Formal Foundations of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics

1. Introduction – Politics, Philosophy, and Economics 2. Forms of Democracy 3. Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and Extensions 4. Majority Decision and Scoring Rules 5. Justice and Distributive Theories (Rawls, Nozick, Sen, etc.) 6. Envy-Freeness and Egalitarian Equivalence 7. Liberty and Freedom Sen's Impossibility Theorem Welfarism and Utilitarianism Dworkin's Arguments and Left-Libertarianism Compensation and Responsibility Epistemic Democracy and Political Legitimacy Derek Parfit and His Contributions Population Ethics Further Topics

lectures and presentations by students

presentations and a term paper

Gaertner, W. (2009). A primer in social choice theory: Revised edition. Oxford University Press. Fleurbaey, M. (2008). Fairness, responsibility, and welfare. Oxford University Press. Gaus, G., & Thrasher, J. (2021). Philosophy, politics, and economics: an introduction. Princeton University Press. Blackorby, C., Bossert, W., & Donaldson, D. J. (2005). Population issues in social choice theory, welfare economics, and ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

TBA

Prerequisites: First year graduate microeconomics courses