This introductory section focuses on the economic concepts and relationships, including the concept of class processes, that are applied to analyzing the content of the films in the course. At the end of this section, you should be able to accomplish the following objectives:

• Understand the basic economic process:  Be able to list the five questions that every economic system must provide an answer to (refer to the five circle diagram presented in lecture)
• Describe different market conditions (exchange relationships), including the difference between monopolistic and competitive markets
• Identify the key characteristics of capitalist, feudal, slave, and self-employed class processes
• Define and apply the concept of socially determined subsistence
• Show how economic processes are overdetermined by and overdetermine political, cultural, and environmental processes
• Explain how incentives affect people's behavior and are different in different economic systems
• Explain the role of unions in the development of capitalism
• Explain why markets are not synonymous with or unique to capitalism
• Explain the role of command and control in the production process of certain economic systems
• Show how an economy’s consumption and standard of living depends on its ability to produce and distribute the fruits of productive labor
• Describe different paths by which a transition from one economic system to another might occur