The changes considered in this course include globalisation and changes in income distribution, wage determination, the nature of state regulation, and class and gender relations. A study of these changes provides a means to understand the broad transformation of modern economies. Understanding the capacity of an economy to produce more than is required to sustain it, and how the resulting surplus is used, are central questions of economic analysis. This course deals with Marxist surplus theory, as the most developed of the classical surplus theories, and then looks at modern day developments and adaptations of it. The course addresses debates within surplus theories and between such theories and neo-classical theory.
Extensive reference is made to the Australian economy throughout.
This course places economic behaviour in a broad social context. It examines what constitutes an 'economic system' and how best it may be analysed. Attention is devoted to the institutional fabric of a modern capitalist society and the way in which that both embodies and moulds economic and social imperatives. Emphasis is placed on processes occurring in historical time and on how crisis and conflict are managed in the attempt to establish economic stability and social order. The first semester aims to develop an understanding of debates about class and class relations.