Explain political economy.

[Rugged Collectivist]

What does the term "political economy" mean. I tried the wikipedia article but I found it confusing and unhelpful. Please try to make your explanation as simple as possible. I know very little about economics.

Thanks in advance.

[Let's Get Free]

In a very broad and brief definition, political economy is the science of the laws governing the production and exchange of the material means of subsistence in society.

[Rugged Collectivist]

In a very broad and brief definition, political economy is the science of the laws governing the production and exchange of the material means of subsistence in society.

So it's basically just another word for economics?

[Let's Get Free]

Not exactly. It's about the study of how economic theory and methods influences political ideology.

[Rugged Collectivist]

Not exactly. It's about the study of how economic theory and methods influences political ideology.

Oh. I see.

[l'Enfermé]

Not at all. Political economy was the original name of what today most of us call "economics". It was vulgarized into "economics" by late 19th century "economists", who instead of progressing forward as far as bourgeois political economy went, actually regressed from the great masters(Smith, Ricardo, etc). But of course, they didn't do it out of idiocy(although they were most definitely idiots), but for political reasons.

[Psy]

Political economy just means looking at the politics of the economic relationships. So instead of looking the labor market as the exchange of labor for wages you dive deeper and look at the political character of this relationship that would lead you to look at class (bourgeoisie, proletariat) and the logic driving this relationship.

[Lowtech]

I think it may be a misnomer, as a more accurate term would be economic politics or politics with strong economic undertones. There is no strife today or any global actons that are not a direct reflection of the elite's control of all the earth's resources and thier competition to exploit it.

[The Idler]

Political economics is the real science of "economics".

[Thirsty Crow]

Oh. I see.


Not exactly. It's about the study of how economic theory and methods influences political ideology.

That's not true at all. Political economy does not deal with political ideologies in any way. And furthermore, the way you present it would make of political economy a metatheory - a theory of a theory (economic theory influencing political ideologies) and would not deal with the real, existing relations of production.

Most briefly put, political economy studies the relations of production characteristic to the capitalist mode of production in their interaction with the productive powers of society.