Course Description: This course familiarizes students with the decision-making processes of individual economic units such as household, firms, and industries, and their interrelationships. Topics include the nature and framework of the forces of supply and demand, household behavior, and consumer choice; the behavior of the firm under different industrial structures, resource allocation and income distribution; and international trade and comparative advantage. Course Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this coruse, students will be able to:  Explain the fundamental tools of supply and demand and the concept of elasticity.  Describe the role of the government in addressing market failures and externalities.  Explain how governmental policies affect market outcomes.  Apply the concepts of opportunity cost and comparative advantage and analyze the benefits of specialization within the framework of economic interdependence.  Evaluate the cost structure of a firm as it is derived from properties of a production function and the prices of economic resources.  Describe the optimizing behavior of representative firms in various market structures (perfect competition, monompoly, oligopoly, monompolistic competition)  Describe the dimensions of the problems of income inequalities and poverty Course Materials: Mankiw, G. N. (2018). Principles of Microeconomics. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.  This book can be accessed through links just below the readings and resources section of each unit in this course. Grading Breakdown: Assignment Weight Towards Final Grade Discussion Boards 40% Assignments 30% Quizzes Paper 20% 10% Student Survey* *To ensure that we continue to meet our academic standards and your learning expectations, we routinely assess our programs, courses, and instructors. Completion of the end-of-course Student Survey is a required component of this course. Course Syllabus ECO202 – Microeconomics Course Outline: Units begin at Sunday, 12:01 am (EST) and end Sunday 11:59 pm (EST) of the following week, unless otherwise noted. Unit Topics Activities Unit 1 Ch 1: Ten Principles of Economics Ch 3: Interdependence and the Gains from Trade Unit 1 Class Discussion Board Problems & Applications (Ch 1&3) Unit 1 Micro Quiz Unit 2 Ch 4: The market Forces of Supply and Demand Ch 5: Elasticity and Its Applications Ch 6: Supply, Demand, and Government Policies Unit 2 Group Discussion Board Problems & Applications (Ch 4,5 & 6) Unit 2 Micro Quiz Unit 3 Ch 7: Consumers, Producers, and the Efficiency of Markets Ch 8: The Costs of Taxation Ch 9: International Trade Unit 3 Group Discussion Board Problems & Applications (Ch 7, 8 & 9) Unit 3 Micro Quiz Unit 4 Ch 10: Externalities Ch 11: Public Goods and Common Resources Unit 4 Group Discussion Board Homework (Ch 10 & 11) Unit 4 Micro Quiz Unit 5 Ch 12: The Design of ...

1. Course Description:
This course familiarizes students with the decision-making
processes of individual
economic units such as household, firms, and industries, and
their interrelationships.
Topics include the nature and framework of the forces of supply
and demand,
household behavior, and consumer choice; the behavior of the
firm under different
industrial structures, resource allocation and income
distribution; and international trade
and comparative advantage.
Course Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this coruse, students will be able
to:
concept of elasticity.
essing market
failures and externalities.
advantage and analyze the
benefits of specialization within the framework of economic

2. interdependence.
properties of a production
function and the prices of economic resources.
various market structures
(perfect competition, monompoly, oligopoly, monompolistic
competition)
inequalities and poverty
Course Materials:
Mankiw, G. N. (2018). Principles of Microeconomics. Boston,
MA: Cengage Learning.
can be accessed through links just below the
readings and resources
section of each unit in this course.
Grading Breakdown:
Assignment Weight Towards Final Grade
Discussion Boards 40%
Assignments 30%
Quizzes
Paper
20%

3. 10%
Student Survey*
*To ensure that we continue to meet our academic standards and
your learning expectations, we
routinely assess our programs, courses, and instructors.
Completion of the end-of-course Student Survey
is a required component of this course.
Course Syllabus
ECO202 – Microeconomics
Course Outline:
Units begin at Sunday, 12:01 am (EST) and end Sunday 11:59
pm (EST) of the
following week, unless otherwise noted.
Unit Topics Activities
Unit 1
Ch 1: Ten Principles of Economics
Ch 3: Interdependence and the Gains
from Trade
Unit 1 Class Discussion Board
Problems & Applications (Ch 1&3)
Unit 1 Micro Quiz
Unit 2

