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This course will survey the field of political (and social) institutions, with a particular focus on ongoing debates in political economy. The primary goal is to introduce students to the main areas of research and the most important ideas and methods. Broadly, we will look at the relevance of institutions, formal and informal rules and institutional emergence, stability and transformation. The course will cover a number of institutional topics, ranging from political governance and the rule of law, to courts, legislatures and the bureaucracy. Emphasis will also be placed on the emergence of markets, redistribution, coordination, free riding and rent seeking. Students are expected to have completed basic formal and quantitative training for theoretical research in political economy (students should have prior knowledge of basic concepts in economics, including game theory, rational choice theory etc.) Given the interdisciplinary nature of the study of institutions, assigned readings will include contributions by political scientists, historians and economists and the course should be of interest to scholars of political economy, public economics and comparative politics.
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