Dept Sem:Mrkts Just-20C Deba

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The industrialized nations of the non-Communist world have long had "mixed" economies. They have had economies, that is, which have combined private enterprise with various kinds of state control and intervention, some of which has been motivated by a desire to insure that the benefits and burdens of economic activity were allocated in a manner that was regarded as just. This has led to ongoing debates about the meaning of (distributive) justice as well as the relationship between justice and other values, such as personal liberty and economic efficiency. Those debates entered a new phase with the rise of neoliberalism as a successful political force in the 1980's and the subsequent enactment of neoliberal policies in the management of the world economy by such bodies as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. For with that development came a dedicated effort to rethink (and revise) the policy compromise that had been achieved in the era after World War II--an effort which has set in motion another round of intense ideological debate about markets and justice. The purpose of this course is to examine critically the views on the relevant issues of an ideologically representative sample of influential thinkers whose ideas have figured prominently in the scholarly discussion of this matter. The figures whose views will be considered include: 1) John Maynard Keynes (British economist); 2) Friedrich von Hayek (Austrian/British economist and political theorist); 3) John Rawls (American philosopher); 4) Jürgen Habermas (German social theorist and philosopher); and 5) Michel Foucault (French philosopher and social theorist). Most of the assigned readings will be drawn from the published works of these authors, though students will be encouraged to make use of appropriate secondary literature as well.