4. Ch 4: The market Forces of Supply
and Demand
Ch 5: Elasticity and Its Applications
Ch 6: Supply, Demand, and
Government Policies
Unit 2 Group Discussion Board
Problems & Applications (Ch 4,5 &
6)
Unit 2 Micro Quiz
Unit 3
Ch 7: Consumers, Producers, and
the Efficiency of Markets
Ch 8: The Costs of Taxation
Ch 9: International Trade
Unit 3 Group Discussion Board
Problems & Applications (Ch 7, 8 &
9)
Unit 3 Micro Quiz
Unit 4
Ch 10: Externalities
Ch 11: Public Goods and Common
Resources
Unit 4 Group Discussion Board
Homework (Ch 10 & 11)
Unit 4 Micro Quiz
Unit 5
Ch 12: The Design of the Tax System
Ch 13: The Costs of Production

5. Unit 5 Group Discussion Board
Homework (12 & 13)
Unit 5 Micro Quiz
Unit 6
Ch 18: The markets for the Factors of
Production
Ch 19: Earnings and Discrimination
Ch 20: Income Inequality and Poverty
Unit 6 Class Discussion Board
Homework (Ch 18, 19 & 20)
Final Paper (due Wed in Unit 8)
Unit 7
Ch 14: Firms in Competitive Markets
Ch 15: Monopoly
Unit 7 Group Discussion Board
Homework (Ch 14 & 15)
Final Paper (due Wed in Unit 8)
Unit 8
Ch 16: Monopolistic Competition
Ch 17: Oligopoly
Unit 8 Group Discussion Board
Homework (Ch 16 & 17)
Final Paper (due Wed in Unit 8)
Notes: Topics, deliverables, and sequence are subject to change.

6. Late Work Policy:
Late work will be accepted on a case-by-case basis. Please
contact your instructor to
discuss.
Discussions:
unit topics with one
another and the instructor.
discussions where active
participation is defined as 3 or more posts (your initial post plus
at least two
responses to classmates).
Wednesday evening.
Professional communication is expected in all posts, which
includes proper
spelling and grammar, and providing source information when
using outside
resources.

7. thinking and use of
extended information in your responses.
personal experience and research so your classmates
are motivated to
continue the conversation and fully explore the discussion
topics.
grading rubric on the
Course Information page in your course.
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Power and Social Control
Domhoff: Chapters 5 and 6
Chapter 5: The Role of Public Opinion
Domhoff shows that the capitalist class
works hard at shaping public opinion:
role of the policy planning network

10. public relations/public affairs efforts Corporations
support for opinion-shaping organizations
like the Advertising Council and the Policy Association
owns almost all the mass media
Surveys used extensively to capture public opinion
People develop opinions based on the context of their lives
Most people are not interested in politics and therefore is not
focused enough to have a direct effect
2
General Network used in Shaping Public Opinion (p. 111)
Remember policy-planning networks? Think tanks, policy-
discussion groups, and foundations.
They also have a central role in opinion-shaping networks,
carried out by large public relations firms and public affairs
departments
-they have large staffs
-connected to wide-spread dissemination network
-policy-discussion groups at the center of the opinion-
shaping network, but do not enter directly
-most important goals: influencing public schools,
churches, and voluntary associations
Conflicts between corporate-conservative and liberal-labor
alliances in the arena of public opinion (Discussion, Q1)
3

11. Public Relations/Public Affairs
Multi-billion dollar industry
PR v. PA
Created by power elite in 1920s to shape public opinion
Typically hired to work on specific issues rather than to shape
general public opinion
PR firms usually operate through the mass media
Public affairs more benign than PR – usually operate within a
large corporation
Work on polishing image
Creating doubt about scientific findings: role of PR firms
4
Who Shapes Public Opinion
Domhoff Concludes
the mass media aren’t that
important in shaping public
opinion
public opinion isn’t that
important anyway
Why does he conclude this?
Do you think he’s right?
“…it is unlikely that any focused public opinion exists on very
many of the complicated legislative issues of concern to the
corporate community...public opinion usually can be

