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Political Economy:Etymological Roots: Oikos House Nomos Law
Political Economy:Etymological Roots: Oikos House Nomos Law
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Stuart Mill: • Control processes are broadly political in that they involve the social organization
of relationships within a community.
• “Political economy informs us of the laws that regulate the production,
distribution and consumption of wealth. Political Economy is to the state what • Survival processes are fundamentally economic because they concern the
domestic economy is to the family”. production of what a society needs to reproduce itself.
• “The science relating to the moral or psychological laws of the production and
• The strength of this definition is that it gives political economy the breadth to
distribution of wealth”.
encompass at least all of human activity and arguably all organic processes.
• This is in keeping with the pattern of analysis in environmental, ecological, and
• Political economy is the study of the social relations, particularly the power science studies which, among other things, aim to identify processes at work in all
relations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and forms of life and to assess their differences and interrelationships (Haraway, 2003;
consumption of resources. Meadowcroft, 2005; Rosewarne, 2002).
• … concentrates on a specific set of social relations organized around power
• Before political economy became a science, before it served as the intellectual
or the ability to control other people, processes, and things, even in the face
description for a system of production, distribution, and exchange,
of resistance.
• political economy meant the social
1. custom,
• A far more general and ambitious definition of political economy is the study
of control and survival in social life. 2. practice, and
1. Control refers specifically to the internal organization of individual and 3. knowledge
group members, • about how to manage,
2. Survival takes up the means by which they produce what is needed to • first, the household, and
reproduce themselves. • later, the community.
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Economics
Lindblom defines politics as the struggle over authority. As he puts it ‘‘In an
A famous definition of economics is that of Lionel Robbins :
untidy process called politics, people who want authority struggle to get it while
‘‘Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship
others try to control those who hold it.’’
between ends and scarce means that have alternative uses.’’
1. Politics is for authority
Economics is the study of the optimal use of scarce resources.
2. Struggle to get authority
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Sociology
Why cannot politics and economics be seen in isolation?
1. Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. Its
subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family
• Economics is concerned with studying and influencing the economy. to the state, from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs
• Politics is the theory and practice of influencing people through the exercise of of a common culture, and from social stability to radical change in whole
power, e.g. governments, elections and political parties. societies.
2. Unifying the study of these diverse subjects of study is sociology's purpose
• In theory, economics could be non-political. An ideal economist should ignore of understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are
any political bias or prejudice to give neutral, unbiased information and shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures.
recommendations on how to improve the economic performance of a country.
• Elected politicians could then weigh up this economic information and decide.
In practice there is a strong relationship between economics and politics Subject matter of sociology
because the performance of the economy is one of the key political
battlegrounds. Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions.
• Many economic issues are inherently political because they lend themselves to Its subject matter is diverse, ranging
different opinions. 1. from crime to religion,
• Politics and economy , both are rooted in the society. 2. from the family to the state,
3. from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a
common culture, and
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4. from social stability to radical change in whole societies. 12
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Purpose of sociology
Unifying the study of these diverse subjects of study is sociology's purpose
of understanding
Four inquiries of PE
1. how human action and consciousness both shape and
2. are shaped by surrounding • It thus appears, that four inquiries are comprehended in this science.
a. cultural and 1. 1stly. What are the laws, which regulate the production of commodities:
b. social structures. 2. 2ndly. What are the laws, according to which the commodities, produced
by the labour of the community, are distributed:
3. 3rdly. What are the laws, according to which commodities are exchanged
Politics ,Economy & Society within the System of Political Economy
for one another:
4. 4thly. What are the laws, which regulate consumption.
Social structure ,
processes & culture
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