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The Changing Visions of Economics

Debra Satz

in Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets

The view of the market as a homogeneous mechanism operating across different types of exchanges is distinctly modern. The classical political economists. especially Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and ... More

The view of the market as a homogeneous mechanism operating across different types of exchanges is distinctly modern. The classical political economists. especially Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx, held a very different view of markets and of their place within society. Our modern understanding of markets in terms of their formal properties and our ability to build tractable models far surpasses those of the classical political economists. This chapter focuses on these earlier thinkers’ larger overall vision and its contrast with that contemporary view. This alternative vision had far reaching implications for their views of the nature and limits of markets and the justice [or injustice] of many market transactionsLess

Political Economics: Old versus the New School

Albert E. Moyer

in A Scientist's Voice in American Culture: Simon Newcomb and the Rhetoric of Scientific Method

Newcomb did more than merely extol the desirability of using scientific method to attack current political and economic problems. He himself had developed into a political economist of some repute, ... More

Newcomb did more than merely extol the desirability of using scientific method to attack current political and economic problems. He himself had developed into a political economist of some repute, publishing numerous technical and popular expositions on finance, trade, taxation, currency, and labor. Through a steady stream of books, articles, notes, reviews, and speeches, Newcomb sought to provide a dispassionate analysis of the political and economic issues of his day, thus demonstrating rather than merely describing the social utility of scientific method.Less

The People’s National Economy

Jeffrey E. Hanes

in The City as Subject: Seki Hajime and the Reinvention of Modern Osaka

On New Year's Day 1900, Seki Hajime warned his countrymen to be prepared for the approaching dawn of the Pacific Age; his warning challenged the Meiji leaders to reassess the nation's developmental ... More

On New Year's Day 1900, Seki Hajime warned his countrymen to be prepared for the approaching dawn of the Pacific Age; his warning challenged the Meiji leaders to reassess the nation's developmental priorities. He called for a complete overhaul of the Japanese economy, and over the following decade, he committed himself to this grand objective. As a teacher, scholar, and government advisor, Seki endeavored to identify the most critical economic challenges facing Japan and re-conceptualized the Japanese economy as a people's national economy. To urge the Meiji leadership to shift the locus of national concern from polity to economy, he actively promoted the model of national economic policymaking invented by his mentors, the political economists of the German historical school.Less

Globalisation studies, the materialist bias and the ‘third wave’

Craig Berry

in Globalisation and Ideology in Britain: Neoliberalism, Free Trade and the Global Economy

After a brief note on the wave thesis, this chapter considers the main articulations of globalisation as a material structural reality. It argues that neoclassical and Marxist political economics ... More

After a brief note on the wave thesis, this chapter considers the main articulations of globalisation as a material structural reality. It argues that neoclassical and Marxist political economics cover this orientation, but so too do a range of ostensibly more nuanced ‘spatial’ approaches to globalisation. It then assesses a range of political economy approaches to globalisation that seek to uphold structure/agency synthesis by ‘reclaiming the state’ analytically, arguing that, unless materialism is also eschewed, agency remains beneath structure in the analytical hierarchy. The chapter also turns attention to the ‘third wave’ of globalisation theory, that is, analysis of globalisation as a discursive phenomenon conducted or inspired by Colin Hay.Less

Conclusion: The Ghosts of the Enlightenment

Fredrik Albritton Jonsson

in Enlightenment's Frontier: The Scottish Highlands and the Origins of Environmentalism

The conclusion states how the ghosts of the Enlightenment still return to haunt society despite the fact that societies have come a long way from the New World of John Walker and the stationary ... More

The conclusion states how the ghosts of the Enlightenment still return to haunt society despite the fact that societies have come a long way from the New World of John Walker and the stationary Highlands of T. R. Malthus. In the Highlands, hopes for a New World were dampened by failure both to alleviate issues with the Highland climate and to build towns and villages. Already in the closing decades of the eighteenth century, naturalists and political economists had begun to unmake the New World of the north. By running the engine of natural history in reverse, their inventories now revealed physical limits rather than hidden abundance. Emigration seemed to offer the only relief for a country so deficient in natural advantages.Less

Conclusion: The Enlightenment—Questions of Geography

in Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason

This chapter offers a series of questions and examines two further and related issues pertaining to the Enlightenment understood geographically. The first is to return to the theme of the ... More

This chapter offers a series of questions and examines two further and related issues pertaining to the Enlightenment understood geographically. The first is to return to the theme of the Enlightenment's “future geographies.” This is the view in the Enlightenment that progress meant betterment, that ideas of progress and reform were not just moral and intellectual issues but were materially “earthed” in the sense that political economists, philosophers, natural historians, and others could build a better physical environment by “seconding Nature” as Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, had it, and by using the “Science of Man” and models of historical change to lay out new prospects. In short, the question asked is how did Enlightenment writers imagine the future geographically? The chapter considers modern moments and spaces of the Enlightenment's representation, its geographical “reenactment” even, in relation to the claims of those whose interests focus on the Enlightenment's continuing legacy.Less

Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

Geir Lundestad

in The Rise and Decline of the American "Empire": Power and its Limits in Comparative Perspective

This introductory chapter discusses how empires and Great Powers rise then inevitably fall, citing examples in history such as the Roman Empire, British Empire, and the Soviet Union. While America’s ... More

This introductory chapter discusses how empires and Great Powers rise then inevitably fall, citing examples in history such as the Roman Empire, British Empire, and the Soviet Union. While America’s fall has frequently been predicted, many Americans believe that the country’s predominance will last forever. Ronald Reagan proclaimed ‘morning in America’ and celebrated its uniqueness and exemption from the laws of history. However, many leading American political economists had been suggesting that, in various ways, the relative position of the United States was slipping. In contrast, a glorious future is predicted for China, with its booming economy and progress towards becoming the world’s leading power.Less