12. ignored….” (p. 130)
“Public opinion can have an
impact when people are forced out of
their routines…” or “leads to...social movements that challenge
one or another aspect of the established order” (p. 130).
As a result, the public-opinion network, the power elite, and
elected officials enjoy a great deal of leeway on many domestic
and foreign policy issues.
Public opinion can usually be ignored because those opinions
usually do not lead to opposition or disruption
Social disruption can lead to setbacks for incumbents and help
fuel movements
6
The Political Spectrum in More Detail
How the Institutional Structure of Elections Matters
How the Power Elite Dominates Government
Chapter 6: Parties and Elections
Electoral rules as a containment strategy? The right to vote,
districting, proportional representation, electoral college...
Voter suppression: poll tax, literacy tests, gerrymandering –

13. single party districts
Why elections matter? Opportunity to register disapproval of
government policies; a way to introduce new policies; initiative
and referendum process
7
Most other industrialized nations offer more political choice
and have substantially higher rates of political participation
than the US.
How is this to be explained?
Why do most of them have
more political parties, including labor parties?
stronger unions?
universal health care?
stronger unemployment insurance systems?
stronger environmental legislation?
restrictions on plant closings?
less income and wealth inequality?
How do institutional factors in the U.S. produce different
political outcomes than in other advanced capitalist countries?
The United States
Single-member district plurality system (winner-take-all
elections)
Direct election of the president
Most other industrialized societies:
parliamentary systems
proportional representation or majority requirement

14. One of the net effects is that it provides opportunities for the
corporate rich to influence and shape legislation.
10
Elections: In the U.S., the candidate selection process is crucial
the political parties are weak
parties have little control over candidates and elected officials
campaign financing of individual candidates is key to candidate
success
influencing who is elected is more important than what par ty is
elected
Following the Money
The Critical Importance of Campaign Finance
Image is more important than reality in winning elections
Symbolic social issues come to mean more than policy positions
on health, labor, and other substantive issues
The Obama Donor Network: A Case History
The liberal-labor alliance: less influence that we might expect
12
Some Outcomes of the Candidate Selection Process
Great majority of top elected officials share a common legal or
business background with members of upper class
79% of Congressmen in 2001 were business executives,
bankers, realtors and lawyers
Exactly one former union official in House and Senate
combined
Ideologically, most are pro-business conservatives

15. Recall the distinction between structural and instrumental
power. Which form of power is Chapter 7 about? What are the
mechanisms of such power?
Please read the chapters listed below in your textbook.
· Chapter 5: The Role of Public Opinion
· Chapter 6: Parties and Elections
Question 1: In Chapter 5, Domhoff discusses the political
struggle between conservatives (corporate-conservative) and
liberals (liberal-labor) as expressing itself in the arena of public
opinion as a conflict over the true meaning of Americanism, or
what it means to be a true American. Choosing one of the areas
in which, according to Domhoff, the corporate elite attempt to
shape public opinion (science, foreign policy, economic policy,
or social issues), discuss the ways in which the definition of
Americanism has been shaped by the opinion-shaping network
for that area. Be sure to specify how this definition is shaped in
service to corporate interests. For example – How has the
opinion-shaping network swayed the discussion over global
warming to serve corporate interests, and how is that opinion
aligned with a so-called “true American” way of thinking?
Global warming is just an example. You can discuss any policy
within the areas of science, foreign policy, economic policy, or
social issues that you like.
You may use the example of Edward Snowden and the NSA,
which is the topic of some of your web readings for your web
assignment for this week, to describe how opinion on foreign
and domestic policy is shaped.
Question 2: Chapter 6 offers us insight into the creation and the
working of the American political system. Please select one
issue from of this chapter and explain why you think it is
relevant to our discussion on power and social change. Let's

16. engage in a fruitful discussion here. If you select an issue that
someone else has already written about you must take the
analysis further to receive credit for the post.
2pages
Textbook
Domhoff, W.G. (2014). Who Rules America? The Triumph of
the Corporate Rich (7th ed). NY: McGraw Hill.
ISBN-13: 978-0078026713
https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/methods/studying_power.html
Use only the course materials no outside sources will be
accepted for the essay