political economy

is a field which has nothing to do with either politics or economy.

It's called political economy because it is has nothing to do with either politics or economy. (Stephen Leacock)

is a historically deep and geographically broad analysis which helps us avoid seeing only the residue of meaning: The puddles, but not the rainclouds, and not at all the gathering thunderclouds.

Without a historically deep and geographically broad analysis, one that takes into account political economy, we risk seeing only the residue of meaning. We see the puddles, perhaps, but not the rainstorms and certainly not the gathering thunderclouds' (Farmer 2004: 309)

is the formal intellectual manifestation of the socially and politically dominant vision of early nineteenth century capitalism. It is a distorted vision within which lies buried the essential structure and nature of capitalism as a human social and economic system.

For Marx, political economy represented the formal intellectual manifestation of the socially and politically dominant vision of early nineteenth century capitalism. He found this vision to be distorted and misleading and he sought to expose the essential, as distinct from the apparent, structure and nature of capitalism as a human social and economic system. That is, Marx's concern was with the ability and capacity of the system to deliver the material and non-material requirements of human fulfilment to the totality of the members of society. On these criteria, capitalism had failed except in its aggregate physical capacity to produce material things.

is the science concerning the economy of society (the nature and function of different parts of the social body).

Political economy is the economy of society, a science combining results of our observations on the nature and functions of the different parts of the social body.

is the science of the laws which govern man in his efforts to secure for himself both the highest individuality and the greatest power of his association with his fellow-men.

The science of the laws which govern man in his efforts to secure for himself the highest individuality and the greatest power of his association with his fellow-men.

is the science of the laws which regulate the production, accumulation, distribution, and consumption of articles of production that are necessary, useful, or agreeable to man.

Political economy is the science of the laws which regulate the production, accumulation, distribution, and consumption of those articles or productions that are necessary, useful, or agreeable to man, and which at the same time possess exchange value.

is the study of the causes of the improvement in the productive powers of labor, and the order according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society.

Adam Smith, whose famous 'Wealth of Nations' was published in 1776, defines political economy as the study that treats of 'the causes of the improvement in the productive powers of labor, and the order according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society.' He attempts the formal definition of capital, but not of wealth. It in the title and elsewhere in his book he uses the term indicating that he excludes evidences of debt and land values, which, though they may bring wealth to the individual, form no part of the 'wealth of Nations,' inasmuch as all the bonds in land titles in the nation might be destroyed without loss of wealth. . . . But Smith, and most of the earlier writers upon political economy, agree as to its scope,-- to it, the nature of wealth and the laws of its production and distribution.'

is the study of the effect of capitalist penetration in specific communities or microregions.

history is treated as something that arrives, like a ship, from outside the society in question. Thus we do not get the history of that society, but the impact of (our) history on that society' (Sherry Ortner 'anthro since the 60s p.143) 'studies the effects of capitalist penetration in specific communities or microregions' 'impact of external forces, on the ways in which societies change or evolve largely in adaptation to such impact. . . ' similar to cultural ecology..

political economy, n.Definitions

political economy