Overview

Our starting point is that the relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘the economy’ is a two-way street: political contestation shapes economic outcomes and their governance, while economic developments generate political conflicts.

Overview

We confront the social dimension of key political challenges by exploring issues such as social inequalities and corporate power. These dynamics cut across a rich terrain of contemporary issues and taps into your interest in both the practical and the ‘big issue’ side of global affairs, crossing over with public policy expertise and business strategy, among which:

• Powerful emerging economies in Africa and Asia are ‘on the move’, business lobbies push their preferences, and the success of the developing world is a growing challenge to the dominance of the advanced economies in global and regional governance.

• Technological change and the Internet revolution are transforming the corporate sector, labor markets, and government. New patterns of mass-elite communication and social movement mobilization are emerging.

• Citizens feel vulnerable in the face of cross-border trade, investment, financial markets, and labor market risks. Fearing immigration, rising inequalities, and a changing welfare state, many opt for more ‘populist’ political movements of the radical left or right. 

The Political Science - Political Economy programme of the University of Amsterdam aims to teach you ways of ‘political economy thinking’ that you can apply directly to the debates taking place in private business, ministries, international organisations, as well as your thesis research. The range of literature is wide and the course includes classic texts in economics and political economy.

Career prospects

Political Economy taps your interest in issues of practical concern in the economy, business, and policy worlds where expertise leads to elite job opportunities. Above all we help you to think and analyze critically and independently. There is strong demand in society for the training we offer. The programme equips graduates to compete successfully with management, public policy, and economics-trained students for relevant jobs in ministries, think-tanks or consultancy, companies, municipalities, International Organizations and media.