The New Comparative Political Economy

With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s the field of comparative political economy has undergone major revision. Socialism is no longer considered the viable alternative to capitalism it once was. We now recognize that the choice is between alternative institutional arrangements of capitalism. Progress in the field of comparative political economy is achieved by examining how different legal, political and social institutions shape economic behavior and impact economic performance. In this paper we survey the new learning in comparative political economy and suggest how this learning should redirect our attention in economic development.JEL classification: B53, O10, O20, P0     

Biotechnology as a Technological Paradigm in the Global Knowledge Structure

This article offers a critique of the application of the concept 'technological paradigm', and associated concepts, to biotechnology. It argues that despite the attractiveness of Dosi's concept there are clear problems in applying it to technologies with a strong socio-political character. One set of problems lie with the limitations of the concept itself. A more profound problem is the complexity of biotechnology, extending to the controversies surrounding it, and its place in the global political economy. It is argued that there is a need to go beyond what is essentially an innovation economist's conceptualisation to engage a more socio-political context. The concerns of the field of international political economy are brought to bear on these issues to support an extension of the definition of technological paradigm as well as to re-assert a more widespread importance of the concept.     

The political economy under monetary union: has the euro made a difference?

Economic and monetary union (EMU) has transformed Europe and has created an integrated pan-European economy. Much research has focused on understanding this integration process and what benefits and costs it entails. This paper identifies a political economy channel of EMU as the monetary union implies that member states had to transfer or at least curtail their policy autonomy in several areas, such as monetary policy and fiscal policy. The paper shows that EMU has helped reduce the impact of political shocks on the domestic economy of member states but magnified the transmission of political shocks within the euro area. Equally importantly, economies with weak domestic policies and institutions exhibited a significantly higher sensitivity to domestic political shocks before EMU, but not thereafter. While this may entail that EMU has brought benefits to countries with weaker policies and institutions by insulating them from adverse political developments at home, a potential drawback is that it may provide weaker market discipline for domestic political stability.
— Marcel Fratzscher and Livio Stracca     

The contractarian constitutional political economy of James Buchanan

Constitutional political economy was the field in which James Buchanan devoted the most effort and to which he made the largest contribution. Although his finely grained arguments cannot be easily summarized, the main developments and central line of reasoning can be covered in a single paper, because his research relied upon a single framework, which continually reappears and is further developed as his thinking matured. The goal of this paper is to analyze how his ideas emerged and were used to develop a very rich constitutional political economy.     

Durkheim's sociology,Simiand's positive political economy and the German historical school

During the nineteenth century, French political economy eluded the historical method. In the light of such context, the way Emile Durkheim and François Simiand interpreted the contribution of the German historical school is worth considering. Following Durkheim's sociological approach, Simiand occupies center stage when it comes to examining how much this historical method has to offer to ‘positive political economy’ considered as an alternative to ‘orthodox political economy’ and to the new conception of economic history which was finding its way through the Annales' school.     

民营经济的功能发挥

民营经济与私有经济概念内涵与外延的界定,有人着眼于所有制,有人则强调经营方式,而作者认为它兼具这两方面的内容。中国民营经济的崛起,是因为它具有适应市场经济和推动市场经济的机制,还有着促进技术进步的机制。民营经济的功能最重要的就是推动了以市场为取向的改革———民营经济成为从计划经济向市场经济转轨的强有力的推动者;民营经济对市场经济的推动还是全方位改革的促进者;民营经济的发展还将成为政治民主的催化剂。     

创新发展中国特色社会主义政治经济学需处理好十个方面的关系

中国特色社会主义政治经济学是当代中国经济学的理论基础,是理论经济学与应用经济学相关学科的"硬核"部分.创新发展中国特色社会主义政治经济学需要处理好若干重要的关系,例如价值理性与工具理性的关系、马克思主义政治经济学原理与中国特色社会主义实践的关系、马克思主义政治经济学原理与中国特色社会主义政治经济学的关系、文本研究与实证...     

长波理论的数理解析及其对新发展格局的启示——纪念我国著名马克思主义经济学家高峰先生

高峰先生是我国马克思主义政治经济学与现代资本主义研究领域的著名专家.先生视野开阔、涉猎广泛,在其众多的研究著述之中对长波理论的考察格外引人瞩目.本文系统地回顾了先生针对资本主义经济长波,从资本积累理论切入,所提出的"技术—制度—市场"三元分析框架.在此基础上,尝试构建一个包含着异质性资本的单一部门模型,以说明技术变迁和...     

