How do I learn political science and economics on my own?

[HoneyBee]

I am registered to vote, however I feel that I am politically ignorant on important things like micro- and macro-economics, the impacts of social policy on society, and things like that. I want to continue to grow, not stay stagnant in my ignorance. I am only one person, however, I believe that every person's opinion should matter, especially with regards to local policy. And someday, I might want to have children of my own. In that case, I'd hope that I would be educated enough to pass on critical-thinking skills.

I want to know why things like "Marxism" (whatever that means) aren't supposed to be good (from an academic standpoint), and what the word "fascism" actually means. Google can be my friend sometimes, but in this case, I feel like I'd likely run into a lot of biased material.

To be transparent, I am a 27-year-old college graduate and I have taken political science and economics in the past, but that was years ago and I barely passed those classes. That doesn't mean that I'm dumb, I just didn't have that enough time to properly absorb the material because the classes went so fast.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I am registered to vote, however I feel that I am politically ignorant on important things like micro- and macro-economics, the impacts of social policy on society, and things like that. I want to continue to grow, not stay stagnant in my ignorance. I am only one person, however, I believe that every person's opinion should matter, especially with regards to local policy. And someday, I might want to have children of my own. In that case, I'd hope that I would be educated enough to pass on critical-thinking skills.

I want to know why things like "Marxism" (whatever that means) aren't supposed to be good (from an academic standpoint), and what the word "fascism" actually means. Google can be my friend sometimes, but in this case, I feel like I'd likely run into a lot of biased material.

To be transparent, I am a 27-year-old college graduate and I have taken political science and economics in the past, but that was years ago and I barely passed those classes. That doesn't mean that I'm dumb, I just didn't have that enough time to properly absorb the material because the classes went so fast.

This may sound trite but I think Wikipedia gives a good start and provides references to follow. But some form of live discussion is also important. also the is Khan Academy.

 

[HoneyBee]

@Akita Suggagaki Thank you for your response! I signed up for Khan Academy and I look forward to learning a lot from it.

 

[Hank77]

To be transparent, I am a 27-year-old college graduate and I have taken political science and economics in the past, but that was years ago and I barely passed those classes. That doesn't mean that I'm dumb, I just didn't have that enough time to properly absorb the material because the classes went so fast.

This site should help you to brush up on those classes you took and maybe even go beyond. We love Khan Academy. We've homeschooled my oldest grandson and have used many Khan Academy classes since 6th grade and he graduated high school this spring. He's studying for the SAT.

AP®︎ Macroeconomics | College Macroeconomics | Khan Academy

Macroeconomics is about whole economies. What is GDP? Why does the economy boom and bust? How is the government involved? We hit the traditional topics from a college-level macroeconomics course.

www.khanacademy.org

Oh, and it's free. They do take donations but they never ever send you emails, etc. asking for money.

 

[Hank77]

@Akita Suggagaki Thank you for your response! I signed up for Khan Academy and I look forward to learning a lot from it.

Well, it looks like someone already spoke about KA and you knew.

 

[bèlla]

Wondrium is a great resource. If you love to learn they offer a lot. I subscribed in the past and the videos are informative. Each class includes a guidebook so you can follow along with additional suggestions for further study. They offer discounts and unlike some its continuous as long as you're a member. You can view the classes on your phone, tablet or smart tv and I really liked that. If you sign up for the newsletter they'll alert you about the sale. They add new courses all the time. That's another plus and they're taught by professors.
The company has been around a long time.

~bella

 

[Bradskii]

EdX is another good source. Here's a link for a free political science course: Université catholique de Louvain: Discover Political Science

 

[Pommer]

There’s a fellow on the YouTube machine “Ryan Chapman” who has a few videos that explain political schools of though and some histories…from ten minutes to an hour apiece. It’s a start, somewhere to plant a pinion until you get up to speed?

 

[Mayzoo]

Over 1700 free courses from what I can tell, the URL is for the Political Science course, but the whole catalog is a click away. Contributing universities are Yale, Harvard, and U of Chicago amount others.

Free Online Political Science Courses

Get free online Political Science courses from the world's leading universities. You can download these audio & video courses straight to your computer or mp3 player. For more online courses, visit our complete collection of Free Courses.

www.openculture.com

 

[FireDragon76]

Study history in general. Good, critical history, not hagiography/propaganda. There are several good Youtube history channels by history teachers or professors. If you study history critically, you will understand alot about what really motivated various ideologies that have shaped our world.

If you want to know about Marxian economics, Professor Richard Wolf is the best source. Don't learn about it second-hand, much of which is just propaganda. Slavoj Zizek is also good, but he's less focused on classical Marxian economics, and more of a post-Lacan culture critic. Marx himself is difficult to read, as most of his writings are very math heavy and dry.

