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Political economy

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   Political economy was the original term for the study of production,
   the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws,
   customs and government. It developed in the 18th century as the study
   of the economies of states (also known as polities, hence the word
   "political" in "political economy"). In contradistinction to the theory
   of the Physiocrats, in which land was seen as the source of all wealth,
   some political economists proposed the labour theory of value (first
   introduced by John Locke, developed by Adam Smith and later Karl Marx),
   according to which labour is the real source of value. Many political
   economists also attracted attention to the accelerating development of
   technology, whose role in economic and social relationships grew ever
   more important.

   In late 19th century, the term "political economy" was generally
   superseded by the term economics, which was used by those seeking to
   place the study of economy on a mathematical and axiomatic basis,
   rather than studying the structural relationships within production and
   consumption. (See marginalism, Alfred Marshall)

   In the present, political economy refers to a variety of different, but
   related, approaches to studying economic and political behaviour, which
   range from combining economics with other fields, to using different
   fundamental assumptions which challenge those of orthodox economics:
     * Political economy is most commonly used to refer to
       interdisciplinary studies that draw on economics, law and political
       science in order to understand how political institutions, the
       political environment and capitalism influence each other.
     * Within political science, the term refers to modern liberal,
       realist, Marxian, institutionalist political economy and
       constructivist theories concerning the relationship between
       economic and political power among and within states. This is also
       of concern to students of economic history and institutional
       economics.
     * Historians have employed the term to explore the various ways in
       the past that individuals or groups with common economic interests
       have utilized the political process to effect change over time that
       is beneficial to their interest.
     * " International political economy" (IPE) is an interdisciplinary
       field comprising a variety of approaches that are concerned with
       international trade and finance, and state policies that affect
       international trade, such as monetary and fiscal policy. In the
       U.S. these approaches are associated with the journal International
       Organization, which became the leading journal of international
       political economy in the 1970s under the editorship of Robert
       Keohane; subsequent editors Peter J. Katzenstein and Stephen
       Krasner. They are also associated with the journal The Review of
       International Political Economy (RIPE), which is edited by both
       British and U.S. scholars.
     * Economists and political scientists often associate the term with
       approaches using rational choice assumptions, particularly game
       theory, to explain phenomena beyond the standard remit of
       economics. In this context, the term "positive political economy"
       is common.
     * Others, especially anthropologists, sociologists and geographers,
       use the term "political economy" to refer to neo-Marxian approaches
       to development and underdevelopment set forth by Andre Gunder Frank
       and Immanuel Wallerstein.

History of the term

   The term political economy originally meant the study of the conditions
   under which production was organized in the nation-states of the
   new-born capitalist system. The term was first used in England in the
   18th Century, to replace the earlier approach of the (French)
   physiocrats. The main exponents of Political Economy are Adam Smith,
   David Ricardo and Karl Marx. In 1805 Thomas Malthus became Britain's
   first professor of political economy at the East India Company College
   at Haileybury in Hertfordshire. The world's first professorship for
   political economy was established in 1763 at the University of Vienna,
   with Joseph von Sonnenfels as the first professor.

   In America, political economy was first taught at the College of
   William and Mary in 1784; Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was a required
   textbook. . Glasgow University, where Smith held the chairs of Logic
   and Moral Philosophy, changed the name of its Department of Political
   Economy to the Department of Economics (ostensibly to avoid confusing
   prospective undergraduates) in academic year 1997-98, leaving the class
   of 1998 as the last to graduate with a Scottish MA degree in Political
   Economy.

Disciplines which relate to political economy

   Because political economy is not a unified discipline, there are a
   variety of studies that use the term which have overlapping subject
   matter, but radically different viewpoints.

   Sociology is the study of the effects of involvement in society on
   individuals as members groups, and how this changes their ability to
   function. Many sociologists begin from a framework of production
   determining relationship drawn from Karl Marx.

   Anthropology often studies political economy by studying the
   relationship between the world capitalist system and local cultures.

   Psychology is frequently the fulcrum around which political economy
   centers, in that it deals with decision making, not as being a black
   box whose effects are seen only in price decisions, but as being a
   source of study, and therefore the assumptions in a model of political
   economy.

   History since it documents change over time, is often used as a means
   of arguing in political economy, and often historical works have a
   framework of political economy which they assume or argue as the basis
   for the narrative structure.

   Economics because political economy grows out of an economic framework.

   Law since it concerns the creation of policy, or the mediation of
   policy ends through political acts which have specific individual
   results, is seen, in political economy, as both political capital and
   social infrastructure, on one hand - and as the result of the sociology
   of a society on the other.

   Human Geography is concerned, amongst others, with economic and
   political processes with an emphasis on spatial and environmental
   aspects thereof.

   Ecology is often involved in political economy, because human activity
   is one of the single largest effects on the environment, and because
   the suitability of the environment for human beings is a central
   concern. The ecological effects of economic activity on the environment
   have spurred research on changing incentives in the market economy.

   International Relations often uses political economy to study political
   and economic development.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy"
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