omid Memarian review the situation in Iran:

A Firebrand in a House of Cards - New York Times: Western leaders would do well to consider what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bravado really says about Iran's likely posture in the region and at the nuclear talks that are scheduled to resume at the end of January. To continue down the path of conflict could be very costly, both for the regional interests of the United States and most of all, for the territorial integrity of Iran.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is surely motivated by ideology and the desire to solidify the position of the "security" faction within Iran's ruling elite. But he also appears to be acting on the perception that the United States is in a position of considerable, indeed unprecedented, weakness... overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan... focused on monitoring North Korea's nuclear program rather than Iran's.... Iran could wreak havoc in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel. These observations may lead Mr. Ahmadinejad to an incorrect assessment of Iran's strength....

Iran has serious domestic frailties... unemployment and popular resentment... drug abuse and a brain drain. But President Ahmadinejad no doubt takes comfort not only in his belief in divine protection but also in the knowledge that Shiite religious parties aligned with Iran are now the dominant political forces in Iraq, while the American public hardly seems amenable to waging another war in the region. Moreover, Mr. Ahmadinejad very likely believes that the best way to guard against regime change from without is to emulate North Korea by swiftly advancing Iran's nuclear capacity.

[M]eaningful multilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic will most likely be vetoed by Russia or China. Flush with petrodollars, Iran has become a major purchaser of Russian technology.... China, seizing on Iran as a key producer of oil and gas not beholden to the United States, has quickly emerged as one of Iran's largest trading partners. Given this favorable strategic picture, Mr. Ahmadinejad might even welcome an American or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Tehran could then retaliate against American and Israeli interests.... Ahmadinejad's faction in government would make full use of the war footing to marginalize its rivals at home and crush the remnants of Iran's civil society.

But... [j]ust as Iran can use the Shiite card to create mischief... [m]any of Iran's ethnic and religious minorities see themselves as victims of discrimination, and they have not been effectively integrated into Iranian economic, political or cultural life. Some two million disgruntled Arabs reside mainly in the oil- and gas- rich province of Khuzestan. The United States could make serious trouble for Tehran by providing financial, logistical and moral support to Arab secessionists... [o]ther aggrieved Iranian minorities... Kurds and the Baluchis....

Furthermore, the plummeting Iranian economy will only worsen if the United States succeeds in referring Iran's nuclear file to the Security Council, whether or not meaningful sanctions follow. Such a referral would accelerate capital flight, deal a blow to the country's already collapsing stock market, devastate its hitherto booming real estate market, and wipe out the savings of a large part of the middle class. It would also most likely result in galloping inflation, hurting Iran's dispossessed, whom the Ahmadinejad administration claims to represent.

In light of these ominous possibilities, both Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. Bush would do well to avoid overplaying their hands. They should take a leaf from the book not of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the ideologue, but of Ayatollah Khomeini the pragmatic politician. Like Mr. Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khomeini argued that the "Zionist entity" should be wiped off the map. But he chose regime preservation over ideology when he ended the Iran-Iraq war and even bought weapons from Israel.... Iran should accept the Russian offer to process Iranian uranium gas into fuel and voluntarily stop... insisting on its right to do so at home... the United States should lift its unilateral sanctions from Iran. These sanctions, which include a ban on the sale of aircraft and spare parts to Iran, have absolutely no effect on the regime's nuclear capacity, but they harm Iranian civilians. Today the incentive for both sides to step away from the brink of conflict is even greater than it was at the end of the Iran-Iraq war...

I have not met Omid Memarian, but I know Dariush Zahedi relatively well. Dariush Zahedi is one of the people in the United States best qualified to understand and analyze and debate the current state of Iran, and what U.S. policy toward Iran should be. He is very smart, very thoughtful, and very pragmatic. It is a great pleasure to see him participating in the public debate in this way.

We are lucky in the Political Economy major here at Berkeley to have Dariush Zahedi teaching for us. He is a superb teacher. His courses are freshly redesigned to be relevant to the political-economic problems and opportunities of the modern world--and not to the problems and opportunities of 1951 or 1913 or 1848. His enthusiasm for his subjects and concern for his students make him an enormous asset to Berkeley's International Studies teaching programs. And we get him to teach for us at a lecturer's pay scale yet.