Henry Sidgwick,moral order,and utilitarianism

Abstract

Henry Sidgwick is today remembered as a later nineteenth-century moral philosopher who struggled with his Christian faith, having difficulty reconciling this with an emergent modern and secular philosophy. In this paper, it is suggested that the only accurate part of this statement relates to the century in which Henry Sidgwick lived. It is argued that modern readers lack sensitivity to questions of faith and religiosity that were commonplace in the later nineteenth century, and that to have doubts in an Anglican faith did not necessarily imply any weakening of Christian faith. Furthermore, a misreading of Sidgwick as a moral philosopher in the modern sense neglects Sidgwick's central role in a Moral Sciences Tripos that included logic and political economy. Only after Marshall extracted political economy and political science from the Moral Sciences Tripos in 1903 did that Tripos become the foundation for a new Philosophy Tripos, and it is an error to read that later configuration back into the Tripos that Sidgwick led from 1883 to 1900.     

INFANT INDUSTRY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TRADE PROTECTION

Abstract.  This paper introduces infant-industry considerations in political economy determination of trade protection. I build a model where the government cares about both political contributions and national welfare. A potentially beneficial high-tech industry is not viable in the country whose initial human capital is low. In the political economy equilibrium, we find that the tariff schedule will be V-shaped: it decreases initially to maintain the viability of the industry but increases thereafter as the industry expands and gains political power. We use the model to explain both China's tariff offers in WTO negotiations and GATT/WTO rules regarding developing countries.     

Politics as exchange: the classical liberal economics and politics of James M. Buchanan

James Buchanan advocated the market mechanism for allocating resources because it is based on voluntary exchange. People engage in market transactions only when they believe they benefit from doing so. Buchanan depicted the political process the same way. People engage in collective activities to accomplish together ends that they would be unable to accomplish individually, or through bilateral exchange. Buchanan’s vision of politics as exchange is a normative framework for evaluating the rules within which political activity takes place. Rules that meet the criterion of agreement are desirable constitutional rules, and Buchanan recognized that not all government activity satisfies that criterion. Buchanan is the father of the subdiscipline of constitutional political economy, and his “politics as exchange” approach provides the foundation for much work in that area. Buchanan has created a foundation that is rich in ideas, but leaves behind a number of unanswered questions that point the way toward a further development of the research program in constitutional political economy.     

The institutionalisation of political economy in Italy and Spain (1860–1900): a comparative approach

Abstract

The process of institutionalisation of political economy has become of increasing interest in tracing the evolution of economic thought. This paper presents a comparison of the development of these processes in Italy and Spain, through the analysis of the presence of political economy in some institutions in both countries between 1860 and 1900: universities, economic associations, economic journals and national parliaments. This essay aims at supplying new insights to the consolidation of economics as a scientific and socially appreciated field of knowledge, and exploring the influence of the form of institutionalisation on the economic ideas diffused in a particular country.     

构建社会主义和谐社会的政治经济学

构建社会主义和谐社会的政治经济学,是由社会主义社会的本质特征和中国社会主义实践的发展要求所决定的,是马克思主义政治经济学方法论和理论体系的延续。社会主义和谐社会的政治经济学在内容上主要包括两个基本组成部分:一是对和谐的社会主义经济制度的阐述;二是揭示和谐的社会主义经济体系的运行规律。     

Theoretical foundations of sustainable economic welfare indicators — ISEW and political economy of the disembedded system

The conceptual foundations of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) are surveyed and critiqued. It is argued that the three underlying theories of community, psychic income, and social welfare economics supply certain theoretical foundations for the ISEW. The focal point of the theories is to evaluate the positives and negatives of economic growth, with the hope of achieving a practical measure of sustainable economic welfare. However, they are not as well developed as they should be: the three theories have partial, underdeveloped explanations of the benefits (services) and costs (disservices) generated in the system. The theoretical particulars of ISEW abstract from the workings of the capitalist system, because the ISEW advocates have not specified a society in the socioeconomic system which we currently have. Specifically, there is no underlying linked systems view of the disembedded economy — where the exchange economy tends to dominate other aspects of culture. Without a systematic understanding of the political economy of capitalism, the ISEW is potentially flawed in design. Therefore, there is a need to search for a critical approach to sustainable economic welfare. As a point of departure, it is better to have a political economy theory. The political economy of the disembedded system provides an alternative theoretical approach to ISEW.     

