In the face of increasingly wealthy developed countries, the recent failure of the Soviet Union, and the dismal record of African despotism, the question of how to help the poor in the developing world has taken on added urgency. Led by the scholarship of economic historian Douglass North, thinking about economic development has turned to examining institutions, the "rules of the game" that shape a nation's accepted and expected patterns of behavior and interaction. Is Capitalism Good for the Poor? considers the question of whether the institutions characteristic of capitalism create incentives that promote wealth creation, by examining the empirical evidence, whether it is found in communist China, on the frontiers of Brazil, in democratic but tradition-bound India, or in civil strife of AIDS-ridden African nations.
This intensive, graduate-level course for teachers is built around the high school curriculum materials in Is Capitalism Good for the Poor? and supplemented by Internet access to empirical data and scholarly research.
Lesson Topics include:
- What is poverty and who are the poor?
- What is the difference between absolute and relative poverty?
- Creating an institutional definition of capitalism
- How property rights and the rule of law promote wealth-creating investment
- Who benefits from opening markets to competition?
- Do entrepreneurship and innovation help the poor?
- What is the effect of market incentives on ethical and socially-cooperative behavior?
Course Specifics:
- Cost: NO Tuition. ($150 deposit - refundable upon completion of the course)
- Course Length: 12 weeks
- Prerequisites: Successful completion of one other FTE online course, or instructor approval
- Course Materials: lecture CD, curriculum CD, and DVD of classroom activity demonstrations provided
- Registration: Online (30 students per section, 1st-come-1st-served, based on receipt of deposit)
- Optional graduate credit: 3 sem. hrs. graduate credit - University of Colorado, Colorado Springs - $150
The FTE thanks the John Templeton Foundation and the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation for funding support in the creation of Is Capitalism Good for the Poor? and Is Capitalism Good for the Poor? Online for Teachers.