POLITICAL ECONOMY

INTRODUCTION

Political economy (particularly when the word "radical" is added as an adjective) has come to be closely associated with the work of economists who adopted key concepts developed by Marx, in particular his focus on class processesor relationships, but who rejected the economic determinism of orthodox versions of Marxian theory.  Thus, political economy makes extensive and intensive use of class analysis in making sense of society and history, but does so in the context of political, cultural, and environmental processes, as well as other economic processes. For instance, unlike orthodox economic theory or economic determinist versions of Marxian theory, the post-structuralist approach would view cultural processes as no less significant than economic processes in shaping investment decisions.  The same could be said for political or environmental processes.  This point, among others, will be made by essays and papers read during the semester.

WHAT IS POLITICAL ECONOMY

Political Economy commonly refers to interdisciplinary studies drawing upon economics, political science, law, history, sociology and other disciplines in explaining the crucial role of political factors in determining economic outcomes. It's more than four hundred year old history includes the works of French Physiocrats, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx, among others. More recent scholars related to the field of Political Economy include Robert Keohane, Robert Gilpin, Peter J. Katzenstein, and Stephen Krasner, aside from a more critical school inspired by Karl Polanyi, Susan Strange and Robert W. Cox in particular.

Today, there is growing consensus that the separation between the study of politics and economics is an artificial one and the pendulum is swinging toward an integrated approach. Further, political economy is an area of study that permits a variety of ideological perspectives and theoretical paradigms. The academic return to political economy is especially encouraged by the growing interest in interdisciplinary studies.

However, it is important to note the distinction between the discipline of Political Economy as described above and a political economy approach which is applied by a variety of disciplines from different vantage points. For instance, a political economy approach in Sociology is applied to study the effects of people's involvement in society as members of groups, and how that changes their ability to function. While Political Science employs Political Economy to focus on the interaction between institutions and human behaviour, the way in which the former shapes choices and how the latter change institutional frameworks. Similarly, Anthropology, History, Economics, Human Geography, Cultural Studies and a whole array of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields employ political economy approach in a variety of ways.

Historically, there have been many reasons for adopting a distinctively political economy perspective in one's analysis of local and global change. Political Economy is concerned with the interplay between politics, society and economics and it has a long and distinguished history in the social sciences. Thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman have all grounded their work on the fundamental observation that politics and economics are inherently linked.

Today, there is growing consensus that the separation between the study of politics and economics is an artificial one and the pendulum is swinging toward an integrated approach. Further, political economy is an area of study that permits a variety of ideological perspectives and theoretical paradigms. The academic return to political economy is especially encouraged by the growing interest in interdisciplinary studies.

POLITICAL ECONOMY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

 It is important to note the distinction between the discipline of Political Economy as described above and a political economy approach which is applied by a variety of disciplines from different vantage points. For instance, a political economy approach in Sociology is applied to study the effects of people's involvement in society as members of groups, and how that changes their ability to function. While Political Science employs Political Economy to focus on the interaction between institutions and human behaviour, the way in which the former shapes choices and how the latter change institutional frameworks. Similarly, Anthropology, History, Economics, Human Geography, Cultural Studies and a whole array of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields employ political economy approach in a variety of ways.

CONCLUSION

Originally, political economy meant the study of the conditions under which production or consumption within limited parameters was organized in nation-states. In that way, political economy expanded the emphasis of economics, which comes from the Greek oikos (meaning "home") and nomos (meaning "law" or "order").

REFERENCES

                  Leroux, Robert (2011), Political Economy and Liberalism in France : The Contributions of Frédéric Bastiat, London, Routledge.

                  Maggi, Giovanni, and Andrés Rodríguez-Clare (2007). "A Political-Economy Theory of Trade Agreements," American Economic Review, 97(4), pp. 1374-1406.

O'Hara, Phillip Anthony, ed. (1999). Encyclopedia of Political Economy, 2 v. Routledge. 2003 review links.

Pressman, Steven, Interactions in Political Economy: Malvern After Ten YearsRoutledge, 1996

                  Rausser, Gordon, Swinnen, Johan, and Zusman, Pinhas (2011). Political Power and Economic Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P.

Baran, Paul A. (1957). The Political Economy of Growth. Monthly Review Press, New York. Review extrract.

                  Commons, John R. (1934 [1986]). Institutional Economics: Its Place in Political Economy, Macmillan. Description and preview.