Compiled by David H. Kessel
Capitalist-Oriented Definitions
1. Economics---Resource allocation and the determination of aggregate activity
2. Corpus (body) of work of certain writers who dealt with the distribution and accumulation of economic surplus, and the attendant problems of determination of prices, wages, employment, and the efficacy or otherwise of political arrangements to promote accumulation
----------I.E. Capitalism
----------I.E. Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, James Mill, John Stuart Mill
3. The interaction of democratic political processes and market-determined economic relations (Sees the Political Process as a distortion of the market economy)
4. The theory of “Civil Society” as a self-regulating and beneficent arrangement where individual rationality (promoting self-interest) led to the collective good
----------Thus, separated from “Political Society”
Critically-Oriented Definitions
1. A label for “radical economics” to distinguish it from Bourgeois or Neo-Classical Economics
----------Began to be utilized in mid-60’s
----------Historical Materialism
----------NOT equal to a PURE Economic Theory
2. The theory of HISTORICAL economic categories (rather than UNIVERSAL) relative to particular epochs and thus, transitory
3. The web of Political and Social Institutions and human activity that are interwoven with the contemporary economy. This includes Society and Culture as well as Government and Politics
----------A non-compartmentalized approach
----------Treats existence as HOLISTIC
----------Search for interests, trends, power, and potential actions WITHIN Human/Social existence. A continuity of patterns of Ownership, Social Structure, and Values IN the WHOLE
4. Political Economy refers to the integrated WHOLE of the economy, politics, and society into one coherent SOCIAL ORDER whose nature and dynamics are powerfully, but not wholly, shaped by the character and needs of the Economic System
