[OPE] Political Economy for the 21st Century

I'm not the best person to help you, Michael, because I have come to regard
"Marxists" mainly as the enemy of Marx & Engels, also I do not know the
people you are addressing the speech to and what they are interested in, and
I never get any indication from you, of what sort of thing you want comment
on in what you wrote.

To me, what makes political economy "political" is especially that

1) It draws attention to the power & authority dimension in decisionmaking
by individuals and groups, about allocating resources
2) It is concerned with different economic interests and needs, which can
conflict
3) It is concerned with the question of "who benefits" from economic
activity, being aware that not all affected may benefit equally from market
activity, and some may lose
4) It is concerned with the economic effects of state policy, public finance
and taxation
5) It is concerned with the legal-moral framework and the property
rights/relations within which market activity occurs

There is a debate among the Marxist bureaucrats about whether Marx offered a
positive political economy (whether he had some practical economic advice to
give), or whether he offered only a criticism of political economy as a
discipline he rejected. That looks like quite an interesting theme to
pursue.

Jurriaan

_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
Received on Mon Sep 21 02:00:06 2009