数字经济领域的研究述评、热点主题与新兴趋势——基于文献计量学的分析

为把握数字经济研究脉络、热点和趋势,基于Web of Science核心数据库来源文献,利用CiteSpace和VOSviewer两种文献计量分析工具,对2009年以来数字经济文献进行计量分析。研究结果明确了数字经济年度发表趋势和领域类别、最具影响力和生产力的作者、机构、国家和期刊,数字经济相关研究在经历十几年的停滞后,目前处在快速增长期,研究学科集中在管理、环境科学、通信、环境研究和商业等领域,美国、英国和中国是重要的数字经济研究中心,国家之间和国际研究机构之间的研究合作有待加强。数字经济研究的突显主题经历了三个显著变化的发展阶段,呈现技术-产业-制度不断发展的演化脉络。数字经济研究热点集中在数字化、社会媒介、共享经济和循环经济等四个方面。综合关键词聚类结果和技术经济范式理论,从技术系统视角数字经济新兴趋势包括数字技术、智能资产和数字平台等;从产业系统视角包括商业模式、价值创造、循环经济、共享经济和零工经济等;从制度系统视角包括平台资本和政治经济等。最后是研究结论和展望。     

Time for behavioral political economy? An analysis of articles in behavioral economics

This study analyzes leading research in behavioral economics to see whether it contains advocacy of paternalism and whether it addresses the potential cognitive limitations and biases of the policymakers who are going to implement paternalist policies. The findings reveal that 20.7% of the studied articles in behavioral economics propose paternalist policy action and that 95.5% of these do not contain any analysis of the cognitive ability of policymakers. This suggests that behavioral political economy, in which the analytical tools of behavioral economics are applied to political decision-makers as well, would offer a useful extension of the research program. Such an extension could be related to the concept of robust political economy, according to which the case for paternalism should be subjected to ??worst-case?? assumptions, such as policymakers being less than fully rational.     

Political economy and other idioms: French views on English development, 1815-48

This article investigates the role of political economy in the shaping of French views of British economic performance. It is argued that the potential of political economic for spreading a favourable interpretation of British development was not in fact realized until the end of the period considered. One reason for this was that earlier on, the image of economic Britain suffered from the legacy of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, with a link often being established between British pauperism and British aristocratic, ‘feudal’ society and government. Additionally, political economy struggled to gain ascendancy over other modes of social analysis, like Saint-Simonism and the science of administration, which either combined with it, thus affecting its potential for a favourable understanding of Britain, or directly challenged it.     

Freedom and the Strong State: On German Ordoliberalism

Ordoliberalism is the theory behind the German social market economy. Its theoretical stance developed in the context of the economic crisis and political turmoil of the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s. It is premised on the strong state as the locus of liberal governance, and holds that economic freedom derives from political authority. In the context of the crisis of neoliberal political economy and austerity, and debates about the resurgence of the state vis-à-vis the economy, the article introduces the ordoliberal argument that the free economy presupposes the exercise of strong state authority, and that economic liberty is a practice of liberal governance. This practice is fundamentally one of social policy to secure the sociological and ethical preconditions of free markets. The study of ordoliberalism brings to the fore a tradition of a state-centric neoliberalism, one that says that economic freedom is ordered freedom, one that argues that the strong state is the political form of free markets, and one that conceives of competition and enterprise as a political task.     

Putting the ‘Amsterdam School’ in its Rightful Place: A Reply to Juan Ignacio Staricco’s Critique of Cultural Political Economy

This article responds to Staricco’s critique of cultural political economy (CPE) for being inherently constructivist because of its emphasis on the ontologically foundational role of semiosis (sense- and meaning-making) in social life. Staricco recommends the Amsterdam School of transnational historical materialism as a more immediately productive and insightful approach to developing a regulationist critique of political economy. Both lines of criticism of CPE are addressed. First, Staricco misinterprets the implications of treating semiosis and structuration as ontologically equal bases of social life. Second, Staricco mistakes our criticisms of the ‘Italian School’ in international political economy for criticisms of the Amsterdam School – an approach we have always warmly endorsed. He therefore misses our more nuanced claim that while the Amsterdam School emphasises the importance of semiosis, it has fewer concepts to explain how semiosis matters and why only some imagined class identities and concepts of control are selected, retained, and institutionalised. CPE addresses this lacuna by integrating critical semiotic analysis into political economy. Third, we provide the first detailed comparison of the Amsterdam School and CPE to provide a better understanding of the merits of each approach and to indicate where they might complement each other without claiming one to be superior to the other.