This course examines selected episodes in the history of political economy through the theoretical lens offered by the contrast between spontaneously ordered social systems, in which outcomes arise independently of the intentions of the participants, and centrally planned systems, whose outcomes reflect the design of a purposeful planner. Through this lens, we consider still-unresolved questions about the nature of social order, the relation of the individual to the collective, and the roles of knowledge and purpose in economic systems. After an introduction to the theoretical perspective itself, focused on the Socialist Calculation Debate of the 1930s, we turn to a series of specific topics, including industrialization in the United States, Taylorism, planning for war, Marx and his successors, and the Keynesian Revolution. |