States and Markets: A Primer in Political Economy

Description

Political economy is the study of decentralized and centralized mechanisms for allocating resources and distributing incomes: markets and states. Both markets and states can be organized and combined in a variety of ways and they jointly determine what the economy produces as well as who gets what. The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the concepts and tools for studying relations between states and markets. The focus is methodological. Both the economy and the state are analyzed as networks of relations between principals and agents, occupying particular places in the institutional structure. Having introduced the principal-agent framework, the book analyzes systematically the effect of the organization of the state on the functioning of the economy. The central question is under what conditions government will do what they should be doing and not do what they should not.

"Przeworski has the ambition to address the big questions, the ability to answer them, and the tenacity to make the answers correct. This book is part of a dying breed: it is a general introduction with enough depth that even the most advanced reader can learn something from it. Written in a feisty, accessible style, it puts the political back into political economy." Michael Munger, Duke University "I would have been very excited to encounter this book early in my graduate training. It would have crystallized things that have taken me a whole career to understand. This book could and should be a central core text in political science graduate training. In addition to its virtues as a text, there is a lot of innovation and intellectual leadership in this volume." William Keech, Carnegie-Mellon University "A rare opportunity to view firsthand how modern theoretical developments in economics and politics are beginning to blend and complement one another, from one of the established scholars in the field. In his lucid, conversational style, Przeworski offers a highly readable account of the main ideas in the field, which both educates and stimulates new thinking." Dilip Mookherjee, Boston University "This is a book that will open doors for many students of politics and that will likely become an indispensable text in the field." Political Science Quarterly