 

[Arcangl86]

Since you are a fairly recent college grad, I'm assuming you have some knowledge of academic databases? Many larger public library systems have access to those, so that can also be a good way to get the info. But I agree with Fire Dragon. If you are going to read about stuff like Marxism, non-marxist socialism or any of the other current boogeymen, read from people who espouse those beliefs, not the opposition. The only exception there I think would be Fascism, because most fascists are neo-Nazis, which incorporates a truly vile form of racial analysis in their work.

 

[FireDragon76]

Since you are a fairly recent college grad, I'm assuming you have some knowledge of academic databases? Many larger public library systems have access to those, so that can also be a good way to get the info. But I agree with Fire Dragon. If you are going to read about stuff like Marxism, non-marxist socialism or any of the other current boogeymen, read from people who espouse those beliefs, not the opposition. The only exception there I think would be Fascism, because most fascists are neo-Nazis, which incorporates a truly vile form of racial analysis in their work.

I don't get the moral equivalence some people make between Marx, socialism, and the far right. Either they are misinformed, or they have a broken moral compass. Marxism from time to time has been the ideological background for brutal regimes to come about (Pol Pot, Mao, and to a lesser extent, Stalin), but with the far right, that's the whole point, they actively celebrate cruelty and injustice as "natural".

 

[Pommer]

A handy trick too is to look at novels, stories, movies and television for parallels, as these can inform a political mind in the art of “sausage-making” (politics).

 

[keith99]

I would advise actually reading The Communist Manifesto and perhaps Das Kapital as a start to understanding Marxism. At the least you will know when some later writer is attacking a strawman or touting a cleaned up version of Marx.

For Fascism looking up a list of traits and keeping in mind that just having one or 2 of them dies not make a state fascist.

Also be aware that the vast majority of the time when something is called Socialist (at least in the United States) it has nothing to do with Socialism as an economic system.

 

[Pommer]

I would advise actually reading The Communist Manifesto and perhaps Das Kapital as a start to understanding Marxism. At the least you will know when some later writer is attacking a strawman or touting a cleaned up version of Marx.

For Fascism looking up a list of traits and keeping in mind that just having one or 2 of them dies not make a state fascist.

Also be aware that the vast majority of the time when something is called Socialist (at least in the United States) it has nothing to do with Socialism as an economic system.

For fascism, the writings of Umberto Eco should suffice nicely.

 

[keith99]

For fascism, the writings of Umberto Eco should suffice nicely.

One of Eco's definitions can be found in the following Wiki link. It might not clarify, but it will surely educate.

Definitions of fascism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I think recommendation is just to read a variety of economist theorists and get their various takes...see what they were right about and wrong about when their methods have been employed.

At the end of the day, no first-world country is adhering to a single economic theorists recommendations...most have found some form of "hybrid economy" that attempts to cherry pick the best parts of the various economic theories.

The biggest thing to avoid is going down the rabbit hole of only reading one type of economic theorist.

For instance, some on the right like to exclusively defer to guys like Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman.
Libertarians tend to read (exclusively) guys like Von Mises.
People in the center-left tend to stay in the bubble of guys like Keynes or Paul Krugman.
Communists lean on Marx (not a big surprise)
And socialists lean on a combination of Marx and Henry Saint-Simon

The problem is that while an individual economist can be accurate in identifying problems with competing systems (and may even have some good prescriptions of their own), each can have their own biases and more importantly, blind spots.

For instance, Paul Krugman (while a brilliant Nobel winning economist), was the still the same guy who made the following prediction in the late 90's:
“The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”


In terms of learning Political Science? That one's going to be trickier. While there's some value in getting historical opinions. I don't think possible to truly be an "expert" in political science given how rapidly changing and fluid politics tends to be. There may have a been a time when Poli Sci guys may have been able to make more accurate predictions and assessments about things, but for the past 15 years, the Poli Sci experts have been wrong about a lot.

With economics, there's a lot of repeatable patterns and a lot of things you can control. In politics, there's a lot of stuff you can't control because the game changes so much cycle after cycle.

 

[PsaltiChrysostom]

For instance, Paul Krugman (while a brilliant Nobel winning economist), was the still the same guy who made the following prediction in the late 90's:
“The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

Even Decca Records passed on The Beatles

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Also be aware that the vast majority of the time when something is called Socialist (at least in the United States) it has nothing to do with Socialism as an economic system.

And that goes for both the support and critiques...

For instance, when a wide eyed 19 year old who just finished their first semester says "socialism is great, that's what Denmark is!" they're wrong
And when a staunch conservative says "<insert government program/agency here> is socialism!", they're also wrong.

 

[Pommer]

And that goes for both the support and critiques...

For instance, when a wide eyed 19 year old who just finished their first semester says "socialism is great, that's what Denmark is!" they're wrong
And when a staunch conservative says "<insert government program/agency here> is socialism!", they're also wrong.

We all agree that some sectors of our economy are better served by public ownership, we just disagree about what government should hold in its purview.
Roads and military? Fine
Hospitals and railroads!?
Never!

Same as it ever was, this just our turn at bat.