From a broader perspective, however, it is not good for the university, the country, or the world that Dariush Zahedi is making money by teaching Political Economy courses at lecturer pay scales. Lots of people could teach his courses well. Very few people in the United States have the background of knowledge and the intellectual skills to think intelligently, coherently, and pragmatically about the dilemmas of modernization of Iran. Dariush Zahedi does. Brookings, CSIS, CFR, JHSIS, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton--and Berkeley--badly need more people who *know* Iran, and should be throwing cushy fellowships and tenure-track appointments at him and people like him so that he can devote the bulk of his time to what is his comparative advantage. I would rather, for all our sakes, that he was spending more time thinking about Iranian politics and less time correcting the essays of students in the major I chair.

A Fistful of Euros...

One of the very best commentators on the European scene is A Fistful of Euros:

A Fistful of Euros: Germany To Exceed Deficit Limit Till 2010 : by Edward: The IMF has just published Chapter One of the autumn 2005 edition of the World Economic Outlook. The key section on the eurozone economies can be found between pages 25 and 29 (including the interesting Box 1.3). The Table where you can find the information on German debt projections is on page 15, and there you will see that the government deficit is projected to remain over 3% at least until 2010. In addition the level of indebtedness is projected to rise from just under 60% of GDP in 2002 to nearly 75% in 2010. (Italy incidentally is seen as quietly suffering from melt-up at 115% of GDP come 2010).The reasons for this trend:

Unsustainable medium-term fiscal positions remain a key risk. Among the major industrial countries, fiscal deficits are expected to decline only modestly over the medium term (outside Canada, which remains in surplus), with rising public debt ratios in Japan, Italy, and Germany of particular concern. In most countries, despite past reforms, fiscal pressures from aging populations remain a serious concern, especially for health care.

There is also a summary of the press briefing on the WEO given by Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF Research Department Raghuram Rajan to be found here. The following interesting exchange takes place during the question and answer session:

QUESTION: I have a question on Germany. Germany has the weakest growth this year and next year according to your forecast. We just had elections with very inconclusive results. Germany could be drifting in any direction. What in your view has to be the hallmarks of the new German government to get going?

MR. RAJAN: Well, I think the previous German government or the current German government has undertaken a set of reforms. Those reforms have to be taken to their logical conclusion. For instance, on the one hand, we have created more labor supply in Germany. Now you have to create the demand for that labor by increasing the incentives for corporations to actually hire more people, for example by reducing some of the regulatory burden on them, reducing the extent of payroll taxes, and so on. So creating the demand for labor by making labor hiring more flexible and so on, this is an important step that has to be taken. Similarly, there are steps right through the economy, for instance in the financial sector, allowing for more competition between states. One could walk through the set of needed reforms. I think it is quite plain in Germany what has to be done, and I hope these things can, in fact, be done by the new government, whoever it is. David, would you like to add anything?

MR. ROBINSON (David Robinson, Deputy Director, Research Department): Just to add one further thought. I think another area where Germany and indeed many countries in Europe clearly also have to move forward is ensuring the medium-term fiscal situation is sustainable. When you look past 2010 in Germany and the pressures that will come on expenditures from both pensions and health, they are quite substantial. So, again, I would say that one thing that we feel quite strongly is that Germany needs to make, I would say, more progress towards getting its long-term fiscal house in order, with the aim of trying to get to broad structural balance on the fiscal accounts by 2010.

A Question...

Is there anything that is better for me to assign my students on the political economy of modern Africa than Chinua Achebe (1987), Anthills of the Savannah (New York: Anchor Books: 0385260458)? Or is it just too bleak and nihilistic--and unfairly so?

I'm Just a Boy Who Can't Say No...

Can't say no to teaching extra classes, that is. Well, it is a low-workload seminar. And *somebody* should smooth the path so that interdisciplinary social science students who want to finish their theses next fall to be able to do so. And if not me, who? There's no money in the budget to actually pay somebody to do it, and I'd feel uneasy about trying to get anybody else to "volunteer":

However, some people are very happy about this:

Good news! An honors thesis-writing seminar will be offered next fall by Prof. Brad DeLong. This seminar will bring students together from DS, LAS, MES, PACS and PEIS into a small group format for support and assistance with writing the honors thesis. Chair DeLong will be your first reader. You still get to choose your second reader, a faculty mentor who is familiar with your topic who will guide your research.

To enroll in the fall H195 seminar, you must:

1. Have completed IAS 118 or IAS 102, be currently enrolled in IAS 102, or be planning to take IAS 102 in the summer.
2. Have a viable research prospectus by the first day of the fall semester.
3. Will have at least a 3.5 cumulative and 3.6 major GPA by graduation.

Once written, you can send your completed research prospectus to Prof. DeLong (jbdelong@berkeley.edu).

The date and time of the class is yet to be determined, but I will email it to this list-serve as soon as it is scheduled.