https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/POLS5410?type=COREThe Great Recession dragged macroeconomic policies from the technocratic realm of 'quiet politics' into the electoral realm of 'noisy politics.' While governments across advanced economies implemented deep austerity policies to control public debt levels, central banks adopted unconventional monetary policies (e.g., quantitative easing, negative interest rates) to combat weak economic demand. These policies generated significant distributive effects and became politically contested. Austerity fueled political discontent across Europe's periphery, while unconventional monetary policies faced strong criticism in Europe's core. Taken together, these developments renewed the political salience of fiscal and monetary policies and sparked a renewed scholarly interest in their political dynamics.Successive crises and structural shifts in the global economy in the 2020s have further reinforced the need to study the politics of macroeconomic policies. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented fiscal interventions, initially to protect firms and workers during lockdowns, and later to alleviate the burden of rising inflation on households. The return of industrial policy through initiatives like the U.S. CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, alongside escalating trade tensions between major economies, has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of economic governance. Geopolitical conflicts, particularly the war in Ukraine, have exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains and energy dependencies, forcing governments to reconsider the balance between economic efficiency and strategic autonomy. Meanwhile, the rise of economic nationalism and concerns about technological sovereignty have led to new forms of state intervention in markets previously governed by liberal principles. Central banks' struggle with persistent inflation has reignited questions about their independence and the limits of monetary policy, while growing inequality and climate pressures demand fiscal responses that test the boundaries of sustainable public debt. These overlapping crises demonstrate how macroeconomic policy choices remain deeply political, with distributive consequences that vary dramatically across countries, sectors, and social groups.The course begins with a historical overview of the politics of macroeconomic policies. It first introduces the classical 'partisan theory,' before discussing how this theory was undermined by globalization and how globalization shaped distinct economic models in advanced economies before the 2008 financial crisis. The course continues by studying the causes and consequences of the financial crisis and subsequent economic crises, including the Great Recession and the European sovereign debt crisis. It analyzes the fiscal and monetary policies implemented in the wake of these crises and discusses their political consequences. The course then examines how macroeconomic policymaking has evolved in the 2020s, exploring economic and political responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the low-inflation era, and the rise of supply-side challenges such as climate change and geopolitical fragmentation. In the final sessions, the course thus focuses on the emergence of green industrial policies, the politicization of trade and geo-economic rivalry, and the implications of these developments for inequality, democratic legitimacy, and the future of macroeconomic governance.