Governing Society: Politics, Economics, Public Policy.

Facilitator: John M. Schwarz
Email: civicedmsp@gmail.com Phone: 651 442-8899
START DATE: July 14, Tuesday: Class will meet the same day of week for the subsequent 4 weeks.
CLASS TIME: 6:30—8:30 pm.
LOCATION U of M, Ford Hall 155 (East Bank campus)
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Understanding foundations of the governance of societies via a theoretic look at political and economic systems. Using those concepts to analyze public policy debate. Creating a model of political principles as policy evaluation metrics. Major challenges for the American Left in public policy debate. Helpful for life as a political being and wanting to make for a better society and public policy dialogue.
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• Week 1. Basic political economy—general theories and interplay of governance by government and economic structures. Basic overviews of ideologies and other political meta-narratives: Social Democracy, Liberal Democracy/Capitalism, Socialism, Elite-rule systems.
• Week 2. Economic theory overview. Macro vs. Micro, part I. The Standard Model. Theories of value. Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx. Market failures: No market is truly “free.”
• Week 3. Political theory overview: Popular vs. Elite rule. Democracy vs. “Other”/Republic. Social contract theory. “Universalism" and “normal” as oppressive notions. Basic political philosophy principles. Macro vs. Micro part 2.
• Week 4. Political governance systems: Western governance and election systems. US political structure and policy debates in 5 axes—Federalism, Separation of Powers, Democracy, Liberty, Equality. Economic structure as another political structure axis.
• Week 5. Disaggregating Ideology: Political Theory as Public Policy Metric. Revealing political meta-narratives, such as ideologies, as bundles of political principles. Sketching a matrix of meta-narratives and principles as a basis for policy analysis. Major challenges for the American Left in public policy discourse.

Prerequisites: Very basic understanding of governments, economics, political principles. The course emphasizes theories and doesn’t get into nuts-and bolts. It won’t address campaigns, parties, and “how a bill becomes a law” mechanics. No number-crunching. Emphasis on lecture and discussion. Suggested readings, none required. No assignments, but instructor willing to evaluate any written work students want to submit.
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John Schwarz has a Master’s degree in Government from Cornell University. In his time as a PhD student in the Government Department he passed the PhD qualify exam in political theory. His main studies were in political economy and political theory. His research focused on health systems, public policy, and employee benefits. His proposed dissertation was an examination of the political economy of employee benefits to be titled The Company Store: Theorizing Employee Benefits.
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He spent 11 years in banking working for Wells Fargo/Norwest in finance and control.
He is a longtime Minnesota progressive activist with the bulk of his efforts involving health systems and progressive reforms, e.g. single-payer/universal. He testifies frequently at the legislature about health system issues and he was an appointed member of the Legislature’s 2007 Single Payer Working Group; he was lead author of its final report.